And of course, there’s Los Angeles County, where deputy gangs in the Sheriff’s Department, with their not-so-secret tattoos , have cost the city about $55 million in lawsuits, according toSome of those officers were fired. Some were not. Until AB 655, the rules were not explicit and allowed departments to largely impose their chosen discipline. But the CLEAR Act is definitive; if an officer has been found to be in violation, the department has no choice but to fire them.
another Latino couple has filed a lawsuit claiming they were attacked by officers based on their race. He also believes that the Antioch officers who received the messages but did not actively participate in the texting chain shouldn’t be judged in the same manner as those pushing the conversation and that their silent presence shouldn’t be interpreted as agreement.
John Burris, a civil rights attorney representing some Antioch community members in the federal lawsuit, doesn’t think passivity is exonerating.How far the CLEAR Act stretches may depend on how far police chiefs and sheriffs want it to go. If they continue to try to sweep bias under the rug, maybe the law means little.