Pubdate: Sun, 13 Feb 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Matt Lait, Los Angeles Times

L.A. COPS' TATTOOS UNIFY, DIVIDE

Skull image reflects a dubious brand of policing, critics say

LOS ANGELES -- Former Officer Rafael Perez and nearly a dozen others in the
Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart CRASH anti-gang unit were tattooed
with an ominous insignia that some say symbolized their dubious brand of
policing.

The officers, many of whom have been relieved of duty in connection with the
department's ongoing corruption investigation, had themselves tattooed with
the image of a grinning skull with demonic eyes, several officers involved
in the unit said. Atop the skull is a cowboy hat adorned with a police
badge. Fanned out behind it are four playing cards -- aces and eights -- the
so-called dead man's hand.

The tattoos are versions of patches that still more officers wear on their
jackets. Such images are not confined to the Rampart division or the CRASH
unit.

Many of the LAPD's specialized units sport some sort of menacing logo, such
as that of the controversial Special Investigation Section, a cloaked man
armed with a dagger. The insignias are hardly a secret among departmental
supervisors.

Even amid the scandal, the Rampart CRASH logo remains prominently displayed
in the equipment and gift shop at the LAPD's Academy near Dodger Stadium.

"They know full well about it," said one former Rampart CRASH officer,
adding that the patches were part of the militaristic, tough-guy image that
department officials wanted their anti-gang and some other specialized
officers to have.

"That's what they wanted -- and that's what they got," the former CRASH
officer said.

Critics, some of them officers, say that wearing the tattoos and patches is
a sign that the CRASH officers adopted some of the behavior and
characteristics of the gangs they were supposed to police.

"It seems as if they are carrying the law enforcement mission far away from
its purposes and roots, and (it) smacks of lawless, cowboy vigilante
behavior," said Los Angeles attorney Merrick J. Bobb, special counsel to the
county Board of Supervisors and a nationally recognized expert on police
misconduct.

Tattoos, patches, law enforcement cliques and clubs are not uncommon among
police agencies throughout the country, experts say. At the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Department, some deputies get tattoos to signify their
association with unsanctioned, departmental "clubs" known by such macho
monikers as the Pirates, Vikings, Rattlesnakes and Cavemen.

When the controversial tattoos and clubs in the Sheriff's Department were
made public in a Los Angeles Times article last year, LAPD officials
insisted that no such practices existed within their agency.

Friday, Cmdr. David J. Kalish, the LAPD's spokesman, said he understood how
such tattoos as the Rampart skull might be perceived by the public as a
problem.

"Often times these are innocent mascots or symbols that may create the wrong
perception," he said.

Joseph D. McNamara, former chief of the San Jose (Calif.) Police Department
and a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, said
insignias such as the Rampart CRASH tattoo serve only to drive a wedge
between the community and the department.

"It's part of the war mentality. They have a total contempt for the people
in the neighborhoods they police," said McNamara, author of the forthcoming
book Gangster Cops: The Hidden Cost of America's War on Drugs.

"It's a macho bonding thing," said another former CRASH officer. That
officer, who worked the anti-gang unit in Pacific Division, elected not to
wear his unit's patch, a gun-toting shark. "It was stupid," he said.

The tattoos are a show of camaraderie among officers faced with one of the
most demanding jobs in the department, one former CRASH officer said.

"It's not a touchy-feely unit. You're putting your life on the line more
than just about anybody else out there," he said.

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MAP posted-by: Don Beck