Death of the ‘Dragnet’ Myth on the Eastside

Jack Webb must be turning in his grave. His LAPD, portrayed on “Dragnet” as a “Just-the-facts-ma’am” organization of polite and praiseworthy cops, no longer exists--if it ever did.

The tenuous support the department still has in L.A.’s minority communities--a support no doubt sorely tested by Mark Fuhrman and his use of that word--will erode even further in the wake of the news Friday that two detectives from the Eastside’s Hollenbeck Division were suspended after they were accused of manufacturing evidence to frame murder suspects and others.

“First, this [stuff] about Fuhrman and then they killed that kid in Lincoln Heights” in a controversial LAPD shooting July 29, said Whittier Boulevard merchant Armando Garza, normally a staunch police supporter. “Now this. . . . To protect and to serve? Forget it. It doesn’t mean anything now. It’s a joke.”

Added another man, a respected leader in Lincoln Heights, in a disconsolate tone of voice: “More bad news. This isn’t good.”

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The role of both the LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department on the Eastside has always been a touchy one. Nonetheless, LAPD officers and sheriff’s deputies could always depend on support from some quarters east of the L.A. River, especially homeowners and merchants who believed that law enforcement was essential to the area’s stability for businesses and residents.

So no matter how loudly the critics protested questionable law enforcement behavior, its core support on the Eastside remained steady.

To this day, some notable Mexican American leaders defend the Sheriff’s Department in the 1970 death of Times columnist Ruben Salazar--killed by a tear-gas canister deputies fired into a bar--arguing that his death was an accident.

But even this backbone of support seems to be changing in the wake of the latest news from Hollenbeck Division. For the first time in my memory, the Eastside’s last staunch supporters of the LAPD are changing their minds.

“I never thought I’d say this,” said Boyle Heights homeowner and merchant John Moreno, whose comment was typical of those I heard. “The cops are no longer on our side. They can do a lot of good in a community. We need them. But they’re not on our side, not on the community’s side anymore. It’s that simple.”

And this from a knowledgeable leader in Lincoln Heights, who insisted that his name not be used because of the anger he now holds for the LAPD: “I used to support those guys down the line. And given the little number of cops they’ve had to patrol Lincoln Heights, I still supported them. I encouraged them to do whatever they could for us. Now, I will shun them. Know-nothings, that’s what they are.”

At the heart of the anger toward the cops is the LAPD’s apparent inability to weed out the bad ones among them.

It turns out one of the Hollenbeck officers just suspended by Chief Willie L. Williams, Detective Andrew A. Teague, was named by the Christopher Commission as No. 41 among the department’s 44 “problem officers.” And another one of those problem officers, Michael A. Falvo, also assigned to Hollenbeck, shot to death 14-year-old Jose Antonio Gutierrez in a controversial confrontation July 29 in Lincoln Heights, a shooting that led to two nights of unrest and two federal lawsuits.

“Two guys from the same division with, I guess, the same rogue mentality. Is that a coincidence? I don’t think so,” said Lincoln Heights resident William Lee. He had even supported the LAPD in the Gutierrez shooting, figuring it was just another gang kid with a gun. But this incident has turned him 180 degrees.

“They want to add, what, 2,000, 3,000 more cops to the force?” wondered Fred Aguilar, a neighbor of Lee’s. “They gotta take care of these 44 first. This [stuff] has to stop. Now.”

“You always want to support the police,” said another of Lee’s neighbors, who was walking toward North Broadway when I caught up with him. “You want to trust them. But I’m afraid the trust is gone. If one of them comes to my door, I know I’m going to wonder if this cop is bad. I’m afraid I can’t trust the cops anymore.”

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Joe Miranda, who grew up in Lincoln Heights and later moved his catering business back home after it languished in the San Gabriel Valley, also grew up liking Jack Webb’s Sgt. Joe Friday character on “Dragnet.”

“I used to think all cops were like Joe Friday,” he said. “Of course, it wasn’t true because it was TV. But I still liked the LAPD.

“But now, with all this stuff coming out, I have to say Joe Friday never existed. He was a lie. If he did exist, he probably used the word nigger . He probably shot some poor kid without provocation. He probably framed people.

“I didn’t believe [it] before, but I do now.”