City Council Agrees to Use Deputies for Rose Parade
After questioning whether they were being punished for their remarks about racism in the Lynwood sheriff’s station, members of the Pasadena City Council Tuesday acquiesced to the use of more than 100 deputies from that station to staff the Rose Parade.
“Are we being punished somehow for activities and statements of the recent past?” Councilman Isaac Richard asked in response to suggestions that the department had heavily recruited deputies from the Lynwood station, the focus of reports of an alleged gang of “neo-Nazis” and “white supremacists,” to volunteer to work on New Year’s Day.
The council last month approved funds to hire 763 deputies, but only on the condition that no members of the Vikings, the allegedly racist gang, be included. The condition, as well as remarks about the Lynwood deputies, set off a round of demands, with Sheriff Sherman Block agreeing to send his deputies only after receiving a formal apology from the Pasadena mayor.
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