Community Resources against Street Hoodlums

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from Rampart Division)

Template:Cleanup-date

Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, usually known as CRASH, was a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, set-up in the 1970s to combat the rising problem of gangs in Los Angeles, California. Every division had a CRASH unit which focused on collecting intelligence on gangs, tracking their activities and proactively trying to disrupt and prevent gang criminality and violence.

[edit]

Rampart CRASH Scandal

One such CRASH unit was stationed in the Rampart Division, which the rest of this article covers. In August 1998, the same month that Chief Bernard Parks claimed that the Christopher Commission reforms were "essentially complete", officer Rafael Perez, a nine-year veteran of the department, was arrested on charges of stealing six pounds of cocaine from an evidence room. In September 1999, in exchange for partial immunity from prosecution, he testified about a pattern of abuse and misconduct that threatened to overturn thousands of criminal convictions, accusing about seventy fellow CRASH officers.

Though three officers were convicted of obstruction of justice and other charges in October 2000, these convictions were overturned that December. Three more reached plea bargains the next year.

These events are sometimes referred to as the Rampart Scandal.

[edit]

Media References

  • The video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is set in a fictional state of "San Andreas" that is intended to represent a combination of 1990s Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. The corrupt officers of the fictional "Los Santos Police Department" are members of the C.R.A.S.H. unit.
  • The cable channel FX's series The Shield centers on a corrupt police unit named the Strike Team, modeled after the Rampart Division's corrupt CRASH unit. One of the names originally considered for the show was "Rampart."
  • The exteriors of the Rampart Station were featured in the 1960's television show Adam 12.
  • Hip Hop star, The Game mentions the Rampart scandal in a song called "Start from Scratch" from his album the Documentary.
  • Both the films Training Day (2001) and Dirty (2005) were inspired by the Rampart scandal.
Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Community_Resources_against_Street_Hoodlums"