2. The Victims
Their stories have a dreary sameness. They were coming home from a movie, or attending a party at a friend's home. The first contact with the police was hostile, the officers wary or openly angry.
In one way or another, the complainants commit the unwritten crime of "contempt of cop," challenging the authority or actions of the police. Sometimes they ask an officer for his badge number, or protest being frisked. Sometimes they refuse to let officers into their home, demanding to see a search warrant. Sometimes they are flippant, or somehow disrespectful to the officer.
They end up, almost inevitably, in custody, their hands handcuffed behind them. Often when they ask the charges, the arresting officer concedes he doesn't know, but adds, "We'll think of something." They do, more often than not charging the complainants with resisting arrest, or interference with an officer -- crimes committed only after police arrive.
Some are eventually exonerated of the criminal charges, either with dismissals prior to going into court, by dismissals arranged by their legal counsel in exchange for a waiver of the arrestee's right to sue the city or county, or by not guilty findings.
The complainant though is never completely exonerated. His arrest record remains, permanently on file to bar him from many jobs. He may have posted bail, most often through a bondsman, and will have paid the 10 percent bondsman's fee. If his car was impounded, he will also be charged an impound fee and storage rates.
Less frequently, he will immediately retain an attorney -- most of the police practice centers' complainants cannot afford private counsel, many are distrustful of the public defender's office.
If he has seen a doctor, those bills too must be met. The sum total can run into hundreds of dollars, in effect, a penalty imposed not by the courts, but by the police decision to make an arrest in the first place.
Theoretically, the falsely arrested, or exonerated victim would have recourse in the civil courts. In practice, he does not: attorneys know such cases are difficult to win and are reluctant to take them; the victims rarely can afford the investigator's fees and the court costs of depositions; often too, the victims have prior criminal records, records which would tend to denigrate their claims in the eyes of the jury.
Timely redress is not to be obtained by court action: two or three years of proceedings are the normal time required to resolve a civil suit against the police -- hardly ready redress. (One such suit handled by ACLU volunteer counsel was finally resolved in favor of the complainant five years after the incident of police malpractice, and involved two appeals on procedural matters.) [1]
Theoretically too, the district attorney can prosecute the offending officers: false imprisonment is a crime in California; the use of force beyond that necessary to effect an arrest is a battery at least, and may well be an assault with a deadly weapon. In practice, the district attorney of Los Angeles county has failed to prosecute. (The last such remembered prosecution occurred in 1952 when a group of officers was tried for assault on prisoners in the Los Angeles city jail.) Neither is there any record in recent years of the Grand Jury returning an indictment against a police officer for excessive force or false arrest in the line or duty. [2]
Those who might wish to complain to police agencies most often do not know where to go. City Hall is a perplexity across town, staffed with cold-toned clerks and secretaries. The local station is a place to be avoided; too many grim stories are told by friends and neighbors about what goes on there.
The victims then are left without redress, even when they are innocent of wrongdoing.
Understandably, they are bitter, and frustrated, and angry -- feelings made clear in these representative cases and interviews.
The Fernandez [i] brothers, 20 and 29, had fallen asleep in the car parked in front of their mother's home on April 7, 1968. They were awakened by two Los Angeles police officers, one of whom grabbed the younger brother and dragged him without explanation from the vehicle. The older brother, a glazer, told the police practices center: "All of a sudden I was awakened by a hit on the head .... The officer who I believe struck me on the head then handcuffed me and threw me into the squad car. The officers then grabbed my brother. I told them he wasn't a dog, so for them not to treat him like one. One officer then told me to shut up, and struck me in the stomach."
The two were booked as drunks. On May 1, the charges against them were dismissed.
A. About two weeks after you filed the complaint I received a letter stating that my complaint would be investigated, then later an officer came to my home and questioned me.
