A House subcommittee calls on the Justice Department to investigate allegations about deputy gangs in the LA County Sheriff's Department.
The Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is asking for a probe into what it describes as "the actions of a violent contingent of deputies...who adhere to white supremacist ideologies...and engage in an 'aggressive style of policing' motivated by racism."
"There's a lot of... trial attorney that is trying to blow up this whole thing about deputy gangs, alleged deputy gangs and I'm not buying it," said Sheriff Alex Villanueva during a Facebook broadcast earlier this week.
Congressman Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat from LA, and subcommittee Chairman Jamie Raskin say, in their letter, deputy gangs have been a problem for decades and call the allegations about them "deeply disturbing."
They mention the
lawsuit filed earlier this week by the family of 18-year-old Andres Guardado, who was shot in the back and killed by a deputy in June.
The two deputies involved in the incident have been identified - by another deputy - as prospective members of a deputy gang at the Compton station, claims denied by the pair's attorneys.
The Sheriff's Department says, in a statement, it takes deputy gang allegations "very seriously" and is "taking aggressive action in disciplining those employees that use their association in cliques to engage in misconduct against others, inside or outside the organization."
