Alex Villanueva LASD Los Angeles County Sheriff

Grieving Families Report Harassment From LASD Deputies, Civilian Oversight Commission Votes to Investigate

Jaylene Rea, sister of Paul Rea, an 18-year-old fatally shot by East LA deputies, gives testimony before the Civilian Oversight Commission.
Taylor Walker
Written by Taylor Walker

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Commission responsible for overseeing the LA County Sheriff’s Department unanimously voted to launch an inquiry into reports of harassment targeting families whose loved ones have been killed by sheriff’s deputies.

Those who spoke before the commission on the topic told stories of heavy LASD presence at their family members’ funerals and memorial sites. Deputies, they said, taunted those in attendance, made rude hand gestures, laughed and, in at least one instance, made arrests, as family and friends gathered to grieve their lost loved ones.  Many of these families who told of being targeted have protested the way their loved ones died, and filed lawsuits against the department.

The arrest of a grieving sister

Tuesday’s motion arrived in response to a joint letter from Black Lives Matter-LA, the ACLU of Southern California, and Centro Community Service Organization, which detailed one particular case as “part of a larger problem.”

The case the letter described pertained to Jaylene Rea whose brother, 18-year-old Paul Rea, was fatally shot by East LA deputies during a June traffic stop that turned into a physical altercation.

Four months after the shooting, on Oct. 30 of this year, Rea’s sister, Jaylene, was arrested by deputies from the East LA Sheriff’s station when she and other family members were gathered at her brother’s memorial site.

The day began when Jaylene and her family participated in a rally at LA’s Hall of Justice, where they attempted to present the department with a lawsuit regarding public access to law enforcement records.

That evening, the family members went on to the memorial site in order to create an ofrenda — an offering — for Paul, in preparation for Dia de los Muertos.

At around 10:45 p.m., according to the letter, and also Jaylene’s testimony to the COC, a patrol car bearing a deputy “making a rude hand gesture” rolled slowly past the memorial site. Half an hour later still, “several patrol cars” reportedly rolled up and proceeded to arrest two of Paul’s friends. Jaylene pulled out her cell phone and recorded the arrests.

A deputy reportedly told one of young men to put out the marijuana cigar he had been smoking. He extinguished the blunt, and then reached out to hand it to Jaylene so that officers could handcuff him. Because the officers did not try to take the blunt themselves, or give any commands, Jaylene said she accepted the blunt.

It was then that the deputies also arrested Jaylene.

According to the letter, a deputy who was reportedly “approximately 6 feet tall and weighed approximately 200 pounds, walked up behind Jaylene, who is just under 5 feet tall, grabbed her wrists and bent her arms upward behind her back, causing her to yell in pain and bend over to alleviate the tension on her arms.” This deputy then walked her over to a patrol car to search her. Yet, no officer ever asked Jaylene for the blunt that supposedly triggered the deputies’ actions.

Once in the patrol car, Jaylene said she kept asking the deputies where they were taking her, but they reportedly responded with answers to the effect of, “You’ll see when we get there.” At first, according to Jaylene, the deputy driver passed the East LA Sheriff’s Station, and took Rea briefly to a local hospital, before driving her to the station at around 1 a.m., where her family and ACLU lawyers had been waiting and worrying about her.

Despite the fact that Jaylene was to be cited for “obstruction” and released, deputies in the station said that she would have to wait overnight for an officer trained to take fingerprints during booking to arrive.

“My granddaughter was arrested at the exact same site [at which Paul was killed] for a petty misdemeanor,” Paul Rea’s grandmother, Irene Garcia, told the commission. She was forced to remain at the station “filled with deputies” overnight to wait for a deputy qualified enough to take fingerprints, she said.

When Jaylene was finally released at 7:00 a.m., she says she found the department had accessed her cell phone without permission and deleted the arrest recordings. (She was able to retrieve the recordings from the cloud.

It was not the first time officers had shown up to a memorial gathering in honor of her grandson, Irene Garcia said. She described a “slow-moving caravan” of six or seven law enforcement vehicles that drove past a gathering of family, friends, community leaders, and local clergy held “within 24 hours” of her grandson’s death. One deputy stuck her face out of the first car’s window and “waved with a grin,” she said.

