ACLU of Southern California Responds to Police Corruption Probe

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES — The uncovering of a pattern of deception, perjury and evidence-planting by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department is shocking, but sadly not surprising. In the same manner in which the videotaped beating of Rodney King shed light on police brutality, this investigation is certain to illuminate a terrible, but not so secret fact: that the LAPD cannot be trusted to investigate itself.

Los Angeles must return to the findings of the Christopher Commission. The need for effective training and accountability are now surpassed only by the urgency to once and for all end the code of silence.

We call on Mayor Riordan and the City Council to establish an independent prosecutor, not only to prosecute those whose actions have tarnished the reputation of the police department, but to investigate all future police shootings. The trampling of justice we are witnessing today must never again be allowed to occur.