Gangs • LAPD • Law Enforcement

Deputy Chief Charlie Beck ….REDUX

July 18, 2008
by Celeste Fremon
11 Comments

In this morning’s LA Times, Joel Rubin reported what we reported a week ago, namely Deputy Chief Charlie Beck’s reaction to the case of the LAPD detectives who told a gangster in custody that a young woman had positively identified him for a murder—-when in fact she had not. The 16-year-old girl, Martha Puebla, was subsequently murdered by the gangster’s homeboys as a consequence of the cops’ “ruse.”

Chief Beck, if you’ll remember, heads up the department’s detective bureau, and we talked with him last week about (among other things) how the Martha Puebla tragedy might have been prevented, about how the “ruse” strategy is a useful tool in certain investigative situations, and about the ways he planned introduce changes in training in order to try to prevent similar ruse-related tragedies from occurring in the future.

Rubin also wrote the in-depth article on the Martha Puebla murder for the Times (a story we’d previously broken a year and a half ago.)

We realize that immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and this is now twice in a month that we’ve felt very, very flattered by Mr. Rubin.

11 Comments

  • I am have to cross the tracks to the other side (hello Woody), Celeste and the other loco liberal media, are more than happy to print story after story about “bad” cops, but will not print any stories about low life gang members who make death threats to kill innocent people. Maybe when Jamiel Shaw Sr. is killed by some low life, we will read about “bad” cops not protecting Jamiel Shaw Sr.

    Where is the outrage NOW, before an innocent man is killed by gang members?

    Here is another death threat against Jamiel Shaw Sr., see previous posts for other death threats against Jamiel Shaw Sr. I hope others send these stories to other news outlets, to see if anyone gives a damn when an innocent man’s life is placed in danger by gang members. Let us see if Celeste will comment or ask Deputy Chief Beck about this issue, or will she only print stories which fit her agenda and views? My respect for our blog host is quicky evaporating into thin air. I wish I could be invited to speak to a college journalism class to discuss the word “balanced reporting”.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/JamielsLaw

  • LL….first of all, in truth, this post wasn’t meant to be critical of the LAPD (even if it came off that way.) Actually, I was taking a swipe at Joel Rubin.

    About the threats to Jamiel’s dad, I read that post you linked to in the other comments section, and it’s horrifying. http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2008/07/death-threats-on-jamiel-shaw-sr.html

    But, I have several questions that, if that post had come to me, I would have wanted to check out:

    1. How in the world are death threats like this, if posted on the web, still up there without those sites being shut down? If these are on Facebook or MySpace, if they are brought to those providers attention, they will be eliminated. Have they been? If not, why not?

    2. A death threat of that nature can be classified as a terrorist threat, which is a criminal act, and the guy can, and should, be detained. Has he been? Have the cops talked to him? If none of the above, why not?

    3. The vile creep making the threats is working as an armed guard at Fox Hill’s mall? Really? Do his bosses know about this? Does this sound credible to you? And if it does, why is no one doing anything?

    4. How in the world would Jamiel’s law solve any of this? Can someone please explain that to me? Had that law been in existance would it have saved Jamiel Shaw? The Shaw family has suffered the worst loss that is possible, the death of a child—and not just any death, a cold-blooded murder. I don’t honestly know how parents survive after such a blow. In truth, I’m not positive I would.

    I posted about Jamiel’s death an hour or so after it hit the wires, because—although I didn’t know this kid or anyone around him—the murder of that beautiful, talented boy hit me like a gut punch. I’ve seen way too many young men I know in caskets. I know way too many mothers who, like Jamiel’s parents, will never recover. Not ever. I get it.

    But no amount of demonization is going to solve this complex mess we call gang violence. Righteous anger may be cathartic. But it gets you exactly nowhere. Getting rid of gangs—-and gang violence—is much harder work than just getting angry, pointing fingers, or passing some bullshit, feel good law. We’ve passed quite a few of those already—the STEP Act, Prop 21…10-20-Life. And y’know what we’ve gotten for our trouble? Let’s see, we’ve gotten full prisons that are breaking the state financially, and so chaotic that, even the corrections officer Lt. I spoke to this morning at a CA state prison admitted, that in many ways, the prison gangs are the only real authority in California’s prisons. And we have more gangs and gang members on LA streets than we’ve ever had. And we’ve got communties full of middle-schoolers who are afraid to walk to school and have PTSD levels higher than soldiers returning from Iraq. That’s what a one-note, get-tough policy has produced.