“The grin was from ear-to-ear,” Garcia added.

“Pastors [in identifiable clothing] were clearly present there,” according to the grandmother. “The community was holding hands and praying … it was very clear why people were there,” she said, dismissing the idea that officers might have been concerned about the nature of the gathering.

If they had been concerned, she said, they would have exited their vehicles to ask questions.

“This caravan [of deputies] wasted county dollars … with immature and extremely unprofessional behavior,” Garcia said. “Their message was clear.”

“I’m scared for my other kids,” Leah Garcia, Paul’s mother, told the commission.

“The intimidation and harassment is real.” 

In addition to members of Paul Rea’s family, others who spoke before the commission reported similar treatment from deputies, treatment they said compounded their trauma.

Members of the LASD killed Lisa Vargas’s 21-year-old son, Anthony Vargas, who had allegedly pulled a gun from his waistband, on Aug. 12, 2018. This past June, an autopsy report revealed that deputies shot 11 bullets into Vargas’s body from behind.

“The intimidation and harassment is real,” said Anthony’s aunt, Stephanie Luna. “My family has been harassed, my sisters have been pulled over.” Her brother, Luna said, was pulled over on the way to work, and reportedly had to sit on the sidewalk for two hours in handcuffs while the deputies who pulled him over ate in their car.

The department, she said, requires hard evidence to substantiate complaints, but her family members felt they could not pull out their phones to record being followed while driving or being harassed after being pulled over. They were worried, she said, that deputies would “assume a phone in a pocket is a weapon.”

Luna’s sister, Valerie Vargas, shared a story of being followed by an unmarked police car from her mother’s house in East LA, onto the freeway, and into East Compton. She was so scared, she said, that she traveled two miles past her destination and pulled into a Walmart parking lot that she knew would be “full of cameras.”

“The whole time, I wanted to record,” she said. But she feared that taking out her cell phone in the car would give the officers reason to pull her over. Once in the Walmart parking lot, “I got out of my car and had my phone out, but the car sped away,” Vargas said. She didn’t catch a license plate, and “there was no unit number on the side” of the car. Vargas said she didn’t feel she could report the harassment to law enforcement at the East LA sheriff’s station, because, as was the case with Jaylene Rea, she believed that members of the station were the ones intimidating her family.

“Indeed, family members have feared that deputy sheriffs will taunt them, arrest them, or even physically hurt them,” stated Tuesday’s letter to the commission, “not because they have done something wrong, but simply because they have spoken publicly about their loved ones’ deaths and have sought transparency and accountability.”

The family members of 24-year-old Ryan Twyman reported similar treatment.

Twyman was killed on June 6, 2019, when deputies fired nearly three dozen rounds at two people in a reversing vehicle. At his funeral, according to his family, a slowly moving line of patrol cars passed Twyman’s service taunting the family and flipping them off. One deputy reportedly asked the family if he could take one of the memorial buttons bearing Ryan’s face that were worn by mourners.

“It’s torture for you to keep driving by us and laughing or smirking and flicking us off … every single chance y’all get,” Twyman’s girlfriend Davielle Johnson told the department members at the meeting.

“The thing that bothers me is that these are subtle actions,” — things like “making eyes, driving by, laughing at people,” said Paula Minor of Black Lives Matter.

These actions are “often not things that are generally considered crimes,” Minor said. Yet they are clearly meant as “harassment.”

 

OIG, LASD to investigate

Tuesday’s COC motion calls on Inspector General Max Huntsman, who was also present, to launch a formal inquiry into the reports of harassment occurring in the wake of deputies’ fatal uses of force. Huntsman is to report back to the commissioners in 60 days with his findings.

The motion also asks the LA County Sheriff’s Department to conduct its own formal investigation into the alleged harassment occurring specifically at the East Los Angeles and Century sheriff stations.

“The Commission recognizes that the LASD has been involved in numerous fatal uses of force in recent years,” the motion states. “Furthermore, the Commission also recognizes the concerns of various families who have reported post fatal use of force incidents of harassment from LASD patrol operations staff. This is a significant issue which requires a proactive and multifaceted response from both the OIG and the LASD.”

Some in the audience weren’t so sure the COC and the OIG could have any measurable effect.

