One Lie Deflated, but Damage Is Done : Sheriff: The Kolts report exonerated deputies of gangsterism, but mistrust lingers.

The report by retired Judge James G. Kolts on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been used to end debate rather than begin it: The implied conclusion is that cops, not drug dealers or gangbangers, are the ones to be feared in post-riot Los Angeles.

This misuse of the report distorts a once-proud American belief. It is now the arresting officer who is presumed guilty, not the arrested suspect who is presumed innocent. How can police operate when the price of every arrest (however proper) is a civil damage suit?

The Kolts report has been justly criticized because its staff did not speak to any of the 62 (out of some 8,000) deputies who the report labeled “problem officers,” for leaving out critical facts and for relying too heavily on self-interested plaintiffs’ lawyers and their client accusers. As but one example, only through such a one-sided prism could a deputy be criticized for fatally shooting a man while omitting the fact that the deputy was facing the barrel of a loaded pistol down a darkened alley.

But even within its own narrow focus, the Kolts report did not, as is commonly reported, indict the Sheriff’s Department. It found that the department had neither policy nor practice of encouraging excessive force. It commended the department’s leadership for “flexibility” and “openness to change.” It credited Sheriff Sherman Block for encouraging critical self-examination. In his Wednesday press conference, Sheriff Block pledged to quickly comply with many of the report’s recommendations, even though he disagreed with its unfair characterizations.

Regrettably, the press to date has ignored one of the report’s most significant findings. The report scrutinized widely publicized charges that many deputies were members of a cultlike “neo-Nazi, white supremacist” gang within the department--the “Vikings” (a name taken from the Lynwood station’s former mascot). Most sensational was the charge, aired on Los Angeles television stations, that some “Viking” deputies plotted the murder of a gang member who was later killed in a drive-by shooting.

What did the report uncover about a gang of white supremacist and neo-Nazi deputies? That no such gang exists. The stories were “apocryphal,” based on “second- and third-hand, anecdotal and uncorroborated” rumors. Despite this, much irreparable damage already has been done:

--Citing these rumors about the “neo-Nazi” Vikings, a federal judge issued a sweeping injunction to have his court take control over the department’s ability to apply its own law enforcement policies. for the entire Sheriff’s Department. This injunction has been stayed, pending appeal.

--The Pasadena city council temporarily barred “Viking” deputies from policing the Rose Parade. The invitation was reinstated only when Sheriff Block refused to provide any protection unless the department received an apology. Ultimately, hundreds of deputies, swallowing their outrage, participated and received kudos for policing the parade without incident.

--Lawyers representing gang members have used the “Viking” issue to divert attention from the violent crimes with which their clients are accused. The lawyers portray cops and robbers as nothing more than rival gangs duking it out. Deputies who testify at criminal trials are now routinely asked highly personal questions about their private lives. One deputy witness was asked to partially disrobe to examine his body for tattoos.

Deputies have been indiscriminately branded as racists without even the shadow of a suspicion of misconduct. Lawyers who sue police officers for a living use the “Viking” issue to establish guilt by association. Absurdly, not even black, Latino, and Jewish deputies are immune from accusations that they are “neo-Nazis” and “white supremacists.”

The Kolts staff pressed the accusing lawyers for their “strongest evidence.” They scrutinized court records. But the panel found only rumors, which, they said, “certainly do not constitute convincing evidence of racist gangs within the department.”

As to the most shocking allegations--the supposed involvement by “Viking” deputies in a gangland-style assassination--the panel noted that the chief accuser not only recanted her story but pleaded guilty to federal charges of deliberately filing a false FBI report. This accuser then stated that she was put up to this story by an investigator hired by plaintiffs’ attorneys.

It is extremely significant that the Kolts report deflated this lie. Will this canard now exit the public debate? Regrettably, no. As we learned from McCarthyist witch hunts, the more vicious the rumor, the longer it outlives its refutation. Unfounded rumors have a particularly disturbing life beyond the grave.

The 8,000 men and women who serve as deputies are racially and ethnically diverse. Deputies showed their mettle (and their restraint) as Los Angeles burned, when they kept our crumbling neighborhoods together without any “deeply disturbing” use of excessive force.

Deputies, though facing public scorn and incessant lawsuits, still put their lives on the line every day to protect us. In return we owe them our commitment.