Q. Have you heard from the police commission since that time?
A. No.
Q. So, you don't know what happened to your complaint?
A. That's correct.
Q. Did you know of any other place besides this office where you could file a complaint against the police?
A. No, I never knew that there was a place like this -- where you could complain.
Q. Have you ever heard of the police commission before this?
A. No.
Q. Did you know that you could file a complaint with Internal Affairs of the LAPD?
A. I never heard of Internal Affairs before you told me.
Q. Didn't you know that you could file a complaint at the local stations?
A. I figured that they would probably take complaints but it seems silly filing a complaint with the police when it is against them.
Q. Would you feel free or safe in going to the local police station to complain?
A. Not now.
Q. Are you still waiting for an answer from the police commission?
A. Well, it's been a long time, I think they've forgot about it by now.
Q. How did you feel about the police before this incident happened to you?
A. Well, I just thought they were just doing their job. I didn't know they treat people like that and get away with it.
Q. How do you feel about the police now that this happened to you?
A. Well, I feel that they're human like everybody else but there are some that let the authority go to their head.
Q. If you went to court and it was your word against the police officers who do you think the judge or jury would believe?
A. They would go along with the police.
It was two in the morning of April 20, 1968, when the 52-year-old truck driver finally pulled into the garage behind his home after taking his daughter to the airport.
"I heard a car out on the street in front of my home. I went out to investigate because in the past we've had trouble with car thieves. As 1 reached the front yard 1 saw two guys speed away in a '54 Chevy.
"I also saw two undercover police officers checking a home [a few doors away] so 1 waited till they came by my way so that I could tell them about the '54 Chevy. (I knew that they were undercover police officers because they had broken my son's hand during February when they were making an arrest, only to later find out they had made a mistake ... )
"When the officers reached my home they immediately jumped from their car and grabbed my arms, twisted them behind my back and searched me. As they were roughing me up, 1 was trying to explain that 1 wanted to tell them about the suspicious car but they kept telling me to shut up and not tell them what to do.
"I was finally allowed to show my J.D. and after the officers saw it, they told me that they didn't like to see people on the streets at that time ...
"All I'm interested in is that these officers leave me and my family alone. These same officers have broken my son's hand, they've called my other son a punk, they continuously put the spotlight on my home when they drive by, and now they have roughed me up."
The harassed truck driver was not arrested. His complaint to the Los Angeles Police Department was denied summarily.
The 19-year-old girl, a member of the militant Brown Berets, was arrested at 3 a.m. on June 23, 1968, after police apparently answered a complaint about excessive noise at a party. One officer was allegedly assaulted by a guest at the party, and police made a number of arrests.
The girl and a companion fled, but were arrested in an adjoining yard. The girl was booked as an escapee from jail (she had never been arrested before), and for assault on an officer. Her case has not been tried.
Q. During the latter part of June [1968] you were arrested by the LAPD and charged with battery on a police officer. Has your opinion of the police changed since this incident with them?
A. Definitely.
Q. Why?
A. Well, before I used to have respect for them and now that they have arrested me for nothing when I wasn't even involved-- They're a bunch of liars.
Q. Why do you say that?
A. Because when we went to court the police lied.
Q. Why did you come to the Police Practices Complaint Center?
A. I needed help.
Q. If we would not have been able to provide you with an attorney, would you have been able to hire one?
A. No.
Q. Did you tell any of your friends about what happened to you?
A. Yes. I told everybody.
Q. What did the people say about it?
A. They thought that it was unbelievable.
Q. They didn't believe you?
A. Yes, most of the people, believed me, but I don't think they'll be real believers until it happens to them.
Q. Did any of the people tell you about incidents they had with the police?
A. Yes.
Q. Could you give me an example?
A. My brother was mistreated by the police and some of the kids in the neighborhood have also been beaten.
Q. What happened to your brother?
A. He was sprayed with Mace.
Q. What was he charged with?
A. Nothing. He wasn't even taken to court.
Q. Why did they spray him with Mace?
A. Because the police have the power to do anything they want and get away with it.
Q. Did your brother file a complaint at the station?
A. No.
Q. Why not?
A. Because they probably just file their complaints away.
Q. What percentage of the officers here in East LA, in your opinion, abuse people?
A. Ninety-nine percent.
Q. You believe it's that high?
A. Yes.
Q. What do you think the problem is? What can the police do to improve relations between themselves and the community?
A. Respect is a two-way street; in order to get respect you must also give it too. If they are not going to respect the kids and continue to call them punks then they can never expect the kids to respect them as police officers ...
