“Chasing Ink” and “Calling Shots”: Understanding Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

• In Event: Student Forum Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 14: Criminal Justice

Abstract

Since 1970, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) has been home to gangs of tattooed sheriff’s deputies who systematically organize brutality against citizens in poor Black and Brown areas of Los Angeles County. As sworn officials, they are empowered to cover up their crimes by manipulating reports and intimidating whistleblowers, creating a complex that incentivizes vigilante violence on the job. Deputy gangs have killed at least 40 people, all of whom were men of color and ten of whom had mental illnesses. Yet, scholarly research on LASD gangs is nearly nonexistent. Using qualitative document analysis, this paper sets out and analyzes contested meanings about LASD gangs by asking: How do targeted communities, deputies, and local government make sense of deputy gangs? It reveals that communities endure racial trauma and terror from deputy gangs, compounding the struggles of daily life in race-class oppressed neighborhoods. Meanwhile, government reports legitimize the racially coded language deputies use to justify deputy gangs. By illuminating potential causes for the emergence of deputy gangs, developing the scholarly understanding of community experiences with police, and contributing to the emerging discussion about the epistemic power of police, this study offers significant findings in both local and social-academic contexts.

Author

• Anabelle Kang, University of California-Berkeley