FIRING THE JUMP OUT BOYS
According to LASD spokesman, Steve Whitmore, the Sheriff’s Department intends to fire seven members of the newest deputy gang-like clique to become notorious, the so-called Jump Out Boys—a move that perhaps was in part stimulated by the grand jury action on the department’s deputy gangs.
The members of the Jump out boys are part of OSS—Operation Safe Streets—the gang investigation unit within the department.
Evidently there were two particular qualities that distinguished this deputy gang from the department’s other deputy gangs (like the Regulators, the 2000 Boys, the 3000 Boys, the Grim Reapers, the Vikings and so on). One is the fact that it’s members had the bad sense to write and print out a Jump Out Boys pamphlet laying out the mission and rules of said clique.
The other is that reportedly after a clique-member engages in a deputy-involved-shooting, he (or, one presumes, she) is entitled to have smoke coming from the gun in his Jump Out Boys tattoo. (The Jump Out Boys insignia—and tattoo design— is a skull holding a large revolver with the two playing cards behind it, one half of the famous aces-and-eights “dead man’s hand.”)
The LA Times Robert Faturechi broke the story about the Jump Out Boys’ existence, last year, and he has more on the matter of this firing. Here’s a clip:
The seven worked on an elite gang-enforcement team that patrols neighborhoods where violence is high. The team makes a priority of taking guns off the street, officials said.
The Sheriff’s Department has a long history of secret cliques with members of the groups having reached high-ranking positions within the agency. Sheriff officials have sought to crack down on the groups, fearing that they tarnished the department’s reputation and encouraged unethical conduct.
In the case of the Jump Out Boys, sheriff’s investigators did not uncover any criminal behavior. But, sources said, the group clashed with department policies and image.
Their tattoos, for instance, depicted an oversize skull with a wide, toothy grimace and glowing red eyes. A bandanna with the unit’s acronym is wrapped around the skull. A bony hand clasps a revolver. Smoke would be tattooed over the gun’s barrel for members who were involved in at least one shooting, officials said….
COULD WE STOP POSTURING ABOUT REALIGNMENT AND USE DATA-DRIVEN ANALYSIS TO LOOK AT CRIME AND RECIDIVISM INSTEAD?
With all else that’s been going on this week, we don’t want you to miss this excellent unsigned LA Times editorial (which happens to be written by my extremely smart friend, Robert Green). It analyses the findings of two reports—one of which we wrote about last month, released by the Council for State Governments Justice Center, which talked about who was getting arrested within a given period in LA County. Then last week there was another important study by the Vera Institute, which looks at mental illness, drug addition and incarceration in California.
Here’s a quick clip from Rob’s essay about what the two reports together suggest:
On Monday, in a separate study, the Vera Institute of Justice reported that a large proportion of county jail inmates from two study areas — Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles — preparing to reenter society have drug or mental health problems.
More research is needed, but the figures from both the Council for State Governments and the Vera Institute suggest that many people who wind up in jail or prison got into trouble at least in part because of clinical conditions, and that many of them come out with the same problems they had when they went in.
If public resources are to be spent effectively, California must cut its recidivism rate, and to do that, it must use data to slice through the posturing of those in politics and law enforcement who claim to “know,” without facts or figures, what people, policies or laws to blame for crime. If drug and mental health problems play a large role in landing people behind bars, it stands to reason that focusing more on diagnosis and treatment could save taxpayers money, reduce the criminal burden on neighborhoods and, by the way, address some of the misery and hopelessness of those caught in the revolving jailhouse door.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ADVOCATES TAKE A CRITICAL LOOKS AT THE CDCR’S NEW CHIEF
While new CDCR head, Jeffery Beard, is generally viewed with optimism by most prison watchers, criminal justice reformers say there are also areas of concern. George Lavender for The East Bay Express has the story.
(I didn’t clip it as it lists a bunch of pros and cons, thus it’s better to look at the whole thing.)
CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT LOOKS READY TO OKAY LOCAL BANS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA CLINICS
Law.com has the latest on this story. Here’s a clip of Scott Graham’s wonderfully blow-by-blow account:
Medical marijuana dispensaries are in danger of getting zoned out.
The California Supreme Court strongly hinted Tuesday that municipalities have the right to ban dispensaries via local zoning laws.
Tackling an issue that has vexed state appellate courts, the justices indicated that state laws blessing marijuana cooperatives shield them only from criminal prosecution under California law, and do not interfere with municipalities’ traditional power to regulate them as a local business.
