LAT: Inglewood police repeatedly resorting to deadly force

Inglewood police repeatedly resorting to deadly force
A Times investigation shows that the problem of Inglewood police officers shooting unarmed suspects isn't new.

By Jack Leonard and Victoria Kim
12:35 PM PST, December 27, 2008
One summer evening in 2005, an Inglewood police officer stood with his gun aimed at a schizophrenic man who had been stopped for drinking beer in public.

The officer ordered Jule Dexter to put his hands on the hood of the police car, but Dexter's baggy pants started slipping.

"Please let me pull my pants up," Dexter pleaded, according to a witness' sworn testimony.

"Don't move!" the officer yelled.

But Dexter, 27, reached to pull up his pants, witnesses said. The officer fired four shots into Dexter's back and head, killing him.

Over the last six years, Inglewood police officers have repeatedly resorted to physical or deadly force against suspects who were unarmed or accused of minor offenses, a Times investigation found.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-inglewood28-2008dec28,0,2459345.story?page=1

Take away the damn tasers and change the use of deadly force to not simply shot to kill but rather to more judgment based approach. There is no reason they need to be trained to automatically empty their clip (see Amadou Diallo).:puke:

They need to rebuild these departments from the ground up...

:mad:

Killing him for his pants slipping down. Wtf indeed.

...is a lethal threat. It's rubbish. It's wrong. And it's murder...imprison the fuckers. No one is forcing these officers to pull the trigger.

God help Southern California.

at gunpoint after being told to "not move". Pretty fucking dumb actually. Put up a murder charge and see if it sticks.

Those cops had probably encountered the crazy guy before.

I would have shot him, too, but four to the back and head seems a bit of overkill.

Is this police officer stupid?

The Bridge Idiots come to our Town from Oakland and Richmond, dressed like that, trying to get attention.

They get it, too. Usually in the form of two of Tiburon's Finest, to escort them anywhere they would like to go.


Back to your question with one of my own.

Have you ever been on either end of a firearm in a tense situation? I have (from both ends, unfortunately).

There is no time to contemplate the finer points.

The guy was not only schizoid, but stupid to boot.

I am not arguing with you, ellisonz, merely trying to make a point. It is a damned shame when innocent people get killed, no one likes that.

You're making excuses. Police brutality occurs rather often in the United States. It happens for a reason...I've had some experience with the LA County Sheriffs Department and I haven't been impressed with their reasoning ability (cops: you're sweating, you must be on drugs, me: it's 90+ in the back of the car, cops: you counted to ten rather fast, why are you nervous? me: I understand basic math.)

This was murder. The man was very obviously not armed. Ordinances don't stop police murder and they don't stop police riots.

You've had quite the exciting life, eh?

I have been robbed at gunpoint on a few occasions.

But a neighbor and I (extremely rural Deep East Texas) broke up a car theft ring that was being run by some locals. Total draw-down, ran them off the road, held them in the street while awaiting the Sheriff. Right in front of a house full of their relatives on Super Bowl Sunday morning.

It was pretty exciting, but we knew what we were doing. And they knew we would (gladly) kill them if they tried anything. I don't have a lot of regard for the so-called sanctity of human life.

I have a valid CC permit from Texas, and I make full use of it. Unless I am flying commercial, I am armed.

And, yes, I have led a pretty exciting (if you want to call it that) life. Since I was a kid, my motto has been "Sure, why not?". Thrill is a great stimulant.


on edit: My Brother killed a guy who was the leader of a vicious Home Invasion gang in SW Houston. We are no strangers to violence.

I have to agree with you, Tom. Whoever thought that one up was smoking some killer shit.

"Kill or be killed' is pretty much a no-brainer.

I've only ever seen one open carry in the Bay Area, right hand to God, on a guy on a bike in Berkeley. What is it you carry?

I'm sure he's been in a similar situation many times before, and he hasn't shot anyone. I think that a cop can use common sense in every situation, too.

We are better off with unruly mobs ruling the streets than with these swine.

and then see how bad the police are. Questionable shootings are a reality in high crimes areas. Police are not the problem.

Not so much in Greenwich CT, lot less guns going off..

all fucking cops are in it because they are on an authority kick and usually have anger issues!

constabulary, I can state that, in general, those who really, truly, desperately wants to be a police officer shouldn't be allowed to become one.

lot of cops shot to death there

most pigs are the scum of the earth

Grow up.

