Farrell Wants Restitution for Victims of Police Raid

Los Angeles City Councilman Robert Farrell on Friday called on the city to compensate residents of a Southwest Los Angeles neighborhood whose apartments were heavily damaged during raids by police last August.

Farrell praised the Los Angeles Police Department for disciplining 38 officers involved in the anti-gang raids in the 3900 block of Dalton Avenue, in which residents said they were beaten and their belongings destroyed. But he said at a City Hall press conference that restitution is needed before the situation can be rectified.

“It’s gratifying to know that the internal LAPD review system works and that LAPD inquiry did in fact find that members of the force had overstepped their boundaries,” said Farrell, referring to the announcement a day earlier by Police Chief Daryl F. Gates that a record number of police officers will be disciplined for involvement in the incident.

‘Homes Were Destroyed’

“But my constituents’ homes were destroyed . . . (and) now that the liability has been established, I’ll be asking the mayor and my colleagues to compensate these families,” Farrell said.

He said that it would be up to the city attorney and other officials to determine how much compensation the residents should receive, but that he would introduce a motion Tuesday asking the council to initiate the process.

However, an attorney for the residents who have filed a federal suit against the Police Department for alleged civil rights violations said it will take more than a cash settlement for his clients to agree to drop their case.

Calling Farrell’s announcement a “publicity stunt” and the Police Department’s disciplinary actions a “slap on the wrist,” attorney John Burton said it was “degrading to my clients to think they’ll take a few dollars and go away.”

“This case is not about money,” said Burton, whose clients are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in a suit that names the city, Mayor Tom Bradley and 75 police officers. “This case is about stopping the LAPD from wholesale violations of people’s rights.

Search for Narcotics

The Aug. 1 raid targeted apartments in a neighborhood just west of the Coliseum. Officers, in the wake of a series of gang-related drive-by shootings, had obtained warrants and were raiding the apartments in search of narcotics.

But during the search, residents said, police smashed walls, destroyed furniture and spray-painted walls with such anti-gang slogans as “LAPD rules,” and “Rolling 30’s die”--a reference to a Crips gang. Some residents also accused the officers of roughing them up during the raids.

A subsequent internal investigation by the Police Department led to Thursday’s announcement that 38 officers will be disciplined as a result of their actions--the largest number ever punished at one time as as a result of an internal LAPD inquiry.

Nine of the officers may lose their jobs or be suspended as long as six months without pay for their involvement, Gates said. Others will receive a variety of disciplinary actions ranging from shorter suspensions to having letters of reprimand placed in their files.