Q. Did you know that there are community relations officers both at Hollenbeck Station and at the sheriffs station?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know what these officers do?
A. They come to meetings in the community and just listen but they seldom take an active role.
Q. What do you think their role should be?
A. They should come out to the community and be willing to deal with all segments -- the liberal and militant groups -- and not only go visit with senior citizens or coordinating councils and harp on "crime in the streets" ... Something has to be done now because the kids are not going to wait any longer.
Q. Have you had any problem with the police since this last incident?
A. Yes. I was picked up for curfew.
Q. How old are you?
A. Twenty.
Q. Then why did the police arrest you for curfew?
A. Well, they weren't going to arrest me at first, but when they looked in my purse and found a brown beret they decided to arrest me. I also didn't have an I.D. When they saw the brown beret they started making fun of me.
Q. But, they didn't physically mistreat you, did they?
A. They put the handcuffs on me, real tight. The sheriffs also told me that I could run down here and say they raped me.
Q. You were booked on curfew?
A. No, they called my mother and when she told them I was of age the sheriffs changed the charge to loitering.
Q. Were you loitering?
A. No, I was walking home.
Q. Who were you with?
A. No one. I was by myself.
Q. Did the sheriffs take you to court?
A. No, the charge was dropped.
The 19-year old teacher's assistant and her sister had followed the police car to Los Angeles' Ramparts Division. "We walked in," she told the complaint center, "and asked why our cousin was arrested, and asked what we could do to get him out, and how we could file a complaint against the police."
The desk officer's "attitude changed at the last question, and he told us to go outside and wait because he didn't have time for us." Instead, the girl sat down on a bench inside the station until an injured officer placed her under arrest, apparently believing her one uf his assailants during an incident earlier in the day. She was booked for assault with a deadly weapon, a charge subsequently reduced to assault on an officer. Bailed out on $1,250 bail, she is now awaiting trial.
Q. Has this incident changed your attitude toward the police?
A. Yes ... Before this I was going to junior college to become a policewoman and when people told me about police brutality I didn't believe it. When we went to court I was shocked that the police could get on the witness stand and lie. I have lost all respect for the police.
Q. Now that this has happened to you, would you be willing to help the police investigate a crime?
A. Yes, but only to see that they do an honest job. I wouldn't want other people to go through what I went through.
Q. Did you tell any of your friends about this incident?
A. Yes ... They believed me, but my friends found it pretty shocking.
Q. Have you had any problem with the police since this incident?
A. Yes. The police got smart with us. Once I was wearing my brown beret and an officer gave me the finger.
Q. Are you satisfied with the way the center has handled your case?
A. Oh yes.
Q. Are you satisfied with the attorney that has been provided? Do you think he is doing a good job?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. What would you have done if the center could not have helped you?
A. I don't know.
Q. Would you have gone to the public defender?
A. No, that would be the last thing I would have done.
Q. Why?
A. I've seen the way they operate and it doesn't matter either way to them if you win or lose.
Q. Have you ever heard of the police commission?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. What do you know about it?
A. I've just heard about it. I don't know what it is.
Q. Have you ever heard about the community relations officer?
A. Yes, I have visited with them.
Q. What do you know about them?
A. They're phonies.
Q. How would you compare the sheriff's department and the LAPD?
A. They're all the same.
Q. How do your friends feel about the sheriff's deputies in East LA?
A. They hate them because deputies are always mistreating them. Many of the people are afraid of the sheriff and I don't think they should be, since the sheriffs are supposed to protect you.