Only one member of the Inglewood Police Department has died by gunfire in its history. That was in 1988. The other two deaths are from motorcycle accident.

http://www.odmp.org/agency/1800-inglewood-police-department-california

This little department is like LAPD Squared in its corruption. I have been to Inglewood and my mother lives about a 10 minute drive away in Lawndale.

I can't fault people for defending themselves.

while on campus near LAX two Inglewood police (just as classes were starting back up after lunch) come zooming into the campus with their car and skidding to a stop almost running down a student walking around a corner. Then they get out of their car with one of the officer's gun drawn and run into the classroom where I was and the officer who's gun was drawn started shouting and pointing his weapon at one of the students.

Here's a few more details. Our teacher was also a LAPD CRASH (Cops Retaliation Against Street Hoodlums) officer. He drew out his badge and told the shouting officer he'd better put his weapon away if he knew what was good for him. Come to find out what set this whole incident off was one of the students was running late to get back to class after lunch so instead of waiting for the light to cross the street from the parking lot to the school he j-walked across the street a little ways past the light. Here's the reason behind the over reacting Inglewood cop. The other officer with him was an attractive brand new rookie female cop. He thought he was showing how much of a tough guy he was to impress her.


Sounds crazy but its a true story.

They really did not like being called to the NIT dorm, which happened with some regularity.

One of the problems is that part of the campus was in Inglewood, part in LA (don't recall if it was county or city). One night the bookstore (now long gone) was broken into and the alarm was sounding. We called the cops and since the dispatcher could not figure out which one had jurisdiction, they send both.

:hi:

it's been like that for 30 years- and it's NEVER going to change, so get used to it.

It's just inertia in the system.

But really, until these guys are no longer above the law you're right, it's systemic corruption.

Nothing's going to change in So Cal -or in other places where similar processes have managed to cement themselves into the culture.

Some thought that Rodney King & the aftermath would be different than other, similar situations and scadals the LA metropolitan area- but they weren't -and they won't be.

:sarcasm:
Just ask any resident of Mount Olympus.

Fucking parasites.

Not clear what the breakout is for the police force though

about what goes on in Inglewood (a part of the infamous "south-central") as long as they keep the residents out of their neighborhoods.

Its and independent city with its own mayor.....and police force. It is also the poster child for white flight and was the first school district ever allowed to discontinue busing instituted to address racial imbalance. I used to live there.

since Watts has come to be associated with the riots. Same thing in north Long Beach and parts of Lawndale. It's part of the redefining of reality to cloud the issue.

One of the LAs is the wealthy enclave that is found in the Santa Monica Mountains and in the "flats" along Wilshire Boulevard to the south and Ventura Boulevard to the north between downtown and the ocean and to some degree to the east between downtown and Pasadena although parts of that area are no longer "desireable" for the majority of those with the money to have their own LA. Everything else is the other LA.

The other LA is a massive city of poor, which in LA includes the middle-class, minorities and whites who simply try to survive the best they can in a city where they are ignored for the most part. As a result, the entire LA area is becoming a gigantic sewer about to overflow.

I used to love LA. I have no intention of ever going back. The "disparity" between the two LAs is more than my soul can take.

All of my neighbors were completely clueless about what was going less than 2 miles from our places. They were, much like most of DU, very nice but adamant in not knowing the facts.

Sometimes I really miss it, it is an incredibly appealing fantasy that we/they live in, but when reality intrudes on us, the reaction is pretty shocking.

Peace & Love

Inglewood residents demand change after shootings
Posted 7/23/2008 6:42 AM

By Thomas Watkins, Associated Press Writer
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Friends and relatives of Kevin Wicks didn't accept the official explanation of why police fatally shot him when they were called to his apartment building.

Now they question why the officer who pulled the trigger was even there in the first place -- just two months after being involved in another fatal shooting.

Officer Brian Ragan, a five-year veteran of the Inglewood Police Department, was placed on leave for the second time in 10 weeks after shooting Wicks early Monday. Those who knew the 38-year-old Wicks said he was a kind, gentle man who never had a problem with police, and they called for a federal probe into his death.

Ragan is still under investigation for a May 11 shooting in which he and his partner fired multiple rounds at a car, killing 19-year-old passenger Michael Byoune. Police said at the time the officers believed the car was heading toward them and that gunshots were coming from within.

Officials said the officers apparently did not identify themselves before opening fire. The car's occupants were unarmed.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-23-3328783451_x.htm

The family of Kevin Wicks has filed two seperate suits against the department.