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From: charlie
Date: 1/1/01
Time: 8:41:08 AM
Jasper,
We shall see how it goes, but the new DA, who won by the way with a 65% vote, criticized Garcetti's totally inappropriate use of the Third Strike law in CA. It was designed to mean (the authors meant) 3 of the same type of serious crime--like armed robbery, murder, rape, etc. They did not mean a life sentence for stealing a candy bar in a drug store. Or stealing a loaf of bread because the person's children are hungry.
It was shown in the Rampart Investigation how the threat of the 3rd strike was used repeatedly (even by lying about the charges or by overcharging). This was the doing of the DA's office more than the cops in general although they worked together.
Cooley claimed how wrong this was and vows to clean that up. We shall see.
In the Rampart Investigation, we saw how the 3rd strike many times was a "frame"--planted drugs, false charges, a planted gun, etc.
What the LA Times and others FAIL to report is this co-operation with the DAs and the cops basically comes down to conspiracy to frame a suspect.
That is the part of the Rampart case that has been vastly underreported. It has been reported but not to the degree (buried deep within a lengthy article) that it should be.
And did you notice in the expose' that it mentions reporters Matt Lait and his partner as helping to cover up? I had an email exchange with Lait that showed to me that he was doing that. He downplayed previous "problems" in the LAPD to me and refused to call certain things "corruption". He said they were "scandals" not corruption. I said to myself then and there. Yep, coverup time.
charlie