Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
Does the Los Angeles Police Department's war on gangs target even those who are trying to end the violence?
Feb 4, 2000 | On Jan. 21, Alex Sanchez walked along the streets of Los Angeles' mid-Wilshire area, as he had many times on his way home. But that night as Sanchez, a stocky 27-year-old with closely cropped hair and a smattering of tattoos, moved toward his car, he was stopped suddenly by a Los Angeles police officer and handcuffed.
Sanchez, a former gang member, was arrested on a 2-year-old warrant from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He faces federal criminal charges stemming from his reentry into the U.S. after having been deported in the early 1990s. He could be deported to his native El Salvador. His arrest has sparked protest from gang peace organizations in Los Angeles and added to the controversy over the LAPD's Rampart division, which has been facing one of the most widespread and highly publicized police corruption investigations in U.S. history.
Once a member of one of the city's most violent gangs, Mara Salvatrucha, Sanchez had transformed his life. In recent years he has split his time between work, family and heading up Homies Unidos, a bi-national gang peace organization with roots in Los Angeles and San Salvador. As the lead organizer of Homies, Sanchez's work had captured the attention of some of the city's most noted gang peace advocates, as well as California state Sen. Tom Hayden, who believed Sanchez was helping to bring peace in a war that has claimed thousands of lives.
Why would a police officer seek to arrest a man who works successfully to stop gang violence? As it turns out, Sanchez and arresting officer Jesus Amezcua had met several times before -- at hearings in which Sanchez spoke out against police harassment of former gang members like himself. Sanchez also happens to be a witness in a murder case that pits Amezcua's credibility against the word of a teenage gangbanger.
Amezcua, a veteran of the force, picked up Sanchez on what by many accounts is a stale immigration warrant. Some claim Amezcua is guilty of violating Special Order 40, a decade-old city ordinance that forbids police from stopping someone to ask about their immigration status. The ordinance was put in place after police and activists agreed that allowing police officers to act as immigration officers would inhibit the city's large population of undocumented immigrants from cooperating with police or reporting crimes, for fear of being deported.
The arrest raises questions about whether the LAPD is able to clean up its act in the wake of a scandal that began in September, when allegations first surfaced that Rafael Perez, a Rampart officer, was caught stealing eight pounds of cocaine from an LAPD evidence room.
Perez agreed to cooperate with investigators in the hopes of getting a lighter sentence. His testimony includes admissions that he and other officers routinely planted drugs and weapons on people and even shot Javier Francisco Ovando, an unarmed gang member, and planted a gun on him. Ovando was left paralyzed and sent to prison. He was released in September after serving three years of a 23-year sentence.
A Los Angeles Times report estimates approximately 20 officers are under investigation in connection to the case. Police Chief Bernard Parks announced Jan. 26 that the corruption probe had extended into Latin America. Investigators traveled to El Salvador and Guatemala in an effort to locate some of the victims framed by former officers. Those victims had been deported after their arrests.
Sanchez's arrest by Amezcua -- as well as the department's reaction -- has ignited allegations that little has changed at Rampart and that some police officers are still targeting innocent people for retaliation.
The LAPD has denied wrongdoing, offering its own version of the events leading to the arrest. "To try and create a nexus between this case and the Rampart investigation is a bit of a stretch," says Cmdr. Robert Kalish, a spokesman for the LAPD. "We have not violated Special Order 40 because he had committed a crime. He reentered the country illegally."
But the LAPD's explanation of why Sanchez was arrested has changed several times. First, a spokesperson said Sanchez was stopped after a traffic violation that revealed he had an outstanding INS warrant. A few days later, officials said Amezcua saw him and knew he had an outstanding warrant. On Monday, yet another version was offered that revealed some Rampart division officers had been in contact with the INS and discussed Sanchez's case. "The officers knew he was wanted because they had had conversations with INS agents," said Rampart Capt. Robert B. Hansohn. "They routinely talk to the INS," he said.
For their part, police are fighting back. During a recent press conference outside the Rampart division where 15 police officers stood guard as protesters filed a complaint, one officer accused Hayden, one of Sanchez's strongest supporters, of trying to further his political career.
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