TAKE ACTION NOW

For decades, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) has been rife with corruption, abuse of power, and impunity. When Sheriff Alex Villanueva took office in December 2018, many hoped he would work to repair the wreckage that his predecessors, including now-imprisoned former Sheriff Lee Baca, left behind.

Instead, from the moment he was elected, Villanueva has utterly failed to fulfill his campaign promises to reform LASD. Dubbed the “Trump of L.A. law enforcement,” he has:

• Spearheaded a sweeping undoing of reforms for accountability, transparency, and civilian oversight that community organizations and advocacy groups have fought for decades.

• Reinstated deputies previously fired for serious misconduct, including Carl Mandoyan, who had been fired for beating up and stalking his ex-girlfriend, and insulted survivors of sexual assault.

• Violated LASD’s own policies by killing active investigations into serious misconduct involving allegations such as child abuse, domestic violence, and rape of a person in custody.

• Allowed sheriff’s deputies to get away with impunity after killing 10 people since the murder of George Floyd, in addition to deputies’ systematic retaliatory harassment of grieving families of community members whom deputies have killed.  

• Tolerated so-called “secret societies” of sheriff’s deputy gangs, like the “Banditos” in East Los Angeles and the “Executioners” in Compton, that perpetrate violence against the community—prompting an FBI investigation last year.

• Blocked previously-afforded access to the Inspector General, whose job is to provide oversight on LASD, and initiated a criminal investigation of him essentially for doing his job.  

• Failed systematically to disclose records of deputy misconduct to which families and the public are legally entitled under state transparency laws—prompting lawsuits from the ACLU of Southern California and the L.A. Times.

• Defied the Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission’s subpoenas, including for investigations into his cover up of sheriff’s deputies’ taking and showing off gruesome photos of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe and Gianna Bryant—as well as the will of Angelenos who overwhelmingly voted for Measure R. (Vanessa Bryant recently sued the sheriff over his cover up.)

• Stonewalled independent investigations into sheriff’s deputies’ June 18 killing of 18-year-old Andres Guardado, whom prospective “Executioners” deputy gang member Michael Vega with a history of misconduct shot 5 times in the back, and their August 31 killing of 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee, whom they shot 15 times for allegedly riding his bicycle in the wrong direction. (In Guardado’s case, LASD tried to cover it up, including by destroying security cameras and putting a “security hold” on the autopsy.)

• Attacked Supervisor Hilda Solis with sexist, racist slurs, calling her “La Malinche.”

• Repressed the First Amendment rights of protesters and journalists, most recently, brutalizing and arresting NPR reporter Josie Huang and then making claims directly contradicted by video evidence.

It is for these reasons that on July 29, 2020, families, UNITE HERE Local 11, Justice LA, Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles, ACLU of Southern California, Check the Sheriff Coalition, and more than 50 organizations, called for the immediate resignation of Sheriff Villanueva.  

Indeed, since the #AdiosVillanueva July 29 letter and petition launch, members of the Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission and Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas have joined the call for Villanueva’s resignation.  

In spite of this context, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party has offered little concern over Villanueva's first term.  Last year’s “rebuke” was coupled with the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair Mark Gonzalez noting, “We got a good Democrat in office, and we want to make sure we maintain the values of the Democratic Party.” Having endorsed Villanueva in 2018, helping him eke out an upset victory, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party is complicit by remaining silent now. For all its rhetoric that Black lives matter, its hypocritical silence on Villanueva is effectively enabling him to think and act as if he’s above the law.

The Los Angeles County Democratic Party must join the growing community groundswell and demand Sheriff Villanueva’s immediate resignation.

#VillanuevaMustGo