Charlie Beck LAPD PTSD Veterans

Veterans in Jail, the New Prez of the LAPD Commission, and LAPD Chief Beck on Body Cams

NEW HOPE FOR LOCKED-UP VETS: A SAN DIEGO JAIL MODULE TAILORED TO TREAT VETERANS’ INVISIBLE WOUNDS

At the Vista Detention Facility in San Diego County, veterans who find themselves on the wrong side of the law are placed in “modules” focused on healing, rather than punishing, men who are wrestling with any combination of PTSD, substance abuse, and homelessness.

The jail’s two modules, specifically tailored to the unique needs of veterans, offer vets a chance to deal with the struggles of life after active duty that helped put them behind bars. Vista’s vet modules provides a level of discipline and routine that’s familiar and comforting to the former military men, as well as daily classes, yoga, therapy, and the company of other veterans (even the guards are vets).

Note: currently, there are no comparable offerings in the US for female vets, who are subject to the same war-related traumas as their male counterparts.

The Crime Report’s Katti Gray has more on the Vista veterans program. Here’s a clip:

A year—to the day—after his baby brother was shot dead in a Kansas prairie town, German Villegas’ best buddy in Afghanistan was killed by a bomb he’d been ordered to find and defuse.

“We were both on the list to search for explosives,” Villegas recalled.

But U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Michael J. Palacios was the one dispatched that day in November 2012. “He got hit by a 200-pound IED,” two months before both men were slated to go home, Villegas said.

Villegas returned stateside, a shattered man.

“My number-one goal was to get drunk and just try to forget everything,” said the 23-year-old, who joined the Marines straight out of high school and spent five years there. Fired from the military police, he was shunted into what he calls “punitive duties” that had him cleaning up after battalion officers and picking up trash.

But the worst were the funeral details.

“(That) was the completely wrong thing for me to have to do,” he continued. “Every time I did one of these funerals, I’m seeing these families crying. I became pretty good at compartmentalizing—or so I thought.”

Villegas was sitting that afternoon in the communal area outside an all-male cell block at a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department jail, where he landed after being arrested for an assault on his fiancée. A few feet away, at the Vista Detention Facility, stood one of the armed deputy sheriffs, also a veteran, who asked to be assigned to that cell block. Just beyond that deputy was a Marine Corps retiree and correctional counselor who directs Vista’s almost two-year-old Veterans Moving Forward Program.

One of a handful of such projects in the United States, the program makes available to convicted ex-military men and those awaiting trial—including those like Villegas who’ve been diagnosed with mental illness—counseling, peer-to-peer support and other amenities rarely extended to people behind bars.

Minutes before Villegas gave a visitor his take on what war extracts from combatants and innocents alike, he had queued up at a nurse’s cart, where anti-psychotic and other prescribed drugs were dispensed to jailed veterans with mental illnesses. (Those with only physical ailments also filled their prescriptions.)

Villegas’ meds are intended to help him stave off anxiety, depression and the flashbacks, nightmares, hyper-arousal, hyper-alertness and exponential moodiness that are among the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Such maladies are likely what triggered his admitted episode of violence. For Villegas, like so many other criminally charged veterans, had no history of illegal activity prior to military service.

“Jail is the last place I thought I would end up and the last place I thought I would find help, but this program has become a foundation that I can trust,” Villegas said. “The moment I came here and saw those military flags on the walls, it brought me to tears. There’s a brotherhood here … and there are things here that I need to restore my mental health, to get whole again.”


LA’S NEWEST POLICE COMMISSION PRESIDENT SAYS HE’S READY TO JUMP IN AND GET TO WORK ON POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Matt Johnson, the newest Los Angeles Police Department commission president, also happens to be the only black member of the commission tasked with overseeing the LAPD.

When Johnson was growing up in New Jersey in the 80’s, he said he was on the receiving end of both racial prejudice from law enforcement officers and kindness from the cops who were friends with his dad. Johnson says this gives him the perspective needed to take on police-community relations issues.

But some community members criticize LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s appointment of Johnson, who is an entertainment lawyer, instead of someone who is a grassroots community advocate.

The LA Times’ Kate Mather has the story. Here’s a clip:

Richard Drooyan, a former Police Commission president, said the board’s role as the “eyes and ears of the community” is particularly important at this moment given the public desire for increased accountability of police. Johnson, he said, must be “willing to criticize when mistakes are made and support the department when the department is right.”

In one of its most important roles, the board decides whether police shootings and other serious uses of force were appropriate. It’s a responsibility that has come under greater scrutiny as police officers across the country have increasingly been criticized for how they use force, particularly against black men.

Activists have blasted the LAPD and commissioners for some of the police shootings in Los Angeles. LAPD officers have shot 28 people so far this year, half of whom were killed.

Some of the most vocal critics are affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, including some who denounced Mayor Eric Garcetti for putting Johnson on the Police Commission. They said they wanted an anti-gang activist on the board instead of another person who donated to Garcetti’s campaign.

When asked about the criticism, Johnson said the Black Lives Matter movement had “shined a light on very important issues.”

“The bottom line is, there is an alarming number of African Americans across our country who have been killed by police,” Johnson said. “A large part of the reason that I agreed to join the commission is that I’m concerned about it, and I believe I can play a positive role in reducing those incidents.”

