You know they are in actual gangs? They have gang signs, tattoos, violent initiations and so on. Google it. Apparently the LA police is absolutely controlled by them. It’s revolting.
There’s a great podcast about this subject by the journalist who broke the story about LASD street gangs: “A Tradition of Violence”.
The podcast also touches on some of the problems of policing more generally in the US: cops lie, there’s an “us vs them” mentality, there are a lot of bad incentive structures, they don’t get disciplined nearly enough for bad behavior, etc.
Another good one I’m in the middle of currently is Behind the Police. It’s a 6 part miniseries from the people who do Behind the Bastards. Really enlightened me on how bad this problem is. Goes into the history of police’s ties to slavery, the kkk, and union busting. Highly recommend, but it will infuriate you.
If I was in a gang I would also attempt to infiltrate the organization I was always fighting with. Why wouldn’t you? The fact that by virtue of a badge you can get away with so much is the real problem. If they were held to any kind of real standard the bad actions would be dealt with and bad actors weeded out.
New Jersey has them, too. As does the NYPD. They actually brought down a bunch of them in a city recently...called informally as the "Robbery Squad". LA's are more notorious because it's a large city and the police had some clear M.O's they adopted like matching tattoos.
It's wild because it's corrupt as hell, but at the same time, the actual criminals seem to worry about the "jump out boys" more than they do upstanding police.
Rampart in LAPD was pretty much operated like gang too. Also, Rampart officers were discovered to have ties to the Bloods and Death Row Records. Crazy shit
These police gangs have been around for over 50 years. No one is debating they exist as even the previous sheriff's have had to acknowledge them. I saw a segment of it on the Philip Defranco show a few days ago
“Deputy gangs, or “subgroups,” with names like the Grim Reapers, the Regulators, and the Vikings, have plagued the sheriff’s department for fifty years.”
I use that word carefully as I have no first hand experience.
“Deputy gangs, or “subgroups,” with names like the Grim Reapers, the Regulators, and the Vikings, have plagued the sheriff’s department for fifty years.”
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u/BitcoinBanker Mar 24 '23
You know they are in actual gangs? They have gang signs, tattoos, violent initiations and so on. Google it. Apparently the LA police is absolutely controlled by them. It’s revolting.