News & Commentary

Today the ACLU of Southern California, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Japanese American Citizens League, and California Women's Law Center announced the six-figure settlement of a significant retaliation lawsuit against the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD), and asked that Los Angeles County take immediate steps to make sure that such misconduct does not recur. In a letter to each of the county supervisors, the civil rights groups will call for the creation of an independent review process, so that the LASD can prevent similar incidents and avoid its own version of the ongoing LAPD scandal.

It's time for the mayor to wake up. This city and its police department need an independent commission - and we need it now. Relying on the police department to ferret out all of the underlying problems is like having a cancer patient operate on himself. Only an independent, blue-ribbon commission with a broad mandate to examine the entire criminal justice system and then to ensure that the necessary reforms are implemented by the police department can do the job the residents of Los Angeles deserve.

The ACLU of Southern California announced its support today for LAPD Chief Bernard Parks' request to bring in a team of FBI agents to help investigate the most serious scandal in the department's history.

The ACLU of Southern California today called on Mayor Riordan to appoint an independent, blue-ribbon civilian commission to review thoroughly the operations and policies of the LAPD in the wake of the growing scandal rocking the department. "The City Council's vote to increase resources to the present Police Commission is insufficient to bring about the necessary reform," ACLU executive director Ramona Ripston pointed out. "The corruption and brutality that have surfaced in the last six months have been festering for years. The present Commission failed in its oversight function, despite years of outcry from community members who have been trying to bring this problem to the public's attention."

The ACLU of Southern California filed a federal lawsuit today seeking to block the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from the practice of "racial profiling," in which officers stop and search nonwhite motorists based on the color of their skin. The case sheds further light on this discriminatory practice, which violates the basic guarantees of liberty and equality firmly embedded in the U.S. Constitution and our nation's civil rights laws.

"Regardless of who my family is or where they come from, I have the right to be as equal a citizen as any other in America"

Clear LAPD policy, adopted over two decades ago, was flagrantly violated by Rampart CRASH officers when they arrested former gang member Alex Sanchez on an INS warrant. Sanchez is now a peacemaker, working to bring about gang truces and provide training and job opportunities to former gang members. What possible justification can the police have for going after gang violence prevention efforts instead of enforcing laws against gang violence?Worse yet, the officers appear to have been acting in retaliation against Mr. Sanchez for his testimony last September before a State Senate committee investigating police abuse against former gang members.

Two confidential sources for government agencies that spied on John Lennon have changed sides and advocated opening secret files on the ex-Beatle, according to a new book. "Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files," by Jon Wiener, a history professor at the University of California, Irvine, reports that Julie Maynard, an FBI confidential informant who spied on Lennon in the early 1970s, joined the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Wiener and the ACLU of Southern California. The lawsuit seeks release of the Bureau's files on Lennon, which date from 1971-72. The book also reports that David Shayler, who worked for MI5, the British counterpart to the FBI, has revealed that MI5 has files dating from the late 1960s on Lennon.

Today the ACLU of Southern California filed a class action lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, its Superintendent and Board of Education, the State Superintendent of Public Education, and the State Department of Education on behalf of children attending Rosemont Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles. The suit challenges school administrators' decision to conduct five separate classes (four classes of third-graders, and one class of second-graders) simultaneously in the Rosemont school auditorium, without sound barriers, floor-to-ceiling visual barriers or adequate space for learning and safety. [click here to view a floor plan of the auditorium]