GRIM MESSAGE FROM L.A. POLICE

SOME CALL it the biggest scandal in the history of Los Angeles and it has
some application to most cities, including Winnipeg. The scandal is the
corruption and lawlessness within the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD),
described by critics as a story of malevolence and evil. I am not suggesting
for a moment that Winnipeg police can be tarred with the same brush.

In recent years, the image of Winnipeg police, in fact, has brightened with
the appointment of chiefs of integrity, sensitive to the community. Police
have a high rating in polls and face dirty and dangerous situations in their
service to the public. But as in most centres, there is a resistance to
outside independent investigation in cases of possible wrongdoing.

One lesson from the L.A. scandal is that there must be accountability for
abuse by police (for which there is a long history in L.A.) and that abuse
of any kind must not be tolerated. There must be an instrument of
independent civilian control, not to interfere with the day-to-day
operations of the police, but to act as a public watchdog with the authority
to deal with complaints.

No other service in the community has the authority of the police, a
pseudo-military force with the power to arrest and detain. This authority
must not be abused.

We know however that abuse does take place. The body that deals with
complaints in Winnipeg, the provincial Law Enforcement Review Agency, is not
effective, says Gordon Sinclair, Jr., Free Press columnist and author of
Cowboys and Indians, who keeps a vigilant eye on the local scene.

"It has no teeth," says Mr. Sinclair. "Rarely do complaints result in
justice for the public."

I found people were outraged and alarmed over police abuse in a recent visit
to L.A. Reports showed that the LAPD anti-gang units framed innocent people
and planted evidence to convict suspects.

In one case, police handcuffed a 19-year-old, shot him, them planted a rifle
on him to cover it up. The stories are hideous. After shooting a
21-year-old, police planted a gun on him. He bled to death while police
discussed strategy with a supervisor to cover it up.

Says the Los Angeles Times, discussing the culture of police violence: "An
organized criminal sub-culture thrived within the Los Angeles Police
Department, where a secret fraternity of anti-gang officers and supervisors
committed crimes and celebrated shootings by awarding plaques to officers
who wounded or killed people."

Some say the revelations throw new light on the bizarre acquittal of O.J.
Simpson. The jury accepted the defence argument that police had conspired to
frame an innocent man, despite overwhelming evidence that Simpson was guilty
of murder.

Joseph P. Charney, deputy district attorney and adjutant professor of law at
Loyola Law School, says those sworn to uphold the law have undermined the
200-year tenet of the justice system that "it is better to free 100 guilty
people than to unjustly imprison an innocent person."

Mr. Charney says: "The changing attitudes toward crime suppression and the
politics of prosecution have eroded protection against erroneous
conviction."

"By taking advantage of the public fear of crime," he says, "and the media's
infatuation with crime, opportunists have pushed through laws that increase
the danger of convicting the innocent."

One example is the brutal "three strikes law" which imposes life sentences
after a third conviction of even relatively minor offenses. An accused, even
though innocent, may plead guilty to a lesser charge offered by the
prosecution to make certain they escape a life term.

Says Mr. Charney: "What makes the three strike law even more likely to
result in an innocent man pleading guilty is that draconian sentencing can
be triggered by conviction on a minor drug charge."

The scandal has revealed that police have planted drugs to frame the
innocent. One issue today in L.A. is the make-up of the enquiry into the
scandal. Police in L.A., as in most centres, insist that only the police are
equipped to conduct investigations. It is patently absurd to have a body
accused of wrongdoing investigate itself. It happens in Winnipeg, too.

The media must play a part in exposing abuse. I think of the CBC's Fifth
Estate, which in a fine documentary revealed the attempts of the head of the
police association in Toronto to intimidate politicians and make the police
a political force-a dangerous move in a democratic society. It is
interesting to note that the Toronto Association went to the L.A. police for
advice.

Val Werier is a Winnipeg writer. His column appears on Thursdays.