This is not how things are supposed to go.
At a press conference, Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva received harsh criticism on Tuesday after announcing that LA Times correspondent Alene Tchekmedyian is facing an investigation after she reported on the department covering up a case where video showed a deputy kneeling on a handcuffed inmate's head for 3 minutes.
"Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials attempted to cover up an incident in which a deputy knelt on the head of a handcuffed inmate for three minutes because they feared the 'negative light' it could shed on the department, according to internal records reviewed by The Times. Department officials were worried about the optics of the kneeling, 'given its nature and its similarities to widely publicized George Floyd use of force,' a commander who was critical of the coverup wrote in an internal force review," Tchekmedyian reported in March.
On Monday, she reported on an update in the scandal.
"A Los Angeles County sheriff’s commander who was critical of efforts to cover up an incident in which a deputy kneeled on a handcuffed inmate’s head has filed legal papers accusing Sheriff Alex Villanueva of obstructing justice and retaliating against those who blew the whistle. In the legal claim against L.A. County, which is a required precursor to a lawsuit, Allen Castellano offered new details about Villanueva’s alleged role in keeping the March 2021 incident under wraps that contradict the sheriff’s claim that he learned of the incident several months after it happened," Tchekmedyian reported.
So because a LA Times reporter revealed a video of a Deputy kneeling on the head of and handcuffed inmate for 3 minutes which had been covered up for months because of the “optics”— the Sheriff is threatening to investigate and prosecute a journalist.
Of course, the natural thing is the attack and threaten the journalist when one of your employees makes you look bad just as you're in the midst of running for re-election. Who wouldn’t do that?
But wait, it gets worse.
Villaneuva has also announced an investigation of his political opponent and the County Inspector General because that’s exactly how things are done in Moscow - er, Southern California
All of that because of this little video…
In the video the inmate starts throwing punches in the midst of several deputies, he’s taken to the ground and eventually cuffed — the issue is that the deputy kneeling on his head to help keep him “under control" stays there even after he's been cuffed. The “issue” according to Sheriff Villaneuva is how the Inspector General and LA Times acquired the video.
It's been a long-standing tradition that journalists who may receive materials that may be confidential or may have been procured unethically or illegally are except from responsibility for how those materials were gathered. That's been true for the NYTimes and WaPo when they published material from Edward Snowden and also Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner.
Let’s be clear, this is illegal retaliation against a Whistle-blower. On top of the abuse being a crime — what exactly is the rationale for kneeling on someone’s head while they're already handcuffed? — it’s also a crime to threaten the people who exposed the original crime, which was being swept under the rug.
This isn’t an issue for the DA, it should be the freaking FBI handling this — who have previously prosecuted high-ranking members of this very same department for yet another abuse scandal and coverup in 2014.
LOS ANGELES—Six sworn deputies who were working in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department each were sentenced today to federal prison terms for interfering with a federal civil rights investigation into misconduct at the Men’s Central Jail.
The six defendants received prison terms of up to 41 months from a federal judge who said they all lacked “courage to do what is right” and then failed to show “even the slightest remorse.”
United States District Judge Percy Anderson issued the sentences after a federal jury determined that the defendants, including two lieutenants, attempted to influence witnesses, threatened an FBI agent with arrest and concealed an FBI informant who should have been turned over to federal authorities.
All six of the defendants were convicted of participating in a broad conspiracy to obstruct justice, a plot that began in the summer of 2011 after they learned that a jail inmate was an FBI informant and was acting as a cooperator in a federal investigation into corruption and civil rights violations at the jail.
“Blind obedience to a corrupt culture has serious consequences,” Judge Anderson told the defendants before ordering each of them to begin prison sentences in the coming months.
Acting United States Attorney Stephanie Yonekura stated: “In their corrupt attempt to shield the Sheriff’s Department from scrutiny, these deputies brought scandal and shame to themselves and their department. These deputies decided to impede a federal investigation, and in doing so they threw away their careers and their freedom. These law enforcement officers have now been held accountable for their unlawful actions.”
Also, Villanueva is a racist punk.
And he’s running a department that is filled with criminal gangs including the “Banditos” and the “Headhunters.”
What a charmer.