Q. Are they there to protect you?
A. No.
Called to settle a domestic quarrel, the Los Angeles police officers ultimately arrested both the husband and wife on February 2, 1967. The man fled, but was recaptured, a witness reporting the officers beat him. In her statement to the center, the wife claimed her injured husband asked police to take him to a hospital. They refused. At the station, the woman was jerked from the squad car, leaving her husband behind her. As she entered the building, she turned to see an officer repeatedly kicking her husband who was sprawled on his face, half out of the squad car. Three hours later, the woman was told her husband had been pronounced dead at a local hospital.
A coroner's inquest determined the man had died an "accidental death," the result of liver lacerations and internal bleeding. The wife filed a claim for $100,000 damages with the City of Los Angeles, but was summarily denied. A civil suit is pending.
Q. Do you understand what is presently happening to your case here?
A. The lawyer is filing a law suit. I don't know too much about these things, but it's in the lawyer's hands and I trust him.
Q. Were you satisfied with the way the center handled your complaint?
A. Yes.
Q. If the center wasn't here, where would you have gone to get someone to help you?
A. I would have gone to some other place. The reason I came here is because a friend told me about it.
Q. Did you tell any of your friends about your problem?
A. Yes.
A. They said they were sorry it had to happen, and that it has happened to too many people.
Q. Did any of your friends tell you about any problem they had with the police?
A. Yes, one friend said that when she had called the police they came and began beating and pushing people before they started asking questions. This was the same thing that happened to me. My husband and I were arguing, so I called the police. When they came, they started beating my husband.
Q. Has this incident changed your attitude toward the police?
A. Sometimes I think they're doing their duty, but sometimes they use brutality and they're not supposed to do that.
Q. What would you do if you had another complaint?
A. I would be afraid to complain to the police again. I don't want to call the police for nothing.
Q. You and your husband were taken to the local station and you claim that you saw an officer kicking your husband after he was handcuffed and lying on the floor. Later you found out he was dead. Now did you ever hear from the police again? Did they write you a letter explaining what happened? Did someone go to your home?
A. No, I never heard from the police after that day.
Q. Do you feel the police owe you an explanation?
A. Well, no, what can they do about it now after he's dead? I just want them to leave me alone.
Claiming they were investigating a disturbing-the-peace call across the street, the two Los Angeles police officers walked up onto the porch of the Morales home shortly past midnight OD August 18, 1967. Told that the four people in the home were making too much noise, Francisco Gonzalez explained the celebration was breaking up -- he had to leave for college in Mexico in the morning -- and "that we had the right to express ourselves."
One of the officers asked, "Who are you?"
Gonzalez replied, "That isn't the question. Don't we have freedom of speech?"
Gonzalez' statement to the East Los Angeles Police Practices Center continued, "I had a glass of cognac in my hand and the officer pulled my hand and asked what I had in the glass. When he pulled my arm he spilled the cognac on both of us.
"I told him he shouldn't have done that. The Anglo officer pulled me and told me to go to the police car. I did. Near the car, the officer handcuffed me, and then punched me in the stomach and kicked me in the buttocks. I was then thrown into the car.
"All the people who had been in the house [three others] witnessed the incident and protested ... When we were in the car I asked him if the beating that he gave me made him feel good.
"We drove away and the officer stopped the car at the corner of First Street and Mott Street. Before he stopped I had told him that he was going to pay for what he done and I guess that is why he stopped. The officer turned around in his seat and socked me three times in the face. I was so mad that I asked him if that was the best he had.
"He got out and pulled me out of the car and threw me on the sidewalk. He started kicking me in the stomach, chest and shoulders.
"I think I heard the Mexican officer tell him, 'That's enough.'"