    Congratulations. You win.

  • Celeste you should be happy that, now that Sam Zell is gutting the TIMES, he’s using you as an unpaid stringer/scout for the news. Brave new world!

  • If I still had Deputy Chief Charlie Beck’s phone number I would be asking the Deputy Chief some of the question Celeste asked Mr. Cranky aka L.L. But anyone can search words like “sureno” and see hundreds of hate speech and threats on YouTube, MySpace and etc. Maybe when a murdered person’s family sues these web-sites they will start to take down these type of posts on their sites.

    It reminds me of a story I just read, about a 16 yr. kid being killed by another kid, as many other kids were video-taping a planned fight. We might see the video on YouTube soon.
    http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/la-me-lahigh18-2008jul18,0,4209322.story

    And anybody who lives around the L.A. area knows there is almost ZEROOOOOOOO enforcement of immigration laws, and every month thousands more poor immigrants are sneaking into the state, to add the huge problems of education, poverty and crime in our state. How is this going to help solve any of our social problems?

  • They’re “Sneaking” here because local employers love to hire captive labor that won’t complain if they’re stiffed on pay and benefits. And, until we get tough on said employers all the whining in the world about “illegals” will be so much horse manure.

    And for you fans of Arizona and “Maximum” Joe – the state passed tough laws on same and now the business community is up in arms since their cheap labor is going elswhere. Who’ll pick the crops? Poor babies!

  • Dear Mr. or Mrs. Lost, I’ve been looking on youtube for videos of people making murder threats and haven’t found anything. Maybe you could post a link to one of them, otherwise I’m going to have to call bullshit on that.

    I knew someone who called his sister, they got into a fight and he threatened to come over to her house and kill her. His sister called the police and he was arrested in a matter of minutes. The police take these things very seriously, especially if it’s a high profile murder such as this. Frankly, you’re going to have to show some kind of proof if you want anyone to believe you.

  • Dear Lose – you can do to better than that. I’m still not convinced. I know you can find something better.

  • Adam C, when pressed by the likes of you to give links to death threats on her family from a gangbanger “colleague” of Pedro Espinoza, she sensibly argues that she isn’t going to promote his site and threats — anyone who wants can track it down and many have. The cops have told her they’re watching the case, monitoring the site…Shame on you.

    If you want to read some nice, general intelligent comments from gangmembers aimed at the LA Weekly for daring to write about the Avenues/Skulls Gangs on Drew St./Glassell Park, go to LA Now, 7/11/08 by Christine Pelisek, “Drew Street Chatter, Avenues Gangs Respond.” Some of their charmingly illiterate and sociopathically defiant verbal swagger can be seen there, just generally threatening society and the cops.

    Or, should you sympathies by drawn in their direction, you can consider responding to the pleas of one fellow who signs off as “El Enfermo Jeykyl (caps his): AVENUES GAMG MEMBERS WILL LEAVE LIFE OF CRIME FOR JOBS INTERESTS COMPANYS POST IN COMMENTS SECTION…POST THIS IN YOUR MEDIA LEECHES OR IS IT NOT GOING TO GET SALES ANYWAYS I USE YOUR NEWSPAPER TO WIPE MY ASS WITH….” Since it’s unlikely you have a desk job for him, how about an armed guard position, where he gets to swagger around with a loaded gun in a public place, like a mall?

  • WBC: I don’t know who you are referring to in your first paragraph, I was responding to an anonymous post on this site not to any victims family. I guess shame on me for asking someone, who wont even give a name, to back up there claims. My heart goes out to the Shaw family, what they’re going through is just about the most fucked up thing that could happen to anyone.

    Thanks for the link to the article though. And I especailly like your description of gang bangers as having a “charmingly illiterate and sociopathically defiant verbal swagger” – it has a nice ring to it.

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