The sheriff’s department “is running amok,” said Dignity and Power Now’s Reggie Bunch.

“And the Civilian Oversight Commission doesn’t have the disciplinary power to hold badly behaving department members accountable in the way that the Los Angeles Police Commission does.” Nor does the Office of the Inspector General, Bunch said, noting Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s recent move to criminally investigate IG Max Huntsman, after Huntsman ignored the sheriff’s threat that there would be consequences if he released a report about the rehiring of former deputy Carl Mandoyan that the sheriff didn’t want to get out. “We need to move swiftly to hold these sheriffs to account.”

The LASD was represented at the meeting by Assistant Sheriff Steven Gross, head of the department’s patrol operations, who said that the department takes all complaints against officers very seriously, and urged families bring their complaints forward.

But those at the meeting expressed fear of retribution and further traumatization by the sheriff’s department. In the case of the Rea family, the sheriff’s department found their official complaint about their treatment to be “unsubstantiated,” Jaylene said.

Gross, however, said he was concerned about the various accounts, and said the department would investigate the reports of deputies harassing families.

“It is not acceptable for any of our personnel to harass anybody. Period,” the assistant sheriff said. “If anyone was engaged in misconduct we would want to know about it, and we would want to hold them accountable.”

Program to help families after LASD shootings in the works

Interestingly, the call for this investigation comes as LA County works to roll out its new Family Assistance Program to improve the communication and trauma-informed support to families left behind after someone dies in custody or after officers use fatal force.

Earlier in the meeting, the sheriff’s department and the Department of Mental Health gave the COC a progress report on the program, which is offering services while the system is still in development. So far, however, all but one family has declined financial assistance from the county.

Weirdly, this is not surprising, said Dr. Miriam Brown, DMH’s Deputy Director of the Emergency Outreach Bureau. For one thing, in the immediate aftermath of such a crisis, families can find it hard to take in all the information they receive from county departments and services. In addition, some families preparing to sue the county have been advised by their lawyers not to accept help from the county, said Brown.

“I think once it’s understood — and the community trusts — that these services should not impact any kind of legal actions that they may take,” COC Chairperson Patty Giggans said, “I envision that there will be more families that will want to participate” in the Family Assistance Program, “as it evolves.”

Finally, near the meetings close, members of the oversight commission thanked the families for speaking up about their experiences.

“It does take courage,” Giggans said, “to speak truth to power.”


Image: Jaylene Rea, sister of Paul Rea, gives testimony before the Civilian Oversight Commission.

54 Comments

  • Cooooome on Celeste. You don’t buy this crap, do you?

    These people are not as important as they think they are. No deputy will go out of their way or even care to harass any of them. I guarantee you, if anyone followed them like they say they did, they would have had photos, license plates and videos of the incident. Please offer them the opportunity to take a polygraph on what they alleged that happened. If they pass, I’ll be their biggest advocate. The emphasis is on the “IF”.

  • OP, I think witness la really does believe it, or they’re unwilling to question even the most ridiculous claims. Much of these allegations are so over the top stupid, the story reads like bad satire. My favorite was from the mother who complained that the Sheriff station was full of Deputies. Printing something this stupid seems like either a cruel joke or someone (Taylor) trying very hard not to notice the obvious.

    Btw anyone who takes the Board seriously when they cry about loosing money in lawsuits is a fool. They are literally trying to give away money (in the form of trauma counseling) to people who are refusing to take it. Trauma counseling is not what these families are after, but it makes a good excuse to create a new bureaucracy.

  • The ELA Banditos are obviously in full effect.
    If they attack and harass fellow deputies, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that they harrassed the grieving families, chew on that.

  • On July 11 a Townhall was held in East LA. Guess who was there….? Diana Teran! This smells like one of her amateur tactics. It’s chess not checkers DT.

  • Celeste, spare us the crocodile tears. Both shootings involve armed, felony suspects violently resisting arrest. Funny how the Twyman family is alleging harassment, but they had no problem with gangsters doing a drive by and killing a bystander at their vigil. You can’t make up this idiocy.

    There is a reason the seats are always empty at the COC, but WitnessLA will never notice.

  • This whole article reeks with BS! It is amazing how these people are “crying wolf,” however there is no proof, to substantiate their baseless claims.

