Code of Silence Feared to Surround Miller Beating Investigation -
/- Originally published by City News Service July 28, 2004
Videotaped Beating
Sheriff Lee Baca says he will investigate allegations his deputies
provided incomplete or misleading information to LAPD detectives
probing the videotaped beating of suspected car thief Stanley Miller.
The inquiry represents an expansion of the investigation into potential
brutality during Miller's June 23 arrest, the Los Angeles Times
reported. As many as eight deputies responded to the Compton
neighborhood where Miller was chased by LAPD officers after abandoning
the stolen car he was driving, according to The Times. TV news footage
shows Miller, after he appeared to have surrendered, being repeatedly
kneed and struck with a flashlight by an LAPD officer. Baca told The
Times in an interview that he is particularly incensed by an LAPD
report that a deputy assigned to the Compton station yelled, "No rats
here!" at an LAPD detective working on the investigation. Baca said the
remark, if true, reflects an unacceptable code of silence. "I will find
out who made the remark," Baca told The Times. "If a deputy made such a
remark, it reflects that individual should no longer be a deputy
sheriff... It reflects a gang mentality. That is an insult to every
member of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and it is an insult to
the public." Baca said he is ordering an investigation of what deputies
saw and heard as Miller was apprehended. The testimony of deputies
could help settle a number of inconsistencies in accounts by LAPD
officers, including suggestions that Miller was beaten because he was
thought to have a gun. No gun was found. "According to the LAPD, they
feel the deputies are not telling what they should," Baca told The
Times. "It is my obligation to investigate the conduct here and explain
why there are discrepancies."
Copyright 2004 City News Service, Inc.
City News Service
