On March 16th, 2023, Sheriff Luna boasted to The Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Commission (COC) commissioners that he was honored to spend his 103rd day in office at the first hearing on deputy gangs under his new administration.
Luna promised the COC in early 2023 he was committed to eradicating deputy gangs, subgroups and cliques within the department. However, over the last year and a half, his actions have proven it is virtually impossible to run the department, especially with severely depleted resources, without embracing long-standing members of LASD and its subgroup culture.
And that he did.
He not only embraced long-standing tattooed members of the department, he put them in charge of investigating other tattooed members of the department.
Sheriff Luna directed tattooed Internal Affairs investigators from various different Department cliques and subgroups (however you prefer to label them) to investigate other tattooed members of the department from various other cliques and subgroups, or if you prefer to believe the progressive media hype; “Deputy Gangs.”
I kid you not. You cannot make this stuff up.
Internal Affairs Bureau, known throughout the department as “The Rat Squad”, is actively seeking out deputies with tattoos and they are willing to root you out wherever you are.
Every station, in any city, any county, any state. Internal Affairs will EVERYWHERE!
According to the COC report, deputy gangs are a “cancer” that has taken over the department and the prescribed treatment is anything but painless. They want to carve out this malignancy with the dullest knife possible.
Their goal? To cause as much pain, anguish and embarrassment to appease Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police activists. Never mind the research is contrived and flawed at best and affects only a small portion of the approximately 9000 sworn personnel patrolling the streets of LA County.
The powers-that-be have labeled tattooed personnel within the rank and file as an “epidemic” of epic proportions. They are investing valuable, depleted resources to eradicate the “gangs”, rather than investing those same resources in keeping the citizens of LA County safe.
The Current Report learned the internal probe began last year, picking up speed in 2024 with reckless abandon. Internal Affairs investigators crossed city, county and state lines using any means of intimidation and harassment to gather information for the department-led persecution of tattooed personnel.
Sources say IAB investigators, including three sergeants, have been contacting deputies under the guise of a “witness interview.”
Sources have confirmed the identities of the following IAB sergeants and the origins of their tattoos: Ivan Brenes-Mendez, who was formerly a deputy from Palmdale Station, and is currently an acting IAB team Lieutenant, who has a Palmdale Station tattoo. Brenes-Mendez, is on the current Lieutenant’s promotion list, and is rumored to be promoting soon. Water Arcos, a former deputy from Norwalk Station, who is also A PPOA (Professional Peace Officers Association) Board Member. PPOA is the official LASD bargaining unit for sergeants, lieutenants, captains and commanders. Arcos has been confirmed to have a Norwalk Station tattoo. Chad Vanden Berg, who was formerly assigned to Lakewood Station as a deputy and has a Lakewood Station tattoo.
The investigation is not limited to active sworn personnel. The investigators have been instructed to cast a wide net to compel witness statements from personnel who have left LASD and lateralled to other agencies. When the former deputies declined to be interviewed for this non-criminal inquiry, the IAB investigators contacted the command staff at their new agencies in order to compel the interview with LASD investigators.
Additionally, IAB investigators have been providing their new agencies of employment with propaganda on “deputy gangs” from anti-law enforcement media outlets. According to sources, the commanding officers at these agencies were floored at the efforts to terrorize the former LASD deputies, none of which had a history of any disciplinary action, who were being singled out solely because they chose to get a station tattoo.
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy Tom Yu, who is now an attorney representing law enforcement, offered this in-depth analysis.
“The witch hunt of the station tattoo is shocking: the Department couches the interviews as “WITNESS INTERVIEWS”, which means, the one-year rule for the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights is not triggered and the Department can and will take its time to investigate. The Department’s actions are very concerning, and their investigation is motivated by the Civilian Oversight Commission’s lack of understanding and their misdirection. Whether a deputy has the tattoo or not, any deputy who engages in misconduct that results in violation of Department policy will face discipline. In essence, having a station tattoo is completely irrelevant. If a deputy violates policy, with or without the station tattoo, the deputy will be subject to discipline.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (“LASD” or “Department”) is a paramilitary law enforcement organization and the biggest sheriff’s department in the United States of America. The sheriff’s department covers over 4,000 square miles and provides law enforcement services to over 42 of the 88 cities within the county. The Department has approximately 18,000 employees and about 9,700 sworn deputy sheriffs.
There are twenty-three (23) patrol stations, nine (9) custody facilities, and dozens of other detective units along with specialized assignments. Each patrol station, custody facility, or detective unit has its own logo to identify that unit with a distinct insignia.”
Within each patrol station, there are station tattoos that are unique to the unit of assignment. For instance, the tattoos unique to the East Los Angeles Station are called the “Banditos.” For Compton Station, the original station tattoo is called the “Gladiators,” and now what the public and others have labeled the “Executioners.” For Temple Station, it is called the “Tas” (short for Tasmanian Devils) or the “V.” The list goes on and on for each patrol station.