    All of us know that when the PoPo are coming down the street, these people are quick to whip out their cellular telephones to begin video recordings.

    This kinda reminds me of the current POTUS impeachment hearings. These people are looking for something, anything in order to get something in return.

    Just another charade by the BOS, BLM, ACLU, Dignity & Power Now to try and have the Sheriff’s Dept. be controlled by some liberal doooooosh bag.

  • Only in California. These people would sell their mom for a dollar and moment of attention. They are secretly happy they can cash in on their worthless relatives’ miserable demise at the hands of heroic law enforcement officers. Screw them and what they are doing to a once great state

  • I agree with all of these fine gentlemen, this article is BS. Everyone knows police officers are upstanding citizens. They do not molest children (wait, some are in prison for this. They thought the Cadet program was a singles club). They do not beat up people for no reason (wait, quite a number of fine, portly officers went to jail for this). They do not pick on blacks and brown people (wait, they were just caught doing this. Somehow their cars are just more suspicious). They do not submit fraudulent disability requests (wait, a few were caught doing this, waddling in the mud while claiming they had bad knees). They do not lie in court (wait, there is long-ass list of officers that cannot be trusted by the DA). They do not beat up other officers (Oh, shit, wait, I think this recently happened). They do not rape women (wait, I think one fine officers on his way to a fat pension just got busted for this). They do not smuggle drugs (Holy, shit, I think this, too, has happened). They do not drive drunk (Damn, I am running out of things they don’t do). They do not kill people (damn it, I think this was officer Solis).

    Yes, this cannot possibly be true. Been There is correct, these are heroic officers. Its take a hero to increase his girth riding around a car or motorcycle for 25 years and then cash a check as fat as them issued by the same people they whine about. That is heroic. They are heroes with the badges and guns, but nothing more than portly middle aged men angry at how the world has changed around them. Thank you heroes.

  • Here you are all alone in your view.

    All alone.

    Reminds me of the fact that in WWII 80% of the French population collaborated with the Nazi occupiers.

  • This is why we have courts to sort these things out. In a world filled with YouTube videos I find it UNBELIEVABLE that not in one instance was there any video?? I guess the government taxpayer paid cell phones weren’t working?

  • @cf…..once again, your responses are grammatically incorrect. Go back to school and take a remedial English class. This way, when you troll people, you do not look like an idiot (even though you are one).

    It is quite evident that you have a disdain for LEO’s (in case you no habla, LEO’s means Law Enforcement Officers). I am wondering if your disdain for law enforcement is due to a bad encounter with law enforcement? Or did you try to become an LEO and were not worthy of becoming an LEO? Or are you just one of those bitter, ignorant individuals who has nothing better to do than to troll / disparage LEO’s? Or, can it be that you drank the Kool Aid that the MSM, BLM, ACLU & other liberal doooosh bag orgs. are feeding you sheep?

    Those LEO’s who made an error in judgement and got caught, will have to live with that decision and certainly pay the cost of that error in judgement. However, I have more respect for those individuals because they initially stood for something. What do you stand for? What have you done in your miserable, pathetic, uneducated life that would be considered worthwhile? Is going on internet blogs and trolling LEO’s a worthwhile cause?

    Further, the people you claim to be a “social justice warrior” for, are people who have a history of negative interactions with law enforcement. Furthermore, these people will say or do anything negatively about law enforcement, so that they can try to reap any benefits out of their charade and or get sympathy from ignorant, bleeding heart, uninformed people, such ass yourself.

    Quit hiding behind your BS facade and man up (oops, forgot your #METOO) or woman up and stand up for something legitimate and worthwhile or just stand up.

  • Both the U.R.L. & the headline says “Ryan Twyman” & the whole link is about Twyman, put forth in response to your comment “the Twyman family is….”

  • “Try to pay attention.”

    The link “Anthony Vargas” in this story says “…And investigators now think Vargas was not involved in the robbery” that brought Deputies to the location in the first place.

  • Cf- for a second I thought that first paragraph was about every possible person in every walk of life. But then I read it again and saw that you singled out police officers.
    You keep talking about cops being very overweight and making good money. Good for them! They chose a correct path. Dont be mad that they have the money to eat steaks and large meals just because your crackhead body works at subway and all you can afford are $5 footlong sandwiches.

