The Rampart Scandal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Rampart Scandal - Essay Example The LAPD's motto is 'To protect and serve' (Los Angeles Police Department, 2008). However, through numerous occasions involving corruption, obstructions of justice, racially motivated beatings and officers drug dealing, the city's police force's image has been tarnished and re-tarnished again and again as being recognized as an law enforcement agency unlike any other the country or the world has ever seen. Lawlessness as it would seem, has always been one of the key ingredients that keeps this law-enforcing agency a household name in the city of Los Angeles. The concept of a police department came after the city's second City Marshal Jack Whaling was murdered in 1853 (Los Angeles Police Department, 2008). His killer met his death at the hands of a bounty hunter, thus prompting the city's first chief, Dr. A.W. Hope to organize the Los Angeles Rangers. The Los Angeles Rangers volunteered to help the County Sheriff and Marshal. A white ribbon identified these new rangers, which had the words imprinted, "City Police - Authorized by the Council of Los Angeles (Los Angeles Police Department, 2008). The city's police department has always had a sen... Foster was mayor. The mayor saw it fit to lead a mob of people, which removed a criminal suspect from jail and hang him (Los Angeles Police Department, 2008). Mayor Foster was promptly reelected. Such actions were looked upon as normal, even praised at the times. However, an event such as this was just the fist step on a journey through the LAPD's history of its brand of no holds bar, Wild West type of judgment, when policing the community. Racial tensions between the LAPD and its constituents have seemed to be the social norm for the city Los Angeles. A look at a law in 1850 revealed that racial tension was protected under the state's statutes and was upheld by California's Supreme Court. According to Los Angeles Police Department, (2008), No black or mulatto person, or Indian, shall be permitted to give evidence in favor of, or against, any white person. Every person who shall have one-eighth part or more of Negro blood shall be deemed a mulatto and every person who shall have one-half of Indian blood shall be deemed Indian (p.1). Asian Americans suffered the same fate of persecution under the law, as this law extended to them as well. The racially motivated violence perpetuated in the city did nothing to reform the laws that governed the community. As more and more Chinese settled in the city looking for work on the railroads and in the mines, tension between White and Asian began to escalate at an alarming rate. The Los Angeles Massacre, which occurred on October 24, 1871, was believed to have been a dispute between two Chinese named Yo Hing and Sam Yuen (Los Angeles Massacre Site, 2004). The two men arguing led to Yo Hing being shot. The dispute continued in to the next day, as Officer Bilderrain