The Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart CRASH unit was established in the 1990s to deal with the gang problems facing the city. CRASH stood for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums which was an anti-gang unit of police officers. There were around seventy officers involved in the Rampart CRASH unit that were a part of the scandal that took place, making the LAPD Rampart scandal one of the largest police corruption scandals that happened in the United States. Within the scandal many officers were responsible for unnecessary shootings and beatings along with false evidence claims and stealing, and many more. This feared many in communities to be afraid of officers and what they could do. As a part of the CRASH unit the officers
…show more content…
An undercover officer by the name of Frank Lyga shot and killed an off duty officer in what was found out to be due to road rage. Lyga was a white man who shot an African American off duty officer, which made news everywhere. Lyga said that he was threatened with a gun and he was just defending himself. After a look into the case, Lyga was found not responsible, nor was the incident racially motivated. Although, the off duty officer was later known to participate in other road rage incidents, and that he had ties to Death Row Records. Later that year in November of 1997 a bank in Los Angeles was robbed. The bank manager was suspicious and during her interview confessed saying that her boyfriend who was an officer was in charge of it. He never said where the money was after he was convicted and while in prison was associating himself with a gang by the name of Mob Piru Bloods. This gang was to be associated with Death Row Records. Currently it seems like the officers who were a part of this unit began to associate themselves with the gang life. Such as working for the Death Row Records label at security guards even though the label was seen to be affiliated with gang …show more content…
These Rampart CRASH officers socialized themselves with other CRASH officers and with the gangsters and gang units that they were supposed to engage with on a daily basis. These officers learned to socialize with these gangs and to do that they had to become one with that gangster and street life lifestyle. Every single day when you are around that type of environment you learn to become one with that environment. This is what most likely led to these officers becoming corrupt and participating in criminal acts. These officers wanted to be more like the gangsters they were trying to keep off the streets. Once they saw the type of life they would have such as the amount of money and extra things these gangster had they began to adopt that lifestyle. Then each officer wanted to be included and like the next so they all began to participate in this
An undercover officer by the name of Frank Lyga shot and killed an off duty officer in what was found out to be due to road rage. Lyga was a white man who shot an African American off duty officer, which made news everywhere. Lyga said that he was threatened with a gun and he was just defending himself. After a look into the case, Lyga was found not responsible, nor was the incident racially motivated. Although, the off duty officer was later known to participate in other road rage incidents, and that he had ties to Death Row Records. Later that year in November of 1997 a bank in Los Angeles was robbed. The bank manager was suspicious and during her interview confessed saying that her boyfriend who was an officer was in charge of it. He never said where the money was after he was convicted and while in prison was associating himself with a gang by the name of Mob Piru Bloods. This gang was to be associated with Death Row Records. Currently it seems like the officers who were a part of this unit began to associate themselves with the gang life. Such as working for the Death Row Records label at security guards even though the label was seen to be affiliated with gang …show more content…
These Rampart CRASH officers socialized themselves with other CRASH officers and with the gangsters and gang units that they were supposed to engage with on a daily basis. These officers learned to socialize with these gangs and to do that they had to become one with that gangster and street life lifestyle. Every single day when you are around that type of environment you learn to become one with that environment. This is what most likely led to these officers becoming corrupt and participating in criminal acts. These officers wanted to be more like the gangsters they were trying to keep off the streets. Once they saw the type of life they would have such as the amount of money and extra things these gangster had they began to adopt that lifestyle. Then each officer wanted to be included and like the next so they all began to participate in this