Category Archives: LAPD

Pete White V. City Of Los Angeles — Plaintiff Files Four Motions And A Declaration To Exclude Prejudicial Evidence That The City Wants To Present — Including Some Nonsense About Pete White Swearing After His Arrest Which The City Laughably Claims Shows “What The Officers Had To Deal With”

July 17, 2018 Mike Leave a comment

If you’re interested, here is the soundtrack to this evening’s post.

If you recall, Pete White filed suit against the City of Los Angeles in May 2017. The issue is that the LAPD arrested him for lawfully videotaping them interacting with homeless people on Skid Row in 2016, and you can find a generous selection of the pleadings here on Archive.Org. Not much has been happening with the case recently, but this afternoon, a whole bunch of motions and a declaration in support hit PACER and moved me to write this post.

The four motions are so-called motions in limine, which is to say that they’re asking the judge, James Otero, to exclude certain evidence that the City of Los Angeles is insisting on presenting at trial. There’s also a declaration by plaintiff’s attorney Catherine Sweetser explaining the course of negotiations between the parties with respect to the evidence. Here are links to the documents and brief descriptions. Turn the page for a transcription of one of the motions.

↪ Motion to exclude evidence of past arrests

↪ Motion to exclude evidence of past lawsuits

↪ Motion to exclude defendants’ bodycam evidence — This is technically interesting. The plaintiffs actually want to have the cops’ bodycam evidence introduced, but the cops won’t let them see it in advance because they claim it’s privileged. If I understand the issue correctly, and I probably don’t, the claim is that if the City won’t let the plaintiffs see it in advance it can’t be introduced at trial.

↪ Motion to exclude evidence of plaintiff’s cursing — This is both the most trivial and the most interesting to me of the four motions. Evidently Pete White told the arresting officer that he was a piece of shit for arresting him. The City wants to present this evidence to the jury because it illustrates “what the officers had to deal with.” To me it illustrates the shockingly low level of maturity and professionalism to be found among some LAPD officers, not to mention their implausible claim that being called names by people is somehow strange, unusual, unprecedented. They’ve had decades to get used to it, after all.

↪ Declaration of Catherine Sweetser — Here one of the plaintiff’s attorneys explains what the City thinks this evidence means and gives various other reasons in support of its exclusion. This is the most essential item if you’re only going to read one.
Continue reading Pete White V. City Of Los Angeles — Plaintiff Files Four Motions And A Declaration To Exclude Prejudicial Evidence That The City Wants To Present — Including Some Nonsense About Pete White Swearing After His Arrest Which The City Laughably Claims Shows “What The Officers Had To Deal With” →

Business Improvement Districts, LAPD

Annals Of LAPD Spying — Sometimes Protesters Don’t Get Permission From The Cops For Their Protests — And Sometimes The Cops “Monitor” Social Media To Uncover Protesters’ Plans — And Sometimes The Cops Share This Information With The Department Of Homeland Security — Not To Mention With Business Improvement Districts — Who Are No Strangers To Creepy-Ass Social Media Spying Themselves — So Watch What You Say On Facebook, Friends, If You Don’t Want A Bunch Of Unanticipated Cops Showing Up!

June 1, 2018 Mike Leave a comment

This is just a short note to discuss this email chain, which I recently received from the Historic Core BID as part of the fruits of a public records act request.¹ It seems that last year, some group called Code Pink was planning a protest in Pershing Square on April 29, 2017² and they did not ask the permission of the LAPD. Even more interestingly it seems that the LAPD has officers dedicated to “monitoring social media” who track this kind of thing.

And one of them, James Baker, emailed a bunch of his fellow polices on April 22, 2017, to fill them in on the upcoming reign of anarchy Downtown. He mentioned explicitly that Code Pink was not cooperating with the LAPD, that there was no discussion of any civil disobedience, and that his officers would “continue to monitor social media for updates.”

Also interesting is the fact that four of the recipients were with the Department of Homeland Security.³ Another was Senior Lead Officer Michael Flanagan, who turned around and emailed batty little fusspot Blair Besten of the Historic Core BID, Brian Raboin of the Downtown Center BID, and Banyon Hutter of Allied Universal Security.