  • Do you have a point somewhere? If so please spell it out. It doesn’t matter whether or not the Bible studies Vargas was involved in the robbery or not, he was in the projects at midnight, where a crime was reported and deputies were doing their job. Perhaps you believe Vargas had the right to violently resist being detained while they investigated the robbery, while armed? Please do tell.

  • I apologize Celeste, I missed this garbage from your author:

    “Nor does the Office of the Inspector General, Bunch said, noting Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s recent move to criminally investigate IG Max Huntsman, after Huntsman ignored the sheriff’s threat that there would be consequences if he released a report about the rehiring of former deputy Carl Mandoyan that the sheriff didn’t want to get out. “We need to move swiftly to hold these sheriffs to account.”

    There is now a report Huntsman himself doesn’t want to get out, not that you would be interested in actual facts. You prefer the OIG spin, like pretending the criminal investigation was launched in retaliation for the amateurish Mandoyan report you love to refer to as “scathing.” Scathing is realizing the entire case was fabricated on fake evidence, but still moving forward with it as a political opportunity to shame the sheriff who defeated the BOS’ darling, McBuckles.

    Celeste, as time goes by your journalistic integrity keeps diminishing by the day. You need some serious soul searching. I notice you put all these articles together about nothing, yet when the LASD did their job in tragic consequences and made national news, you were curiously silent. As silent as the BOS, OIG, and COC when McNumbnuts was deporting undocumented inmates left and right and giving up the entire database to the feds for profit. As silent as the BOS, OIG, and COC when the Bandidos were running amok, getting into fights, sexually harassing trainees, and costing the taxpayer millions in settlements.

    Your silence condemns you.

  • Patty Rollman, I am beginning to think you may not like me. Thank you for telling me what “LEO” means. You are right, no habla porcine. I have no disdain for LEOs. I just think you are too full of yourselves and too regularly abuse your power, usually on the backs of black and brown people. I’m just calling a spade a spade. That hero bullshit flies in Simi Valley, but not around here. To answer your questions, I never tried to be an officer. Given that you have pedophiles on the force, I am sure my minor transgressions would not keep me off. And, you are correct, “those LEO’s who made an error in judgement and got caught, will have to live with that decision and certainly pay the cost of that error in judgement.” Key words are “got caught.” As you well know, you guys can get away with a lot, sometimes with murder. And, what you “pay” can be nothing, literally. And, I’d rather be a live porcine living with my “mistakes” than a dead brother. In any event, thank you for the English lesson. I appreciate it.

    Rat, You just told Patty to STFU. You remind me of one those officers who is too stupid to handle a gun and kills his partner. And then, because of that stupidity, someone stealing gum gets charged with felony murder. I think something like this just happened in Detroit, if I remember correctly. Makes you guys look like the Keystone Kops. Patty is probably old enough to remember those documentaries. Maybe you should STFU before you really hurt someone. Were you one of the LEOs, as Patty to calls them, that shot up the little pick up with too small middle aged Latinas thinking it was the big black wolf, Officer Dorner. You were so scared shitless you emptied 100 rounds on little Latina ladies because you saw a big black man around every corner.

    Now, let us move on.

    Skippy, there is no anger. I do not blame your ilk for taking the cushy job. Its there. And, you are correct, I do have a crackhead’s body, but I do not smoke it. Genetics and a job that keeps off my ass. Look, I do not blame the leach. Whether it is a LEO, as Patty calls them (I call them something else, by the way), or someone on food stamps, as long its there, people will take the welfare. Some deserve it, others do not. Some admit it, others think they are getting hero pay.

  • @ Keep Dreaming
    Previous checks from those who have silenced you has not slowed you down. I don’t know of any journalist without genuine haters such as yourself, are you in the Democratic Party?

  • CF, it occurs to me that the broad brush you wish to paint all of law enforcement with could be applied to you, and quite easily. As a profession, cops run towards things you run away from. Be honest with yourself.

  • Keep Dreaming, you have these superhero delusions. You do not run towards anything, at best, after 10 years on the job, you waddle, wheezing while holding on to things. How officers can get so fat, some obese, is beyond me. Do you not have fitness requirements. And, the only thing you run towards its that nice taxpayer-funded pension. You get paid to do a job, and paid well, so stop complaining.

