Lockyer and NAACP Tackle Police Brutality

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer backed a call by a civil rights group Friday for greater scrutiny of alleged police brutality and said law enforcement must take the initiative to prevent such incidents.

Speaking to a panel of the state chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People in South Los Angeles, Lockyer said his office received complaints “every day” about inadequate follow-through on potential civil rights violations by police agencies.

But the attorney general disagreed with a number of community leaders who told the panel that brutality was institutionalized and that current policies failed to weed out rogue cops.

“I think it’s a pretty good process now,” Lockyer said, adding that his office was prepared to take action against police departments that failed to implement reforms when needed.

Most of the state’s peace officers are professionals who follow the rules, the attorney general said outside the meeting, adding, “I think we’re lucky in California compared to other states.”

When brutality is proved, severe discipline is needed to discourage other officers from engaging in similar behavior, he said.

State NAACP President Alice A. Huffman said the panel was preparing a report, to be released later this year, proposing legislation, legal action or other measures to prevent violent confrontations between police and residents.

Community activists and others were outraged by the Los Angeles Police Department’s fatal shooting Feb. 6 of 13-year-old Devin Brown after a car chase.

Two other recent events have added to the tension:

* On Feb. 3, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said it would not prosecute an LAPD officer who had hammered a black man with a metal flashlight after the auto thief, who led authorities on a car chase, fled on foot in Compton.

* In January, a civil jury awarded $2.4 million to two Inglewood officers who said they were unfairly disciplined after the videotaped beating of a black teenager at a gas station.

The public tends to attribute violent confrontations to “individual, deviant” officers, but “there’s a culture that condones it” in police departments, UCLA law professor Devon Carbado told the panel. He and others said police habitually stopped African Americans without cause, leading to needless violence.

“Let’s change the law,” he said. “Let’s hold not just individual officers accountable [but also] the departments.”

Tighter screening of newly hired officers and better training were also proposed.

“We know that there are peace officers whose anger is out of control. But how do they get into the police force in the first place?” asked Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), who chairs a legislative committee on hate crimes. “The killing of innocent youths must stop.”