Block, Activists Spar Over Abuse, Racism Charges

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights left Los Angeles on Friday with two wildly divergent views of the Sheriff’s Department, as community activists attacked what they characterized as law enforcement’s “head in the sand” attitude toward deputy racism and brutality.

Sheriff Sherman Block and supporters, however, testified that the department has made huge strides in recent years to reduce use of force by deputies, track problem officers and sensitize the staff to different cultures in the community.

Block said it was ridiculous to suggest--as a private detective did in testimony Friday--that organized gangs of bigoted deputies run unchecked. Such allegations, he said, only inflame the community and insult the men and women of his department.

The testimony came on the second and final day of hearings exploring issues of racism in law enforcement. The first day’s testimony focused on the Los Angeles Police Department. On Friday, the panel shifted its attention to the Sheriff’s Department and the 3,200 square miles it covers.

Although the civil rights panel first visited Los Angeles more than three years ago as part of the same study, it still has not released any reports on its findings. It hopes to do so next year, but critics and supporters of the sheriff questioned what good it might do.

Jeff Monical, representing the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, made it clear to commission members that “it’s only at your insistence that I’m here,” and said he believes the negative publicity is bad for morale among deputies.

Michael Zinzun, director of the Coalition Against Police Abuse, was openly wary as well. “Are these hearings just a facade? . . . We hope that your purpose is not to deceive,” he said.

Their skepticism was about the only issue on which the two sides agreed.

Several commission members were clearly exasperated after two discussion groups disagreed over such basic factual information as how the department tracks the use of force by deputies. “It’s almost as if we are in two different cities,” said Commissioner Carl A. Anderson.

Commission Chairwoman Mary Frances Berry, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said in an interview that the views at the hearing dramatize “the gulf in perceptions and experiences involving racism” in Los Angeles. Until the two sides bridge that gap, she said, “you can’t have effective justice here.”

*

No issue was more volatile Friday than debate over the “Vikings,” a group of deputies based in the Lynwood station who became a lightning rod for allegations of racism against the Sheriff’s Department.

Reports surfaced in 1990 that the Vikings were a paramilitary group of deputies, replete with tattoos and gang signs, who harassed and intimidated minorities. Sheriff’s personnel have maintained that the group is simply a club for sports and other interests, but several activists raised renewed charges at the hearing--including depositions and other evidence presented to the commission during a half-hour closed door session.

“Vikings are still being recruited, still being tattooed,” said David Lynn, a private investigator who worked for the plaintiffs in reaching a $7.5-million settlement with the Sheriff’s Department last year over allegations of deputy misconduct in Lynwood and elsewhere.

Lynn alleged in his testimony that Viking deputies have been involved in wrongful beatings and deaths and that supervisors who sought to expose their activities have been threatened with guns, dead dogs and bombs. “The Vikings . . . have never been investigated by the Sheriff’s Department. . . . Sherman Block has done nothing to get to the bottom of it,” he said.

*

Lynn’s allegations were echoed by Carol Watson, a lawyer for plaintiffs in police misconduct claims, who accused sheriff’s officials of practicing “self-imposed ignorance,” refusing to review information on problem officers and excessive force cases. She criticized the department, for instance, for allegedly failing to monitor the use of guns by off-duty officers--especially those who are intoxicated.

“The head in the sand attitude by the sheriff is the primary cause of the problem in the street,” Watson said. “It’s not only bad cops, it’s bad management.”

But Block maintained that sheriff’s officials have been sensitive to issues of racism and the use of force, and he took particular exception to the revisiting of the Viking issue.

While some individual officers have been guilty of wrongdoing, he said, “no one has ever been able to establish that this was a group kind of activity,” beyond simply competing in sports. “They fly the flag of their unit--there’s nothing sinister.”

Merrick Bobb, an attorney who is special counsel to the department and helped draft a series of wide-ranging recommendations for reform in 1992, agreed: “It is time that these [Vikings] allegations . . . really be somewhat put to rest.”

*

But several commissioners voiced concerns, and Bobb pledged that he would continue to investigate any allegations that arose over the issue.

In general, however, he said the department has done a commendable job in the last five years of bringing down its numbers in key trouble spots--including litigation, citizen complaints, shootings and other use-of-force incidents.

The system for tracking use of force “does not allow much to slip through the cracks,” he said, adding that the current administration seems intent on eliminating systemic problems and bettering its community relations.