Many of the public and the media have criticized the names of the station tattoos and even labeled those who have the station tattoos are prone to violence and encourage the killings of civilians, even though there are zero data to support this proposition, other than a journalist’s dissertation about “The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”
Interestingly enough, in analyzing police shooting cases, the United States Supreme Court has proscribed the objective reasonableness test. That is, “As in other Fourth Amendment contexts, however, the ‘reasonableness’ inquiry in an excessive force case is an objective one: the question is whether the officers’ actions are ‘objectively reasonable’ in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation.” Graham v. Connor (1989) 490 U.S. 386, 397.
“Without regard to their underlying intent or motivation” is a critical holding by the United States Supreme Court. This means, it does not matter what the officer or deputy was subjectively thinking- or if the deputy has a station tattoo. “An officer’s evil intentions will not make a Fourth Amendment violation out of an objectively reasonable use of force; nor will an officer’s good intentions make an objectively unreasonable use of force constitutional. Scott v. United States (1978) 436 U.S. 128, 138.
Under this analysis, a justified shooting that is objectively reasonable does not become unjustified because a deputy sheriff has a station tattoo. Conversely, an unjustified shooting that is objectively unreasonable does not translate to a justified shooting if the deputy sheriff does not have a station tattoo.
The first question then becomes, if the United States Supreme Court has held that the subjective underlying intent of a deputy sheriff is not the calculus to measure a particular use-of-force incident, then why and how are deputy personnel being investigated for merely having a station tattoo?
The second question is whether it is legal for deputy sheriffs to get a station tattoo or whether deputies are engaged in gang membership by simply having the tattoos on their bodies.
The law:
Penal Code section 13670, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2022, outlaws the existence of a law enforcement gang. The state’s legislature, however, when enacting this law, narrowly defined what is forbidden:
“Law enforcement gang” means a group of peace officers within a law enforcement agency who may identify themselves by a name and may be associated with an identifying symbol, including, but not limited to, matching tattoos, and who engage in a pattern of on-duty behavior that intentionally violates the law or fundamental principles of professional policing, including, but not limited to, excluding, harassing, or discriminating against any individual based on a protected category under federal or state anti-discrimination laws, engaging in or promoting conduct that violates the rights of other employees or members of the public, violating agency policy, the persistent practice of unlawful detention or use of excessive force in circumstances where it is known to be unjustified, falsifying police reports, fabricating or destroying evidence, targeting persons for enforcement based solely on protected characteristics of those persons, theft, unauthorized use of alcohol or drugs on duty, unlawful or unauthorized protection of other members from disciplinary actions, and retaliation against other officers who threaten or interfere with the activities of the group.
Under the law, a deputy gang or law enforcement gang has a two-part test: first, there must be a matching tattoo or an identifying symbol. Second, those who have the tattoo must also engage in a pattern of on-duty (not off-duty) behavior that violates the constitutional rights of citizens based solely on the enumerated protected characteristics.
Applying the elements of Penal Code section 13670, most deputy sheriffs who have the station tattoo do, in fact, satisfy the first element because most of the tattoos are matching and have an identifying sign or symbol. However, to date, there has been no data to support any evidence that any deputy personnel who has the station tattoo engaged in the deprivation of citizens’ constitutional rights solely based on their protected characteristics.”
Recently, a startling new pattern emerged when it was revealed Sheriff Luna met behind closed doors with civil attorney Brad Gage, Black Lives Matter and Cancel the Contract activists to discuss protected information in an on-going administrative investigation, and the personnel status of one of his Lancaster Station deputies involved in a shooting last December.
Sheriff Luna was not alone. He was surrounded by members of his executive staff who pandered to these activists, empowering them with privileged internal information to use against one of their own deputies publicly. This is just the latest example of harmful practices being adopted by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department under the Luna regime.
By allowing activists to run roughshod over LASD’s Antelope Valley stations, the department has set the tone throughout the county, adding an additional layer of fear for personnel already in the throws of the “Witness Interviews” in the department-led “deputy gang” investigations.
This has created a volatile, unhealthy work environment patrol personnel, leaving the rank and file more worried about being targeted by Internal Affairs investigations, than being shot dead by gang-banger on the streets.
And yet, Luna continues to promote tattooed personnel from hard charging stations – but – in order to get promoted, you must agree to cover the tattoo.
As if that alone instantly washes away decades of dedication to the department, the station, and its meaning.
Recently promoted Chief Joe Mendoza covered his Bandito tattoo from the East LA station that he wore proudly for decades. In an interview with the LA Times, orchestrated to justify his promotion, in spite of his “deputy gang” ties, Mendoza said “I want people to understand how complex this issue is, and how good people that had a tattoo can still lead. Because I’m sure I’m not the only one in this position.”
Rest assured he is not. Because, despite the smoke and mirrors and the puppeteering by the Board of Supervisors, Max Huntman’s OIG (Office of Inspector General), and the COC, the new department standard of covering a tattoo to get promoted to positions of leadership at LASD will not eradicate a department sub-culture that has existed for more than five decades.
It is not a “win” on the so-called war against deputy gangs.
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