Disgraced LAPD Unit Sported Grim Tattoos

LOS ANGELES, Posted 4:27 p.m. PST February 8, 2000 --

Nearly a dozen police officers of a disgraced anti-gang detail sported a grinning skull tattoo, one of several fearsome logos adopted by Los Angeles Police Department elite units, it was reported Tuesday.

Rafael Perez, the ex-officer at the heart of a corruption scandal, was among the current and former Rampart Division CRASH members tattooed with the skull, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing officers involved in the unit.

CRASH stands for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. The logo, which also appears on jackets, is a skull with glaring eyes, wearing a cowboy hat with a police badge. Behind it are playing cards holding the so-called "dead man's hand" of two aces and two eights.

The patch shows the camaraderie of members, one former Rampart CRASH officer said.

"It's not a touchy-feely unit. You're putting your life on the line more than just about anybody else out there," he said, adding that anti-gang units need to have a tough image.

"These (gang members) think you're so, so bad.... They think you're dropping people off of buildings and stuff like that. We're not. But it doesn't hurt for them to think that," he said.

Perez has alleged that officers in the Rampart Division made up evidence, lied in court to win convictions on false charges, perjured themselves, assaulted and even shot people. Thirty-two criminal cases have been reversed as the result of the investigation and 20 officers have been relieved of duty, suspended, fired or have quit.

Other LAPD specialized units also have menacing logos. The Special Investigation Section, for instance, has a cloaked man armed with a dagger.

"Often times these are innocent mascots or symbols that may create the wrong perception," police Cmdr. David J. Kalish said Friday.

Critics agreed.

"It seems like a counterproductive image for police officers to have and does not fit within the stated goals of the police department to protect and serve," said Gerald L. Chaleff, president of the civilian Police Commission. "If these patches were worn on official police department uniforms or equipment, I believe this is inappropriate and the commission will investigate it."

It "smacks of lawless, cowboy vigilante behavior," said Los Angeles attorney Merrick J. Bobb, special counsel to the county Board of Supervisors and a nationally-recognized expert on police misconduct.

"It's part of the war mentality. They have a total contempt for the people in the neighborhoods they police,'' said Joseph D. McNamara, former chief of the San Jose Police Department and a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

"It's a macho bonding thing," said a former member of the CRASH unit in the Pacific Division. The officer said he decided against wearing his unit's patch, a gun-toting shark.

"It was stupid," he said. "Besides, people couldn't tell if it was a shark or a tuna."