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Supervisors agree to settle racial discrimination suit

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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted this week to pay out $725,000 in victims’ compensation and civil penalties to settle claims that the sheriff’s department systematically engaged in racial bias and intimidation of residents of the Antelope Valley.

The board voted 4-1 to direct the sheriff’s department to provide “bias-free policing” and to begin further training of deputies on stops, searches and detention so they do not make arbitrary searches and only make stops warranted by “reasonable suspicion” and not simply by race. Those suspicions can no longer be based on ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation or any perceived immigration status.

The final settlement will call for $700,000 to be placed into a fund for victims of discrimination in regard to the Fair Housing Act. Another $25,000 must be paid to the federal government as a civil penalty.

Black and Latino residents of Palmdale and Lancaster have complained for years that sheriff’s deputies had waged campaigns of discrimination and brutality against them, particularly those residing in low-income or Section 8 housing. Federal officials had investigated these claims for two years and found that sheriff’s personnel in the Antelope Valley had engaged in a “pattern or practice of stops, searches and seizures and excessive force in violation of  the Constitution and federal law.”

Discrimination by sheriff’s deputies against African Americans, the Justice Department found, was especially egregious and violated the Fair Housing Act. The discrimination often took the form of armed sheriff’s deputies accompanying county housing agency investigations on surprise inspections of Section 8 housing, systematically looking for violations of housing rules. A group of community activists told Our Weekly two years ago that teams of up to 10 deputies would regularly ransack homes and apartments looking for gang members, drug paraphernalia, probation violators, weapons, etc. These and other law enforcement tactics reportedly created a climate of fear and hostility among the residents.

The 57-page indictment also directs the sheriff’s department to revise its use-of-force policies to clarify that deputies can use force only as a last resort and not against individuals “… who may be exhibiting resistive behavior, but who are under control and do not pose a threat to the public safety, themselves or to other deputies.”

“While much work is ahead of us, this agreement highlights the positive strides the committed men and women of this department have already made on so many fronts,” said Sheriff Jim McDonnell. “This includes training in regard to constitutional law and racial profiling awareness, practices related to Section 8 housing compliance checks, and policies regarding traffic stops, arrests and detentions.”

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