  • Are we surprised that this is a systemic problem involving these Deputies. They just have the pass now. With the way the Department is being run by AV it’s on a downward spiral. Guess there is no more discipline on violent officers, as well as those who commit who commit other types of misconduct.

    The “few bad apples” theory of Deputy violence posits that a small portion of the Sheriff’s Deputies are bad or inclined to misconduct is a farce at LASD. They hire wife beaters, drunks.. guys convicted of assaults, drug charges and the rest of the dirt bags. LA County tax payer’s be ready.. The lawsuits are going to come flying. This is just the beginning of the shit show run by the BANDIDO Sheriff.

  • They both look to me as proactive policework. Cry me a river. I’m an employed taxpayer who demands my officers to stop and contact individuals. Deputies and other agencies need to publicize all the black on black crimes committed that’s on video surveillance. Since you’re such a social justice warrior, take a stand fix the black on black genocide that’s been going on in Chicago. GTFOH with your “ughhhhh, deputies are mean… They constantly stop people and question them”… Coooooome onnnnn.

  • Ohhh Puhhhleeez a.k.a Keep Dreaming a.k.a Um a.ka. AV’s spouse – Stop your lunatic conspiracy B.S – all that pent- up fury at Blacks. This shit show is a train wreck. I know you have a blindfold on you so you can’t see reality. AV’s absurd desire to play the “Sheriff”, his love to get his ego stroked assiduously, and frustration with the bordering realities of actual leadership, in the end will sink him.

    His only loyal KD -Spinning a combination of dishonesty, amorality, and cult-eyed tales about criminals running free while AV is out there telling the County that crime is down. You are willing to lie, then deny you lied, then deny that you denied about lying. You defend the usual panoply of indefensible acts of AV, colossal errors, grand and petit of disasters.

  • I really did like the first comment on that Twitter page. Thomas said he wasnt on probation or parole. He said he didnt even have his keys(they were inside his house.) Then how was he able to roll his window up. There you go, even lying to his friends. If he lies to his friends, I’m assuming he lies to anyone he meets.

  • Cf- So here is the reality of why LA is so fucked up
    1. The City and the County spend overwhelming % of their budget on Public safety.

    2. These so called hero’s rape both the City and the County of Los Angeles by taking maximum advantage of the system. They max out their pensions by working enormous OT hours right before retirement ( LAPD Drop Program ) and the Sheriff’s do it by maxing out OT too. Yes Garcetti, Hahn, Solis and Barger are part of the problem. They have no backbone. They talk a big game but is just a fallacy.

    3. These so called high school educated hero’s do not want anything to do with the City of the County they work in especially in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods. Once they are done they run as fast as possible to their gated neighborhoods in parts of Torrance, Santa Clarita or OC…. or like Villanueva in the hills away from his own people. They have a perception that Latino’s and Blacks are like animals and you know how animals are treated. All they want is their OT and yes their pension. That is all they care about.

    4. Once they retire they rape the system again. They move with their max pension to Idaho, Montana, and Texas. They are not Hero’s but vultures just trying to oppress Blacks and Latino’s. This is the reality.

    So the next time you think about why crime rates spike in Black or Latino youth, or the education system is sub par in Latino/ Black neighborhoods.. Here are your answers.

  • @415Enema

    For starters, EAD!

    Secondly, you sound more and more like an executive I know who’s all butt hurt because he too received the “Your services or lack of are no longer needed”

    AV could find the cure for cancer and your bitch ass will still bitch and complain. Where were you when your boy Mcstupid was destroying the department? Nowhere, because you were part the problem. Don’t come here and try to act like you’re some political expert or know how to run the department. You’re a complete failure along with the 5 other goofball friends or yours and aliases you have posting and hiding behind your keyboards. So tired or you fucking lame ass cowards taking pot shots from the bleachers. Man or woman the fuck up and address AV like a man. If you have a valid solution or a suggestion on making our department better, then say something to the one that will take action. After all, don’t we all want what’s best for our department? Let me hear your bullshit about how I’m an AV loyalist, I’m the same person as other aliases are, how i don’t know what im talking about, how you can run the department better, etc… Etc… Etc…..