The record doesn’t show what,if anything, the BIDs did with the information, but it’s worth keeping in mind that this is happening. If you’re an activist, if you use social media to coordinate your events, don’t forget that the cops are reading it too, the BIDs are reading it, BID security is reading it, and they’re all coordinating with each other. Plan accordingly. Turn the page for transcriptions of the whole email chain and some additional discussion.
Continue reading Annals Of LAPD Spying — Sometimes Protesters Don’t Get Permission From The Cops For Their Protests — And Sometimes The Cops “Monitor” Social Media To Uncover Protesters’ Plans — And Sometimes The Cops Share This Information With The Department Of Homeland Security — Not To Mention With Business Improvement Districts — Who Are No Strangers To Creepy-Ass Social Media Spying Themselves — So Watch What You Say On Facebook, Friends, If You Don’t Want A Bunch Of Unanticipated Cops Showing Up! →

LAPD

Robert Arcos, Candidate For LAPD Chief, Not Only Used To Run With The CRASH Unit Back In The Rampart Scandal Days, But As Of 2015 He Was Still Attending CRASH Alumni Reunions At The Freaking City Club Of Los Angeles

April 11, 2018 Mike Leave a comment

If you’re reading this blog you probably care about Los Angeles. And if you care about Los Angeles you probably know about the Rampart Scandal. And if you know about the Rampart Scandal, you probably know about Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, better known, of course, in the weirdo heavily-armed-frat-boy culture of the LAPD, as CRASH.

And if you know about all that stuff… well, maybe you still don’t know, because I didn’t, that many CRASH alums have moved on to bigger and better things in the LAPD. For instance, our old friend Peter Zarcone, late of Hollywood Division but now cracking skulls for the man out on 77th Street, was in CRASH. And not only him, but also Deputy Chief Robert “Bobby” Arcos, now running for Chief of the whole damn show, used to run with the CRASHies.

And it’s a legit question, really, how it was that he was a senior lead officer back in the day, and all his subordinates¹ were out stealing cocaine and falsifying evidence and beating suspects within an inch of their lives and whatever else it was that they got up to out there in the Rampart Division, and he had no clue that any of this was going on? It kind of sheds a negative light on his leadership ability, does it not?² Is this the guy we want running the LAPD?

And it’s not even like Bobby Arcos has left the bad old days behind. The inspiration for this post is an email I just received from the LAPD.³ It’s from long-time Zarcone wingman Alex Baez organizing a reunion of CRASH officers to be held in 2015 at the City Club of Los Angeles. Zarcone was invited, and Chief-to-be Arcos was invited as well.

The email is pretty amusing, what with the detailed dress code of the City Club that everyone’s going to have to adhere to, and there’s a transcription after the break as always. But what’s more interesting is why Bobby Arcos thought those bad old days in CRASH were something to get together with friends and drinks and reminisce about. It doesn’t sound much like he’s moved beyond, does it? If I were going to hire him as Chief, I’d want him to come totally clean about what happened back then, what he knew and when he knew it, and so on. And I’d want him to quit going to the damn reunions.
Continue reading Robert Arcos, Candidate For LAPD Chief, Not Only Used To Run With The CRASH Unit Back In The Rampart Scandal Days, But As Of 2015 He Was Still Attending CRASH Alumni Reunions At The Freaking City Club Of Los Angeles →

Central City East Association, LAPD

MK.Org World Exclusive News Flash!! LAPD Deputy Chief Robert Arcos Announces That He Will Be Applying To Replace Charlie Beck As Chief Of The LAPD

February 22, 2018 Mike Leave a comment

I’m not a reporter, and I don’t seek out news, but once in a while, like the hog in the adage, I stumble across what seems to my amateur sensibilities to be an actual news story. And that’s exactly what happened this morning at the February Board meeting of the Central City East Association when LAPD Deputy Chief Robert Arcos, in response to a characteristically sycophantic question from CCEA Executive Directrix Estela Lopez, announced that he will be applying to replace soon-to-be-retired Charlie Beck as chief of the LAPD.

I recorded the whole meeting,¹ and you can watch the exchange between Estela Lopez and Robert Arcos starting here. You can read a transcription of the important parts after the break.² And remember, you read it here first!
Continue reading MK.Org World Exclusive News Flash!! LAPD Deputy Chief Robert Arcos Announces That He Will Be Applying To Replace Charlie Beck As Chief Of The LAPD →