The Sunday “Raid” in the Park, the LAPD….and Jamiel’s Law.

An alarming story was careening around the web all day Monday.

It began on Mayor Sam’s site, in a post by Althea Shaw, Jamiel Shaw’s aunt.

Several commenters here noted it. Then by afternoon Ron Kaye had the story. And it migrated quickly still further.

The story portrays what sounds like a case of abuse of authority and possible political vengeance on the part of the LAPD, all of which Althea Shaw writes that she saw occur at Leimert Park on Sunday.

Here are the relevant ‘graphs:

Sunday, August 17th, the Los Angeles Police Department (Southwest Division), Sanitation Department, Parking Enforcement, General Services, the Health Department, Motorcycle Officers and a Helicopter, raided Leimert Park located on the corner of 43rd Place and Crenshaw Blvd. Leimert Park is a well-known park in the black community.

Every Sunday, The Shaw Family and supporters of Jamiel’s Law, come to Leimert Park from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., to get signatures to put Jamiel’s Law on the March 3, 2009 ballot. We have our Jamiel’s Law T-shirts on and we have Jamiel’s Law petitions. We started doing this June 29th and we have been there every Sunday.

We usually barbecue and give away free hot dogs, chips and sodas, as a way of saying, “Thank You”, to the people supporting us. But today, the family had a party for Thomas (the younger brother of murdered victim, Jamiel Shaw, II), at a different location, so we just had drinks and chips for the kids.

Suddenly, the park was surrounded with Los Angeles Police Officers. Some in plain clothes and some in uniform. At least 7 or 8 black and white cars and a couple of police vans, if not more. They started with our family. Asking for identification and asking for our social security numbers. We showed our identification, but we refused to give our social security numbers to the Police Officer. The officer was not happy with this and said, “You know, I could give you a ticket for blocking the sidewalk”.

The post goes on to say the Shaw family was targeted in particular and that some officers even told the family that “they” are trying to “shut you guys down.”

There’s a lot more— including photos—if you follow the link.

I found the story perplexing.

On one hand, I could imagine a cop or two doing and saying something stupid. It happens. But the notion of a large LAPD-led multi-agency task force descending for crass political reasons to shut down the Shaws for gathering petition signatures…. Let’s just say, it seemed unlikely.

Still, Ms. Shaw’s report was very detailed, plus she had photos.

So I decided to check it out.

Leimert Park is located in the area policed by the Southwest Division of the LAPD. I called the division Monday night and spoke to Southwest’s watch commander for the evening, a Lt. Art Sandoval.

(As I tell my journalism students, when in doubt, always call the on-duty watch commanders. They’re usually well informed, plus they’ll likely talk to you.)

When I said, why I was calling, Lt. Sandoval sighed unhappily. He said he’d gotten a gazillion calls from all over the country on this issue. (Except that the didn’t say “gazillion.”)

“The truth is this. There was no raid,” he said. “None of our officers made contact with the Shaw family. We were there because there was a street faire going on in the park, and we always send officers over when there are street fairs. ”

But there definitely wasn’t a raid, and certainly no officers went around asking for social security numbers, he said. “I worked that Sunday, and we never got any calls from people, no complaints. Nothing at all.”.

I asked if Lt. Sandoval had actually seen any of the online stories, that they seemed pretty credible. He said he hadn’t and asked where he could find one. I recited Mayor Sam’s URL.

There was the sound of typing on a keyboard then:

“Well, you see, that’s not us,” the Lieutenant said, a somewhat relieved, eureka-ish tone in his voice. “Look at the third photo down. Those are our guys, but they’re just by their cars. They’re not doing anything.”

We looked at the photos together. Indeed, upon closer inspection, there was only one photo of LAPD officers, standing near to their black and white’s, obviously taken from a distance.

There were, however, photos of other cops. “Those aren’t LAPD. They’re General Service Police Officers,” said Sandoval. “They patrol the parks. They’re there every day. That’s their job.”

I stared at the snapshots again. Sandoval was right. All of the other police vehicles and officers in Ms. Shaw’s photos appeared to be from the General Service cop shop.

I thanked Lt. Sandoval and said I would call the General Service people.

“Okay, thanks for at least trying to get to the truth,” he said. “It’s bad enough that we get blamed for what we did do. I wish we didn’t also get blamed for what we didn’t do.”

Next I called the office of the General Service police, and got their Watch Commander, a Lt. Butell. “Well, we did have an Illegal Vender Task Force there on Sunday,” he said.”It was a multi-agency thing, but I can tell you, we weren’t the lead agency.”

So, who was?

“I wasn’t there that night. It was my wedding anniversary.”

I wished him a happy anniversary, and asked if he thought it was possible that his cops would go around asking people for their social security numbers.

“They could have. It could be a method of IDing someone if they didn’t have ID on them.”

So what would have triggered this “task force?”

Someone would have had to request it,” said Butell.

Like whom?

He reeled off a long list different possibilities including parks and rec, and the City Attorney’s office. (The one LA agency he did not name was the LAPD.) Butell said that such a street vender task force was an ordinary affair that can be triggered in any number of ways.

“I wish I had more information,” said Lt. Butell. “If you call back in the morning, I’m sure someone can answer the rest of your questions.”

So does somebody have a vendetta against the Shaws and their cause? Well, some further digging at the General Service Police office during the daylight hours might get some more answers.

(In fact one or two calls made before this thing started boomeranging across the web might have been a prudent choice.)

Unfortunately, I can’t follow-up on Tuesday as I’ll be in wall-to-wall meetings.

But someone should—and could.

How about, say, somebody at Mayor Sam’s or maybe Ron Kaye?

Or you, dear readers.