  • So jethro you and cf can vote for the politician who runs on getting rid of cops, or at least reducing their number. Except there aren’t any of those politicians because the public desperately wants cops and is more than willing to pay up. Apparently they didn’t teach you girls that in your junior college gender studies class.

  • @Jethro – Whine, whine, whine….You think no one with a badge ever lived in a poor area? You think everyone hired to be a police officer or deputy sheriff is white and upper middle class and came on the job to oppress minorities? You could not be more wrong. And by the way, most cops have at least two years of college and many are college grads.

    Although this apparently does not apply to you, when most people get a job that affords them the ability to eventually move into a nicer home, that’s considered a good thing. The desire to provide your family a better life is universal. Why would you think cops would be any different? The same applies to retirement. Regardless of occupation, many people move from the state they have long worked in upon retiring. Particularly with the costs of living in Southern California, this is perfectly normal and not just applicable to law enforcement.

    Lastly, it appears that you sure don’t understand the role of the police. It is not the role of the police to live next door to you to prove that they care about the area they serve. It is not the role of the police to parent your kids. It is not the role of the police to provide children with a quality education; try the school system. You know who’s responsibility it is to rear children? The parents. While many cops wear a lot of hats and do a lot of mentoring work with kids off duty, the primary role of the police is to maintain order by enforcing the law. The County is far from perfect and agencies absolutely make hiring mistakes but your comments are way off base.

  • Prayers for the young Lakewood female deputy who was struck by a vehicle tonight while on duty. She’s in a coma with possible brain injury.

    Thank you Sheriff AV for being by her side the entire time. The Sheriff arrived immediately after the incident. That’s a true Sheriff who genuinely cares for his people.

    Piece of shit Mcdummy would have blown it off as he did several times when deputies got hurt.

  • CF…and what do you do, sit at a keyboard all day in your mother’s basement while smoking “medicinal weed” and eating fast food.

    Oh yeah….that’s the hallmark of a productive contributing lifeform…which you “ain’t” .

  • Agreed…for someone who “only attained the position of lieutenant, was watch commander at a station and lacks command experience”, Sheriff Villanueva seems to be handling his responsibilities in a responsible manner.

    Rule number one in being a good leadership:

    1. Genuinely care about the people you are in charge of.

    Wishing the best and all the support for the deputy’s speedy recovery.

  • Yep, I heard the Sheriff was at the hospital for a very long time with great concern. McDonut would have never have done that. In fact, McDonut would be more concerned with what politicians would be present and evaluate if its worth showing up or not. The board may not like this Sheriff, but I think if they knew his heart, they would be by his side. He truly cares for deputies and community members. Time will prove this.

    Prayers to the Lakewood Deputy. Stay strong!

  • Hell, if this happened under McDonnell, he would be by the deputy’s side with IAB investigators trying to make the deputy sign her ROD paperwork for some kind of policy violation.

  • Cf…..you forgot one. They do not lie on their fellow deputies while coaching witness and working in the grey to get other deputies fired. (But wait, I know several individuals this has happen to).

    People will never believe the corruption until it affects them and their own family.

  • This incident happened under McDonald, has nothing to do with Villanueva if the video hasn’t been see by him. Funny how the worl works, I warned people about this same station and no one listened.

  • This incident happened under McDonald, has nothing to do with Villanueva if the video hasn’t been see by him. Funny how things often work out, I warned people about this same station and no one listened.

  • Editor’s Note:

    Dear “cf,”

    I just deleted two of your comments. They’re so very loaded with hatred, which is good for exactly nobody. And they’re especially inappropriate when we’re all worried about a 25-year-old deputy who was critically injured last evening in the course of doing her job to protect and serve. Dial it back now, and in the future.

    Also, to some of the rest of the commenters who continue to use sexual images to criticize others, for the past couple of days, I’ve just been cutting the most offensive language. But, if you keep it up, I’ll just delete the comment.

    Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

    C.

  • Jethro: I can not be as eloquent as Take A Breath in response to ur idiotic tirade. I will say that I am enjoying my retirement in AZ away from the shit hole CA had become thanks to liberals like yourself. At some point there will be no one else left to blame because everyone who can is leaving the state. It’s all yours my friend enjoy it. Be careful what U wish for because u just might get it.

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