An attorney for a cooperative argued that the city of Riverside has abused that power by adopting an ordinance that bans pot dispensaries anywhere in the city. “If you were to allow these dispensaries to be banned county by county, city by city, that would be the exact opposite of what the Legislature intended” when enacting the state’s Medical Marijuana Program in 2003, said J. David Nick.
But the justices sounded largely unmoved by Nick’s appeals to legislative purpose. “The purposes by themselves are not operative,” said Justice Goodwin Liu. They “don’t require or prohibit anybody from doing anything.”
“Don’t we start with a presumption that the ordinance is valid?” asked Justice Ming Chin.
“Why do we even have to indulge in a presumption?” asked Liu.
Nick argued in City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Welfare Center that California’s 1996 medical marijuana initiative and the 2003 legislative amendments establish the right to operate dispensaries in at least one location in a city. The goals of the 2003 legislation included enhancing “access of patients and caregivers to medical marijuana through collective, cooperative cultivation projects” and shielded such projects “from state criminal sanctions” under various specified laws. Those laws include Health & Safety Code §11570, a public nuisance law directed at drug houses.
Nick says in his briefs that jurisdictions all over the state, including San Jose, the city of Los Angeles and Sacramento County, are pursuing ordinances similar to Riverside’s, putting state marijuana laws “in a complete state of chaos.”
YES, WE’VE BEEN FOLLOWING THE SCARY AND TRAGIC STORY OF FIRED LAPD OFFICER CHRISTOPHER DORMER WHO HAS REVENGE-KILLED TWO PEOPLE AND IS THREATENING TO KILL MORE.
Here’s the Daily Breeze’s version of the painfully scary story of a very disturbed and very dangerous former LAPD officer who, as I type, is still at large.
Better yet, read the Wednesday night coverage by LA Weekly’s Dennis Romero, who live-blogged the unfolding of the story of Christopher Jordan Dormer, the disgraced and dangerous former LAPD cop on a tragic revenge rampage.
The question is: Will Witness LA investigate the allegations made by Dormer in his manifesto?
Every news account I’m reading gives the LAPD point of view as fact.
If you read the court decision on his firing and the manifesto, this is a gentleman that seemed to have troubling behavior patterns from the time he entered the L.A.P.D academy. He probably should have been separated during the academy, but may have been given a chance due to his military background. Even with psychological evaluation and polygraph exams some unworthy candidates still get through to a career in law enforcement. I read a L.A.S.D. candidate’s post on officer.com in the D.S.T. postings complaining about L.A.S.D. looking at their Facebook, twitter,or you tube videos during background investigations. With the way this candidate carried on I’m glad we do. I does tell us a lot about a candidates character.
So the Department is going to fire seven deputies for sporting tattoos and embarrassing the Department. Using the same criteria, shouldn’t the Assistant Sheriff also be fired?
Thank you, bandwagon. You took the words out of my mouth. However, as we see time and time again, those Lt. level and above, especially supervisors promoted under the protection and sponsorship of too tall Paul, do not fall under the same disciplinary standards as line deps.
The LASD has become a viper’s nest of hypocrisy. Department executives just aren’t held to the same standards. Period.
So, regarding Dorner, do police like “SureFire” still think it’s a good idea to refer to themselves as “warriors” as opposed to “public servants”? I mean, Dorner certainly doesn’t view himself as a fired public servant right now…
Yes, what about Tanaka’s cigar club with its numbered coins and private patio on county property. Would that be consider a clique ? I think Mr. Tanaka is who I would have addressed first on this issue. You lead by example and maybe these seven deputies were imitating Mr. Tanaka.
Sheriff Baca everyone from the the executives in H.Q. to the recruits in the academy need to be held accountable for their actions and behavior.
So, are they going to fire the Sgt who initiated the Jump Out Boyz investigation. He found the credo and turned it in to superiors. So Sgt P. how’s that Viking on your ankle. Just saying.
Any worthwhile insight of Steve Whitmore’s announcement regarding the Jump Out Boyz deputy clique must begin with a basic understanding of how Sheriff Baca accumulates power, controls information and frames the issues.
Everything is borne of survival and power politics.
Do you already understand that a few Halloween style tattoos and an embarrassing pamphlet are not the catalyst for a decision as sober and serious as terminating the careers of 7 L.A. County Sheriff Deputies?
These can only be secondary factors, at most.
If you don’t already have that organic understanding then don’t waste your time reading any further in this comment.
Follow the reporting for another 10 or 15 years if the subject interests you.
Only time helps a person tear off and toss aside the packaging Sheriff Baca has chosen. Then you can actually smell the filling inside the burritos Baca smuggled in for us.