At Hollenbeck Station, Gonzalez was dragged from the car by the handcuffs, and twice thrown to the pavement. He was eventually booked for assault on a police officer, and released two hours later on bail of $276.00.
On October 27, 1967, Gonzalez was found not guilty of the criminal charge of assaulting an officer. Ten days later, he received a letter from the captain commanding the Internal Affairs Division:
The concerned officer and his partner stated that only necessary force was used in order to acquire and maintain custody of you. When you were alighting from the police vehicle you kicked at the officer, lost your balance and fell, at which time you sustained injuries to your face and shoulder.
Despite the statements of four witnesses to the first confrontation, despite the exoneration in court which could only have come about because the arresting officers' story was not credited by the jury, despite medical records of Gonzalez' injuries, the department still managed to find his complaint unjustified.
It started with an exchange of shoves between a striker and a non-striker. Two Los Angeles police officers on duty at the picket line separated the two, the non-striking truck driver, John Green, telling them, "I'm going. You don't have to push me."
Without warning, he was struck from behind repeatedly by the two officers in the presence of four witnesses. The non-striker staggered away, bleeding, until the police officers drove up in their squad car and offered to take him to a hospital. Green refused, then was handcuffed and placed in the rear of the police car.
Treated first in the hospital -- 10 stitches were taken to close a scalp wound -- Green was then booked for disturbing the peace and resisting arrest. Defended by an ACLU volunteer attorney, he was ultimately cleared of the resisting count, but found guilty and fined $65 for disturbing the peace.
Q. What would you do if the police were to assault you again?
A. First of all, I would come back to the ACLU to see if they could help because they came through for me this last time. But I'll tell you one thing, if it did happen again I wouldn't be in LA for too much longer. It's not a healthy city to live in.
Q. In your case you asked us not to file a complaint with the Board of Police Commissioners. Why not?
A. Well, my wife told me that if we would file a complaint that it would take too long and that it was no use fighting city hall because you just don't win.
Q. You don't believe they would find in your favor?
A. No.
Q. Why not?
A. Because you just can't beat them when they investigate themselves.
Q. Who told you about the Police Practices Complaint Center?
A. Well, when I told my friend that I needed help he told me about the center. 1 never knew there was something like this.
Q. What is your opinion of the police now?
A. Well, like 1 said before I don't think all the police are like that but some of these young police officers, you give them a gun, a badge and a nightstick and they think they're God on the street. No one is right except them.
Q. Have you ever had any other problem with the police?
A. No.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to add to this statement?
A. Not really, except that some of these officers should act like humans instead of animals.
The baby shower at the Patrick home had lasted into the early morning hours of February 11, 1968. It ended when a family quarrel resulted in a phone call to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Four officers pushed their way into the family home then ordered the men in the room to stand up. One of the brothers, a 26-year-old Vietnam veteran, was hauled to his feet, quickly frisked, then pushed to the floor. When he swore at the officers, he was placed under arrest.
A younger sister, one of six witnesses, protested the arrest, trying to explain; she was arrested too. Both were placed in the back seat of a police car, where, they claim, they were struck and choked by arresting officers.
The two were booked for assaulting an officer, then released on $1,250 bail. Their criminal cases are pending.
Q. Have you ever heard about the police commission?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. Why didn't you go to the police commission instead of coming to the complaint center?
A. I heard that all the commission does is give you a big whitewash. A person filing a complaint with them never reaches the commissioners; you have to deal with the secretary of the secretary, and besides, nothing ever comes of it anyway.
Q. Why didn't you file your complaint at the local station?
A. I was called several times to go down there, but I didn't feel safe or free to talk, especially in a police station. I figured that they would be getting my story to see how they could use it on me.
Q. Why didn't you feel safe?
A. Because the officers that beat my sister and I were from that station.
Q. What do you think about the help you received here at the complaint center?
A. Well, the attorney that was provided for me by ACLU is very good. He has spent a lot of time on my case and I think he is doing everything he can. I can see that ACLU is really trying to help the chicanos.
