RAMPART SCANDAL DOESN'T SHOCK NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENTS

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Some Rampart residents said Saturday that they've
always distrusted the LAPD, even before Rafael Perez revealed rampant
corruption within the ranks.

A day after the former officer, whose confessions broke open the worst
police corruption scandal in the city's history, was sentenced, some
residents of the mostly Hispanic, lower middle-class neighborhood said
they've been accustomed to police misconduct.

"We don't like the police around this area. They're very
discriminatory," said Raymond Lopez, a hairdresser who's worked in the
neighborhood west of downtown for 15 years.

"If they see you in a good car they stop you. You're brown, so how can
you have that car?" the 40-year-old said.

Added Guillermina Garibay, a cosmetologist and Lopez's co-worker,
"Police are corrupt everywhere. The difference is here people are
talking about it."

As part of a plea bargain, Perez was sentenced Friday to five years in
prison for cocaine theft. During months of cooperation with
prosecutors, he has admitted to framing people, doctoring crime scenes
and lying in court.

He has implicated many fellow officers in the Rampart station's
specialized anti-gang division. The neighborhood is 7.9 square miles
with 272,000 residents, overwhelmingly Hispanic. Most business owners
are Korean.

At least 21 officers have been relieved of duty, resigned or been
fired in the wake of the scandal. Another 70 are under investigation
in an ongoing probe.

Forty criminal convictions have been reversed because of Perez's
testimony.

Some Rampart residents and business owners said in interviews Saturday
that gang activity has decreased along the busy, shop-lined streets of
their neighborhood. They thanked officers for doing a good job.

"It is much safer now ... nobody bothers me," said Sergio Ruiz, who
has sold tacos and sweet breads in a MacArthur Park food stand for a
decade.

Others weren't as satisfied.

"The truth is, it doesn't surprise me, unfortunately," said Esteban
Baez. The 29-year-old has lived in the neighborhood for three years.

Speaking in Spanish, like most people interviewed for this article,
Baez added, "I believe it happens in all the large cities ... I
believe we all know it."

Baez and other Rampart residents are mostly first-generation
immigrants who come from Hispanic countries where crooked cops are the
rule rather than the exception. To them, police corruption is not a
shocking concept.

Carlos Camarena has worked at Sloan's Dry Cleaner for eight years. He
moved to California from Guadalajara, Mexico, where he said police
regularly abused their power. No one expects otherwise, the
48-year-old Camarena said.

When the scandal broke, he discovered some here are corrupt. "It
surprised me because supposedly here they follow the law more than in
Mexico."

At some Rampart intersections, men ask passersby if they want "micas"
- -- Spanish slang for green cards. Drug dealers work the streets around
MacArthur Park and marijuana fumes waft into shops.

Some merchants accuse police of turning their backs on the
neighborhood.

"The Rampart police are no good," said the owner of MacArthur Fabrics.
He refused to give his name, saying he feared gang retribution. His
family has owned the fabric store for 40 years. The owner said he's
told police about the drug-dealing right outside his door but they
never took action.

No police official with authority to comment for this story was
available Saturday, said LAPD spokesman Officer Eduardo Funes.

Some residents said they hope the scandal will lead to positive
change.

"We hope it will serve for something," said 43-year-old cosmetologist
Garibay.