Rampart scandal

The LAPD Rampart scandal refers to widespread corruption in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division in the late 1990s. More than 70 police officers either assigned to or associated with the Rampart CRASH unit were implicated in some form of misconduct, making it one of the most widespread cases of documented police misconduct in United States history, responsible for a laundry list of offenses including unprovoked shootings, unprovoked beatings, planting of false evidence, frameups, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and the covering up of evidence of these activities.

The Rampart investigation, based mainly on statements of CRASH officer Rafael Pérez, also known as Ray Lopez, an admitted corrupt policeman, initially implicated over 70 officers of wrongdoing. Of those officers, enough evidence was found to bring 58 before an internal administrative board. However, only 24 were actually found to have committed any wrongdoing, with 12 given suspensions of various lengths, 7 forced into resignation or retirement, and 5 terminated. As a result of the probe into falsified evidence and police perjury, 106 prior criminal convictions were overturned. The Rampart scandal resulted in more than 140 civil lawsuits against the city of Los Angeles, costing the city an estimated $125 million in settlements.

Rampart

Rampart may refer to:

It may also refer to:

Places

Los Angeles

Los Angeles (ⁱ/lɒs ˈændʒəlᵻs/ loss AN-jə-ləs or loss AN-jə-liss) (Spanish for "The Angels"), officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the second-largest city in the United States after New York City, the most populous city in the state of California, and the county seat of Los Angeles County.

Situated in Southern California, Los Angeles is known for its mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, sprawling metropolis, and as a major center of the American entertainment industry. Los Angeles lies in a large coastal basin surrounded on three sides by mountains reaching up to and over 10,000 feet (3,000 m).

Historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was officially founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood. The city experienced rapid growth with the discovery of oil.

The Real

The Real refers to that which is authentic, the unchangeable truth in reference both to being/the Self and the external dimension of experience, also referred to as the infinite and absolute—as opposed to a reality based on sense perception and the material order.

In psychoanalysis

Lacan

For Jacques Lacan, the order of the real is not only opposed to the imaginary but is also located beyond the symbolic. Unlike the symbolic, which is constituted in terms of oppositions such as "presence" and "absence", there is no absence in the real. The symbolic opposition between "presence" and "absence" implies the possibility that something may be missing from the symbolic, the real is "always in its place: it carries it glued to its heel, ignorant of what might exile it from there." If the symbolic is a set of differentiated signifiers, the real is in itself undifferentiated: "it is without fissure." The symbolic introduces "a cut in the real," in the process of signification: "it is the world of words that creates the world of things." Thus the real emerges as that which is outside language: "it is that which resists symbolization absolutely." The real is impossible because it is impossible to imagine, impossible to integrate into the symbolic order. This character of impossibility and resistance to symbolization lends the real its traumatic quality.

LAPD Rampart Division

The Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) serves communities to the west of Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) including Silverlake, Echo Park, Pico-Union and Westlake, all together designated as the Rampart patrol area. Its name is derived from Rampart Boulevard, one of the principal thoroughfares in its patrol area. The original station was located at 2710 West Temple Street. It has since moved southeast to a newer facility located at 1401 West 6th Street, the site of the former Emergency Receiving Hospital. With 164,961 residents occupying a 5.4-square-mile (14 km²) area, Rampart is one of Los Angeles's most densely populated communities.

History of Rampart Division

The Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Rampart Division (#02) was created in October 1966. It was formed from portions of LAPD’s Central, Wilshire, University (now Southwest), and Hollywood Areas. William H. Parker was the Chief of Police at the time, and he stated that the new Rampart Division was needed to decrease the span between the Metropolitan, Hollywood, and Wilshire Areas. Several locations for the original station were considered before the Rampart Heights area was finally chosen in 1961. In 1963, the property at the southwest corner of Temple St and Benton Way was obtained, and construction began in December 1964. The total cost of the site, design, construction, equipment and furnishings was $1,419,397.