Q. If the ACLU wouldn't have been able to provide you with an attorney, would you have been able to hire one?
A. I'm afraid not. My sister and I would have had to go with the public defender. They're overloaded with cases and I don't think I would be receiving the same help as I would from a private attorney.
Q. How did you feel about the police before this incident took place?
A. It didn't come to me as a surprise because the general attitude of my friends and people that I've talked to in the past is that the LAPD's policy is beat and shoot and then ask questions later. The only thing that surprised me is it happened to me.
Q. Did you tell your friends about this incident you had with the police.
A. Yes I did and I also told my relatives.
Q. What did they think about it?
A. They believed me and said that it was unfortunate that it had to happen to me. They told me that some officers are perros [dogs].
Q. If you had another problem with the police would you handle your case in a different manner?
A. No, I would still come here.
Q. What do you think of the public defender?
A. Well, like I said before, I think they have too many people to take care of, but I would imagine that defenders like to win cases too. Too often though clients are asked to cop out and get a break. I guess it would scare anybody to go to court, talk with the public defender for five minutes and he tells you to cop out.
The 29-year old meatpacker, David Ferraro, was arrested by Los Angeles county sheriff's deputies while attending a wedding dance at El Monte Legion Stadium on July 6, 1968. The deputies had entered the building to arrest one of the party-goers, took by mistake a friend of the complainant, and then arrested Ferraro when he questioned the officers.
Q. When you saw the sheriffs mistreating the arrestee you questioned the officers and were also arrested. You were charged with interfering. Did you interfere?
A. No, I only asked why they were arresting him because he wasn't doing anything.
Q. Can you explain what happened?
A: The officers grabbed me, threw me against the car, placed the handcuffs on me and threw me into the car. An onlooker asked the officers why I was being treated like that and why I was being arrested. The police answered by 'cuffing him, then spraying him with Mace.
Q. You came to this office along with the man who was sprayed with Mace. What happened when you went to court?
A. Both charges were dismissed against me and the charge of interfering was dismissed against him. He went to trial on his other charge of inciting a riot and was acquitted.
Q. Have you ever been mistreated by the police before?
A. No, this was the first time.
Q. What made you come to the complaint center?
A. Well, I heard about it from the Committee for Justice in El Monte. I couldn't afford an attorney so I came to see if you could help me.
Q. What would you have done if we wouldn't have been able to get an attorney to take your case?
A. I guess I would have had to try to beat it with the public defender.
Q. Did you tell any of your friends about this incident?
A. Oh yes, I told many people. I also told them not to go to El Monte any more.
Q. Did your friends believe you when you told them about this incident?
A. Yes, they believed me; it came out in the newspaper.
Q. Did any of your friends tell you about any experience they had with the police?
A. Oh yes, I've heard bad stories about the officers from Whittier, El Monte, Pico Rivera and San Gabriel. On this incident you had much community support from the people in El Monte. A complaint was filed with El Monte's police department and also with the district attorney. Did you ever get a response?
A. I heard it was still pending.
Q. Did an investigator ever question you on your complaint?
A. No, but the police chief sent us a letter explaining that he was conducting an investigation.
Q. If there is an investigation going on and they do find the officers in the wrong, do you think they will be punished?
A. No, the department has to defend their men now because the officers have already said too many lies in court.
Q. What do you mean?
A. Well, in court, the officers were saying everything that was the opposite. Not even the jury was believing them.
Q. You say the jury didn't believe the officers. How do you know that?
A. Well, because the way the juror would look at us and at the officers and later after the charges were dismissed some of the jurors shook my hand and told me that if it hadn't been dismissed they would have found me not guilty.
Q. If you ever again had any problem with the police department what would you do?
A. I'd come here to the ACLU ... You guys really fought for me, getting a lawyer and helping me out when I had no place to go.
