https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2020/08/31/whistleblower--deputy-killed-teen-to-join-department-s--gang--
Whistleblower: California Deputy Killed Teen to Join Department’s “Gang”
“It is very disturbing – to say the least – that gangs are commonly known to exist within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. These reports go to the heart of our concerns that the Sheriff’s Department promotes and harbors a culture of violence against the public. Make no mistake, we have every intention of conducting a thorough investigation into the potential involvement of any Sheriff’s Department gang in the shooting of Andres Guardado.”
More than a dozen deputies have matching tattoos and belong to a violent clique called the Executioners at the station, according to Deputy Art Gonzalez, who filed a whistleblower complaint regarding the Executioners in June.
“I now call them a gang because that’s what gangs do – they beat up other people,” Gonzalez said.
His sworn testimony obtained by Spectrum News is for a separate excessive force case filed against Los Angeles County. The deputies in the lawsuit are accused of “chasing ink” – slang for trying to impress the Executioners to join their group.
“There are parties after shootings. They call them ‘998 parties.’ Some people say it’s to celebrate the deputy is alive. Others say it’s to celebrate that they’re going to be ‘inking’ somebody.”
https://laist.com/latest/post/20200913/80222d039da6e2435bed1e10df36e367457cd4af
LAist Reporter Josie Huang Arrested While Covering Protest
Even as she was being thrown to the ground, Huang — who was wearing a lanyard with her press credential hanging from her neck — was recording the encounter. In video that continued to film after her phone was knocked from her hand, Huang can be heard repeatedly identifying herself as a reporter and shouting “KPCC” several times. You also can hear Huang yelling "you're hurting me" and crying out in pain.
The incident occurred outside St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, where the two deputies were being treated for gunshot wounds. Huang had just finished covering a 10 p.m. news conference by Sheriff Alex Villanueva and other department officials.
Sheriff’s officials allege that Huang, an award-winning journalist, obstructed justice. The department initially refused to provide details of what happened, but later, Deputy Juanita Navarro of the Sheriff's Information Bureau confirmed that deputies took Huang into custody on suspicion of obstruction of justice by "interfering with a lawful arrest." Huang said she was trying to document the arrest of a protester, an account in line with her video from the scene.
Navarro also said Huang "didn't have proper credentials," but she was clearly wearing press credentials around her neck. A tweet from the Sheriff’s Department at 2:19 a.m. Sunday includes a false claim that Huang did not identify herself as a journalist. Huang told deputies at least five separate times that she was a reporter and KPCC staffer in less than a minute, according to the recording.
