Inside the Blue Klux Klan

gangsters who were committing these robberies. There was no activity with the gangsters up until 2300 hrs (11:00pm) so they called it off and the officers came out of the OP.  They went into the liquor store at the southeast corner of Imperial hwy and Compton Avenue to get a pack of cigarettes.  When the officers (both in plain clothes) went into the store, several Bounty Hunter Gang members crowded around the front of the store like a school of sharks.  When the officers came out of the store the gang members gathered around them.  So, the officers backed up against the front wall of the store.  One of the assholes asked the officers, “What are you doing in our store?”

One of the Officers, “Todd” said, “You better back off asshole, we’re cops.”  One of the gangsters said “So fuckin what, we gone kick yalls ass anyway.”  The other gangsters started saying yea we gone kick yall ass blood. The officers took out their service revolvers at that point.  One gangster said,” They can’t shoot, let’s kick ass blood.”  At that time Officer Dave fired one warning shot into the air and shouted the next one is going into somebody’s face.  They still wouldn’t back off until they saw the black and white police car coming down Imperial Highway with the red lights on.  Then they all ran back into the projects.  So, those assholes over there needed to be taught respect.”  Then the PM watch Sergeant left.  Our Lieutenant said, “We agree, go out there and show those assholes who owns the streets of Southeast Division, lets go to work.”  (That statement made it clear that we would have no personnel complaints taken against us no matter what we did to anyone in the projects that night) After the Lieutenant Broke roll call, all of the senior officers got together in the back of the roll call room.  When I got into the car, my partner Joe said, “We are all going over to the projects to teach those mother fuckers not to mess with LAPD We all met up at 103rd and Compton Ave.  We caravanned to the Nickerson Gardens gym at 114th St. and Compton Ave. but there was nobody out.  So, we parked all of the police cars in the parking lot in front of the gym and started into the projects on foot.  I guess there were about ten or twelve policeman out there that night including myself.  We walked through the projects with a license to kick ass, and unable to find anybody.  The word was out on the street that LAPD would be here in force tonight after the incident.  As we were coming back to the cars, still looking for anyone to convince that we owned the streets, we heard voices inside the gym.  One officer said, “They are in here.”  Then we heard running inside from the front to the back.  Some Officer yelled, “This door is open on the south side.” We all came around and entered into the kitchen area then we searched the stage, behind the curtain, and found nothing.  Then into a room that was stacked with gymnastics floor mats. One officer jumped up and stomped down on a lump in one of the piles of mats and we heard a muffled “Ouch!” from underneath the stack of mats.  It was pitch black in that room. So every officer’s flashlight was on. Then we pulled all of the mats up and discovered five Bounty Hunters hiding from us underneath. As we pulled them out, they were screaming, “Don’t hurt me!”  But as they were yelling, officers were swinging batons, beating them up and down their bodies.  They screamed and screamed but nobody could help them because it wasn’t another gang beating them unmercifully, it was the police.  I guess we beat these guys for about ten minutes.  I picked out one guy who was kind of wedged between two of the mats. I swung my baton and struck him on his left leg but the blow also struck the mat. I didn’t really want to hurt anybody but I knew that eyes were on me to see if I would participate in this police feeding frenzy. So I struck and struck again and again. Most of the blows hit the same spot on the mat and a couple hit the young man. The young man looked me square in the eyes.  I could see the fear in his eyes but he knew that compared to his buddies he was getting off easy. I struck the mat about five times in a row but he continued to scream these agonizing screams. This guy caught on quick so I was able to look like I was really putting it on him, without really putting it on him at all. In a situation like that we turn our flashlights on and stick them in our back pocket so the room is illuminated by the light reflecting off of the ceiling so the lighting was very poor. As we beat them, we shouted, “You assholes don’t own the streets here, LAPD owns the streets, we are in charge around here!”  When the beating frenzy was over, the victims lay bruised and some bleeding. We left the gym, got in our cars and went to the doughnut shop for coffee.  Later that night the Lieutenant was asked everybody if they knew anything about any policeman beating up anyone in the projects.  Everybody said “No Sir.”  Then he came to me. “Marshall you know anything about it?”   I said “No Sir” he smiled and walked away.  After that Joe said “I can trust you now. So, tomorrow we are gong go somewhere.”  I said, “Where.” he said, “You’ll see.” My participation in that beating put all of the rednecks at ease with me. Later that night we got together with four other units at 108^th and Central Avenue.