Q. Did this incident change your opinion of the police in any way?
A. Yes, before I used to believe in them but not any more.
Q. Would you be willing to help the police investigate a crime?
A. No, I wouldn't help them.
Q. Why is that?
A. They might think the opposite and get me for interfering.
Early in the morning of August 26, 1967, Wilshire Division police pursued a motorcyclist through the near-empty streets of central Los Angeles. During the high-speed chase, two police cars crashed together, moments before the fleeing motorcyclist overturned at a residential intersection.
Mrs. Mary Willis, watching a late-night television program, heard the noise and went to the window of her apartment in time to see two Los Angeles police officers bringing a man into the light of warning flares laid out in the street. The man appeared to be bleeding, she told the Watts Police Practices Center.
"More police cars arrived. The officers got out of their cars. They held the man while three other officers beat him with their fists near a police car. The one holding him would periodically pound his head on the police car. The others took turns beating him."
As a crowd gathered on the sidewalk, the police stopped beating the man. Mrs. Willis took a pen and small tablet, then went outside. She had taken down the license numbers of five Los Angeles police cars when an officer spotted her.
Frightened, she started for the door of her apartment as the officer came towards her saying, "The lady needs assistance." Two other policemen joined him.
"One of the officers flashed a light on the tablet in her hand and grabbed it," the center report continues. "He said, 'The lady is drunk. The lady is a Black Muslim.' Other officers repeated this loudly. All three officers grabbed her and handcuffed her." Her tablet was taken from her, and with it the list of license numbers.
"Mr. Willis shouted from the door (he was not dressed), 'What are you all doing out there? That's my wife. She lives here.'
"The officers ran Mrs. Willis across the street to a police car. While pushing her in they hurt her leg.
"One of the officers specified that a certain officer should ride in the rear with her. The officer named was a Negro. Enroute to the station, a Caucasian officer asked her what was her name. She answered she would say her name when she got an attorney. The officer told her, 'We're just going to put you in jail.'
"She answered, 'My husband will call an attorney.' The Caucasian officer said, 'I heard that man yelling from the window. I bet there were ten men living in that place and you're the only woman.'
"He then turned to the Negro officer and asked, 'How many men do you think live in that apartment with her?' The Negro officer didn't answer.
"The Caucasian officer then said, 'You're one of those Black Muslims and you hate all police. Your bail is certainly going to be high.' He then said, 'You're going to be booked for attacking three officers.'
"The Negro officer said, 'Yes, she needs to see a psychiatrist too. She sees things nobody else sees but her.'"
At the station, she was held in an interview room for 30 minutes while the Negro officer taunted her. "We know you see a psychiatrist. We know you need help. You see things that others don't see. How long have you been going to a psychiatrist?"
Ostensibly to transport her to Sybil Brand Institute (the women's jail), the police bundled her into a squad car. Instead, they drove aimlessly about, apparently undecided what to do. Mrs. Willis had not been booked -- her husband was unable later to locate her at the station since she had not been formally processed -- and finally the officers decided to take her home.
She was deposited in front of her home, and the handcuffs finally taken off, three and one-half hours after she had tried to record the license numbers of the police cars.
On October 18, 1967, Mrs. Willis filed a complaint with the police commission. Police investigators contacted her on November 20. Four months later, Mrs. Willis received a letter signed by the president of the Board of Police Commissioners blandly reporting:
"The investigation disclosed that your temporary detention was proper in that you pushed a police officer and thereby unnecessarily interfered in a police action. The investigation does not sustain your allegations of misconduct by the officers in their contact with you."
In effect the letter was charging Mrs. Willis, seven months after the incident, with violating a state law, despite the fact that officers at the scene had not charged her with a crime. There was no explanation of the officer's apparent failure to enforce the law. Nor is there a provision in state law for "temporary detention."
