Rafael Perez, an LAPD Ramparts division narcotics officer, is cooperating with LAPD investigators as part of a plea bargain agreement in which he is expected to receive a five-year prison term for stealing about eight pounds of cocaine from police facilities. According to the September 21 Los Angeles Times, Perez and his former partner carried out a shooting that left an unarmed man, Javier Ovando, confined to a wheelchair and wrongfully imprisoned. Ovando was just released from prison after serving two and a half years of a 23-year frame-up sentence. So far at least 12 cops have been relieved of duty, and three others, including Perez, forced off the job.

Under continuing pressure, city prosecutors suspended two anti-gang injunctions as revelations pointed to lying cops and fabricated testimony against youths. More than a dozen anti-gang injunctions have been granted the cops in Los Angeles County in the past few years.

Hundreds of cases will now be reviewed. The mayor, police chief, and other local politicians were quick to try and shore up the loss of confidence in the LAPD. They are attempting to revive the district attorney's roll-out team created in the aftermath of the 1992 cop beating of Rodney King, which sent prosecutors to the scene of every LAPD shooting.

The Los Angeles Times also reports that Justice Department officials have been monitoring the LAPD for the last several years to determine whether there is any pattern of "excessive force."

Workers throughout the area have been following and discussing this crisis as it unraveled within the police department. Meanwhile, relatives and local groups formed to fight for justice for various victims of cop brutality have stepped up their activities.

The cops, along with community merchants, have organized demonstrations in the Ramparts area and at other scenes of anti-cop brutality protests, to back the police and the anti-gang injunctions. Part of this public discussion occurred at a Militant Labor Forum held here October 10.

Donna Dymally, the mother of Marc Fitzsimmons, who was killed by the Los Angeles cops July 2, 1998, told the crowd, "He went on an errand and we never saw him again. After five days we were informed of his death by out-of-state family.

The cops later said that he supposedly hit someone. He was chased and shot by the cops and bled to death, according to witnesses. It took the cops one and a half hours to get him to the nearest hospital." Dymally added, "This cuts across all gender and color lines, like Margaret Mitchell, the homeless woman with a supposedly stolen shopping cart, who 'threatened' two LAPD cops with a screwdriver" and was shot and killed. Also speaking was Corinne Mposi, who is part of the fight for justice for Shaka Ankofa (previously known as Gary Graham) who is on death row in Texas on frame-up charges.

John Benson, representing the Socialist Workers Party, noted, "The L.A. cops have used fabricated stories to further restrict our democratic rights and then brutalize people. They get injunctions against people gathering on street corners — like they use injunctions against pickets during strikes."

As more workers and farmers fight to improve their situation, Benson said, the cops get more aggressive — especially toward young people, to teach a lesson to those who stand up. "Mass responses in New York City, to the police torture of [Abner] Louima and killing of [Amadou] Diallo point the way forward," he said.

Forum participants added examples of police brutality. Brian Smith spoke about the killing of his brother, Danny Smith, in jail. The family was not told of his death for two days. The warden gave them one story and later Smith heard what really happened. "It can happen to anyone with the mentality of the Police Department that uses brutal force. The movement will take all people, Black, Latino, and white," Smith declared.

Mark Friedman is a member of the International Association of Machinists.  
 
 
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