His Deputies Got Caught Forming Gangs, But L.A.'s Sheriff Is Too 'Busy' to Talk About It

[ripcord]

Source: Rolling Stone

Embattled Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva is refusing to comply with a subpoena from the county’s Civilian Oversight Commission to answer for alleged abuses of power, claiming he’s too “busy” to appear at a hearing this week. In a letter to the commission, obtained by Rolling Stone and embedded below, Villanueva offers no legal justification for flouting the commission, insisting only that he’s “booked for the entire day.”

The COC is seeking to question Villanueva about allegations that LASD has undertaken politically motivated criminal investigations of the sheriff’s critics in local government. The COC is also examining the scandal of alleged violent deputy gangs within LASD, which, according to an official report issued last week, have been actively recruiting on Villanueva’s watch.

The executive director of the COC, attorney Brian K. Williams, blasts the county’s top law enforcement officer for not following the rule of law. “He seems to think that it is optional. That’s not our view,” Williams tells Rolling Stone. “The law gives us the authority to subpoena the sheriff, and we’re going to have to take steps to make him comply.”

Williams insists that Villanueva’s stated reason, that his schedule is full, “is not a valid excuse.” Reached for comment, LASD Captain John Satterfield says Villanueva has a legal justification for his refusal to comply with the subpoena, but would not share it. “Under advice of counsel,” he said, “we are unable to comment further at this time.”


Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/los-angeles-sheriff-alex-villanueva-deputy-gangs-1230070/

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Los Angeles County just can't vote in a decent Sheriff, the reasoning of the Sheriff and his people in the article is just mind boggling in its stupidity.

[Chainfire]

1. Brown Shirts

That is what we are coming to.

[ColinC]

2. damn. like literally too...

[Scalded Nun]

3. These people are reprehensible

Maybe he won't be too busy if he is in jail (if that is an option) or out on the street after having been fired. And all those fucking gang-banger cops need to be shown the door as well. This will never get better until someone in authority actually starts doing something about this.

[stillcool]

4. constitutional sheriff?

Sheriffs Helped Lead This Insurrection
Sheriffs play a key role in right-wing white supremacist movements.
BY JESSICA PISH
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/constitutional-sheriffs-white-supremacists-capitol-riot-insurrection.html
The sheriff, long a staple of “good old boy” culture, the lawman who can claim democratic authority, is a natural ally.
Ninety percent of American sheriffs are white men, and in recent years they’ve become strongly affiliated with white supremacist groups. Across the country, sheriffs have declared that they will not enforce laws they deem “unconstitutional,” like COVID-19 public health orders or gun laws limiting weapons possession and permits. Their influence has only grown since the pandemic began, as mask wearing became affiliated with progressive liberals and a bare face was a sign of Trump support. Trump has always had an affinity with sheriffs. He met with more sheriffs at the White House than any other president and pardoned ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt of court for failing to abide by a nondiscrimination order, calling him an “American patriot.”

Sheriffs have also played a key role in nurturing extrajudicial militia movements, joined by a united interest in gun rights and masculine grievance. This “gun populism,” as associate professor Jennifer Carlson calls it, has been embraced by far-right Trump supporters, who have dubbed themselves “patriots.” Their adherents tend to be middle-class white men who support law enforcement while, at the same time, promoting a militaristic view of the world that supports violence and rejects professional expertise. The sheriff, long a staple of “good old boy” culture, the lawman who can claim democratic authority, is a natural ally.

====================================

But the constitutional sheriff movement has explicitly white supremacist roots. When the Supreme Court held in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation was unconstitutional, county sheriffs were among the Southern officials who defied the court’s decision. They claimed that, in fact, desegregation was unconstitutional and invoked a legal theory called “interposition,” which argues that states can independently decide federal laws are unconstitutional and nullify them.

The Supreme Court held that interposition was not a valid legal theory in 1958, but that hasn’t stopped the constitutional sheriff movement from using it as a tool to delegitimize state and federal governments. Sheriff Richard Mack, who founded the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association—the largest constitutional sheriff organization with a membership of some 400 sheriffs—revived the idea of interposition, telling NPR, “Sheriffs standing for freedom have the responsibility to interpose … wherever anybody is trying to diminish or violate the individual rights of our counties.”


This is precisely what the rioters who stormed D.C. wanted. Yes, they were fueled by misinformation. But they also felt justified to commit violent acts in public, bare-faced and on camera, because, in their eyes, the laws they were breaking weren’t real. Two days after the riot, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association issued a statement exonerating Trump and pushing the debunked claim that antifa (the shorthand for militant anti-fascist activists) was responsible for the violence.

[Bayard]

5. Taking his cue from TFG

No doubt, his hero.

[bsiebs]

6. Asshole ran as a dem...

Total fake asshole. The worst kind of politician…. Nothing but a total fraud

[oasis]

7. Hold his feet to the fire.

And keep it there.

[PaulRevere08]

8. Why do we even still have sheriffs? Isn't cattle rustling way down these days?