Stopped for reckless driving, the 17-year-old high school student could not show his driver's license, accidentally left at home. Apparently this angered the sheriff's deputy, who grabbed the youth, slammed him against the hood of the car, and rapped him twice in the ribs with a flashlight.
Taken to jail, the youth was held overnight, then released to his father's custody the next morning, after being denied the right to make a phone call.
When the youth filed a complaint with the department, he was informed by letter, "A thorough investigation has been made and there is no indication of misconduct by employees of this Department."
Q. Were you satisfied with the way the ACLU Police Practices Complaint Center processed your complaint?
A. Yes, I think they did as much as they could, but I would have liked to file a lawsuit against the sheriffs.
Q. Do you really feel everything was done for you here?
A. Yes I do. My complaint not being found in my favor I think was because of the sheriffs not wanting to admit guilt.
Q. Before coming to the complaint center did you go to any other agency?
A. No, a friend told us about the center so we came here.
Q. Were you satisfied with the way the sheriff's department investigated and found in your case?
A. No, I wasn't, because the investigator came to my house one day and that was it. The next thing I hear is that the complaint was not sustained.
Q. How long was it?
A. About two weeks after filing the complaint is when I first heard from the sheriff's department. An investigator questioned me, then returned later to get a medical information release authorization.
Q. When were you given the final findings of the sheriff's investigation.
A. It wasn't until a total of about seven months later. The letter I received from the sheriffs was very simple and it didn't give much of an explanation of their findings.
Q. How did you feel about the East LA sheriffs or police in general before this incident happened?
A. I just felt that they had a job to do and they were doing it ... This incident really opened my eyes. The way the sheriffs went about this I didn't expect.
Q. How do you feel about the police now?
A. Not as certain about them as I was. Before I respected them quite a bit but now I don't have too much respect for them. I think that in order to get respect you must also give it.
Q. If you could help the police investigate a crime, would you?
A. I don't think so -- well, if there were other witnesses or people that would assist in a particular situation maybe I would also help. I don't know for sure. I don't want to get involved with the police especially after what happened to me.
Q. Did you tell any of your friends about what happened to you?
A. Yes, and, besides, one of my friends saw what happened. Other people that I told sympathized and explained that they also had bad experiences with the police where they felt it was unnecessary police action. One of my friends was pushed through a window by the police.
Q. What was the reaction of your friends?
A. They would always ask me what happened to my complaint. They told me I was wasting my time trying to fight city hall.
Q. Do you think that the sheriff's department could have done more in this matter?
A. Yes, I would figure that the least thing they could have done is have some type of a hearing where I could meet the officer face to face. I haven't seen the officer since the incident. After the investigator came to my house that was it. For what little the investigator did he took too long.
Q. If something like this happened to you again what would you do?
A. I would think twice about just filing a complaint because I really don't think the police want or try to find any dirt. I would take more extreme measures next time.
The father of the 17-year-old youth was also interviewed at the police practices complaint center.
Q. Do you think everything was done to secure a complete investigation?
A. The sheriff's department, I believe, did not conduct a thorough investigation or we weren't given enough information on the final answer.... There was no mention of the medical information presented.
Q. The investigator being a member of the sheriff's department, do you think that his relationship would influence the outcome of the investigation?
A. Sure it would ....
Q. Do you think seven months is enough time to investigate a complaint?
A. For the little they done and for the few lines they wrote, they took way too long.
Q. Do you feel that the center could have done more for your son?
A. This office has done enough in helping my son, and I am grateful for that help. What I do ask is that police begin to respect all people and that we do the same.
Q. How much money did you have to put out of your own pocket as a result of your son's encounter with the sheriff's officers?
A. I had to pay $90.00 for medical expenses, $17.00 for towing away my son's car and more than $25.00 for the day I lost at work. All these expenses and I get a four-line explanation from the sheriffs.
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Notes:
i. This and all other names of complainants are pseudonyms.
