Community Resources against Street Hoodlums
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Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, usually known as CRASH, was a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department established in the early 1970s to combat the rising problem of gangs in Los Angeles, California. Each of the 21 divisions had a CRASH unit which focused on collecting intelligence on gangs, tracking their activities and proactively trying to disrupt and prevent gang criminality and violence.
In March of 2000, CRASH was gradually diminished and replaced with a similar anti-gang unit that accentuated having a sufficiently high amount of experience. Although several variables apply, every crime offense and attempt of 2000 in the entire city of Los Angeles increased over those of the previous year.
Activities
The primary goal of Community Resources against Street Hoodlums was to suppress the influx of gang-related crimes in Los Angeles that came about primarily due to the increase in narcotics trade. In addition to gang-related crime prevention, CRASH officers also had to attain information about a specific gang that was assigned to them and relay that information between districts. The CRASH officer's "freedom of movement and activity" and "gung-ho" nature has led some of them to incite controversy among themselves and the whole CRASH unit.Operation Hammer
Operation Hammer was an initiative that began in 1987 to crack down on gang violence in South Central Los Angeles. After a drive-by killing of six to seven people, responded by sending CRASH officers to round up gang members. At the height of this operation in April 1988, 1,453 people were arrested by one thousand police officers in a single weekend. This operation was susceptible to racism charges; some believe Operation Hammer heavily employed racial profiling targeting African-American and Hispanic youths. These groups were labelled as "urban terrorists" and "ruthless killers."
Rampart CRASH Scandal
One of the prominent CRASH units was stationed in the Rampart Division. In August 1998, the same month that Chief Bernard Parks claimed that the Christopher Commission reforms were "essentially complete", officer Rafael Perez, a nine-year veteran of the department, was arrested on charges of stealing six pounds of cocaine from an evidence room. In September 1999, in exchange for partial immunity from prosecution, he testified about a pattern of abuse and misconduct that threatened to overturn thousands of criminal convictions, accusing about seventy fellow CRASH officers.Though three officers were convicted of obstruction of justice and other charges in October 2000, these convictions were overturned that December. Three more reached plea bargains the next year.
These events are sometimes referred to as the Rampart Scandal.
Media References
- The 1988 film Colors starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall revolved around the LAPD C.R.A.S.H. division.
- The video game is set in a fictional state of "San Andreas" that is intended to represent a combination of 1990s Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. The corrupt officers of the fictional "Los Santos Police Department" are members of the C.R.A.S.H. unit.
- The cable channel FX's series The Shield centers on a corrupt police unit named the Strike Team, modeled after the Rampart Division's corrupt CRASH unit. One of the names originally considered for the show was "Rampart."
- The exteriors of the Rampart Station were featured in the 1960's television show, Adam 12.
- Rapper Xzibit mentions the "Crooked ass cops from the Rampart Disctrict" on the song "Multiply".
- Rapper The Game mentions the Rampart scandal in a song called "Start from Scratch" from his album, The Documentary.
- The films Training Day (2001), Cellular (2004), and Dirty (2005) were inspired by the Rampart Scandal.
- In the Special Features section on the DVD version of Cellular, there's a segment on the Rampart Scandal called "Code of Silence."
References
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