I wonder what the Undersheriff’s thoughts were as he signed off on these discharge papers? After all, I know he would never condone deputies having tattoos on their ankles and belonging to a clique, would he? Did he whisper, “Don’t worry fellas, you’ll beat this in Civil Service, I got your back.”
Sheriff Baca doesn’t announce the ousting of 7 Sheriff deputies because of poor posture and failing to tuck in their shirt tails.
No. This isn’t about a pamphlet and some tats.
This is about the Coroner’s medical report divulged on Jose de la Trinidad.
The announcement of Sheriff Baca’s intention to terminate these deputies is framed around the need to restore the public’s image of the dept. and regain public trust.
These are ancillary issues. The true audience for the announcement of Baca’s decision are Sheriff deputies, specifically newly minted up-and-comer’s.
As loudly and clearly and undeniably as the message can be sent, Sheriff Baca has declared:
Until further notice,
the Entry Level Promotion List
of the Baca-Tanaka System
is hereby closed.
Do not attempt to qualify for the list.
While the list is closed, any Deputy whose actions would have previously qualified his name will instead find himself disqualified and subject to official dept. purge.
[…] The LASD Moves to Fire 7 “Jump Out Boys”….No More Posturing About Realignment Plea… […]
La Cosa Nostra closed the books for new members after suffering some terrible defeats at the hands of the feds.
Weird how that lines up. And the indictments still haven’t even come down. All in all, Leroy is rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Wait until someone finally blows the whistle on radio cars to Asian countries, and what was actually in them. This will all look small by comparison.
Bottom line…. Tanaka/Baca have ZERO loyalty. Poiltical heat turns up, and these two will throw everyone they can under the bus. Cavanaugh and “The Jump Out Boys” have learned this 1st hand. Who’s next? How anybody remains loyal to these two POS’ is completely beyond me!!!!!!!!
LASD Moves To Fire 7. Steve Whitmore announces, this tattooed clique has tarnished the Departments reputation, our first step in cleaning house! Another can of smoke thrown in front of the public as a laughable diversion to the real problems within the LASD. These young deputies are being sacrificed and I hope they simply give the same answer-explanation that their great leader Paul Tanaka has given for the last 25 years! Hell it has worked for him every time!
I take you back to the late 80’s early 90’s when a young timid and quite soft new field sergeant showed up at Lynwood Station. Poor Paul knew he couldn’t stand on his own accomplishments as a street cop, he had no accomplishments and he was just intimidated being assigned there. Paul was smart though, he quickly recognized the hard charging street cops and began to align himself with them. Paul began to drink coffee on the hoods of radio cars with these hard chargers and laugh at the racial slurs thrown out during story telling between calls and tried to talk the talk. He was quickly invited for after work beers and was feeling like one of the “guys” even though he had never done an ounce of police work like the men he tried to align himself with. Poor Paul continued this masquerade until the group invited him have some beer and get some “ink” Paul quickly accepted this invite and received his “Station Tattoo”, now walking around like he was someone, thinking I’m part of this group now, I’m just like one of them!
The years went by and things changed. People were labeling this group as a “gang” a rogue group of heathens! By now Poor Paul was trying to promote and he began to distance himself from the group. He told the captain that his tattoo was a station mascot nothing more and he did not participate in any wrong doing that this group was accused of? Some of the men he drank the beer with and got inked with lost their jobs or went on elsewhere. It worked for Poor Paul and he promoted up thru the ranks.
Paul then formed another “Group” one that he passed out Numbered Coins too and gave complimentary promotions to and it was their special group again, a clique! Poor Paul would tell the reporters thru Steve Whitmore that his tattoo was a lapse in judgement, that his does not approve of these groups and that he is thinking of getting his tattoo removed, dictating his statement to Whitmore as he flipped his numbered coin.
This has all worked for Paul, why cant a group of young deputies get a tattoo, a station mascot if you like, just like their Undersheriff Tanaka has done? Now these poor 7 deputies are going to be sacrificed at the feet of Poor Paul because the heat is a bit hot right now for Paul, what an injustice but a oh so perfect portrayal of Pauls character throughout his career. I cringe when I hear these young deputies say Paul just wants hard police work done, to work in the grey area a little if needed. But Paul never did hard charging police work he was just smart enough to make people believe he did! And when it went south, he hid behind his superiors skirt and denied everything. Just as he is doing now.
#15: Submit that to the USC Dissertation Committee & you’ll probably receive a Ph.D degree.