Paula Madison, the outgoing commissioner who has been the board’s only African American member since 2013, described Johnson as a friend who works with quiet deliberation, someone who understood the impact he could have as a black man on the Police Commission.

“If you get the opportunity to help set policies, you take it very seriously,” she said. “And knowing Matt, he’s going to take this very seriously.”

Head over to Mathers’ story to read more about Johnson’s background and what he hopes to accomplish while serving as a commissioner.


LAPD CHIEF CHARLIE BECK TALKS BODY CAMS AND POLICIES

On Wednesday’s on Air Talk, host Larry Mantle talked with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck about how the department’s implementation of officer body cameras is going, so far, and about recent pushback from the ACLU about when and how much video footage should be released to the public. The ACLU has asked the Department of Justice not to contribute funding to the LAPD’s body cam program because the department will not be actively releasing video showing officer-involved shootings.

Here’s Chief Beck’s response:

Well, the ACLU is welcome to offer whatever recommendations they want to whoever they want, but I don’t agree with them, I don’t think the federal government will agree with them either. Body cameras, and I’m wearing one right now as we talk and you can see it, are an evidence-collection tool, just like detectives are, just like the coroner’s investigation is, just like many many pieces of an investigation. We don’t release investigations piecemeal. Body camera footage is available for review by the district attorney, by the city attorney, by a civil court, by a criminal court, and in cases of uses of force that rise to the appropriate level, by the civilian police commission. So there are multiple levels of review, and to merely put video into the public without further investigatory information I think is inappropriate.

Of course, the concern is that the department is going to release the video when it suits its interests, not so quick to do so when it makes the department the gatekeeper. How do you respond to that concern?

I respond to it by looking at my track record. I’ve been Chief for five years now. We’ve had in-car video for that whole time, and I haven’t released that video when it supports my position or when it is detrimental to my position or to the department. I use it as part of the investigation; it is not something I use to form public opinion. It’s an investigative tool. That is not to say that I would never release video. If the state of the city depends on it, then that would weigh heavily on my decision. But in the day-to-day incidents of policing. One of the things I like to remind folks is that when you call the Los Angeles Police Department, it’s not on your best day. It never is. We go to your house. There may have been a domestic incident. You may have been the victim of a crime. It could be any number of circumstances. None of which you want put in the public domain. At least, all of the victims I’ve ever talked to. And so we want to be very circumspect, we want to be the guardians of the public trust. When people interact with the police, I think they have a right to some privacy in that condition.

8 Comments

  • Welcome aboard Matt Johnson.

    I will say that the Black Lives Matter initially started out to voice and protest disparity in law enforcement as to how blacks were treated and profiled.

    The current BLM Movement unfortunately is a cover for racist and ignorant blacks (and others).

    For the non blacks who can’t recognize, note that the current BLM Movement does not represent the majority of the black population in America.

  • Black in Blue, at the very least, BLM don’t represent Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke. They remind me of SNCC, SCLC, et al during the formative years of the CRM. They’re young. They make people uncomfortable, particularly entrenched stakeholders and gatekeepers. They have no lack of enthusiasm. They’re evolving. One commonality — despite their differences, lack of organization, and inexperience….they don’t like what they see — nor should they. I wouldn’t characterize them as ignorant, nor would I characterize you as complacent and ineffective. Frankly, I don’t care what non blacks think. Their comfort or lack thereof is the least of my concerns. There’s no right way to do a wrong thing. We can’t “un ring” the bell or sit on our hands. The fact that they exist means there’s some unfinished business to which “we” must attend.

  • @2 You don’t know me or know of me to characterize me. What you think of non blacks is your own issue. There is a way for or any group to go about getting their point across being drama free.
    Unfortunately splinter groups of BLM are ignorant assholes who make the righteous and civil BLM protesters look bad.
    Being a Black Peace Officer, I deal with idiots all day & night….black & white (yellow & brown too). I also respect the right for people to assemble and to be heard. Tearing up shit and burning your neighborhood down is stupid. It would behoove the legitimate BLM to apply “boot to ass” for those who are shooting & looting” and “not down for the cause”.

  • Certainly there are issues between the police and African American community that need to be addressed, but pale in comparison to the real issue affecting the African American community, black on black crime. BLM would be better served focusing their energy towards solving the real issues affecting their communities. Just one non black commenter’s opinion.

  • For the positive blacks who live and work in the inner cities, the problem is two fold. The police (a segment thereof) who have their own wicked acts & agendas who patrol the inner city is one.
    The other is the blacks (a larger segment thereof within the community) who are land sharks and predators, in addition to others (non blacks) who show overt acts of discrimination and racism.
    To those who are immediately affected, the two ARE NOT pale in comparison. BOTH ARE REAL ISSUES.
    Easy to say if you are not living and working there (outside of law enforcement).

  • Familiar: Poverty, unemployment, lack of education, and black on black crime are also “issues” affecting the African American community. In my humble opinion, having spent years working in the black community (law enforcement), I believe all the above listed issues pale in comparison to the “few wicked” cops with their own agendas. The vast majority of cops I worked with were good people trying to make life a little more tolerable for the community they served. Yes, I’m not black and I don’t live in the inner city, but does that preclude me from having an opinion?

  • Familiar: Should read “few wicked cops” pale in comparison to the real issues affecting the black community. Regardless, I’m sure you get my point……

  • Yes….you are correct and I do get your point. The vast majority of cops are good cops and definitely needed.

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