Times Investigation: LAPD misclassified nearly 1,200 violent crimes as minor offenses

[Gold Metal Flake]

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-crimestats-lapd-20140810-story.html#page=1

The LAPD misclassified nearly 1,200 violent crimes during a one-year span ending in September 2013, including hundreds of stabbings, beatings and robberies, a Times investigation found.

The incidents were recorded as minor offenses and as a result did not appear in the LAPD's published statistics on serious crime that officials and the public use to judge the department's performance.

Nearly all the misclassified crimes were actually aggravated assaults. If those incidents had been recorded correctly, the total aggravated assaults for the 12-month period would have been almost 14% higher than the official figure, The Times found.

The tally for violent crime overall would have been nearly 7% higher.

[JayhawkSD]

1. Three strikes.

California prisons are so overcrowded that the federal government is mandating release of inmates after as little as 10% of their sentence has been served. These releases are purely to relieve overcrowding.

The three strikes law mandates, essentially, life sentences for people convicted of a third felony, so LAPD arrests people with two convictions and is forced by the Justice Dept to classify the arrest as minor to avoid putting the arrestee into a "three strikes" penalty position. Third offenses cannot be plea bargained and sentences cannot be reduced.

This is not LAPD trying to make themselves look good. This is an entire system of "justice" which is broken beyond repair.

[antiquie]

2. 3 strikes was amended by California voters in 2012

Summary Prepared by the State Attorney General:
Revises three strikes law to impose life sentence only when new felony conviction is serious or violent.
Authorizes re-sentencing for offenders currently serving life sentences if third strike conviction was not serious or violent and judge determines sentence does not pose unreasonable risk to public safety.
Continues to impose life sentence penalty if third strike conviction was for certain nonserious, nonviolent sex or drug offenses or involved firearm possession.
Maintains life sentence penalty for felons with nonserious, non-violent third strike if prior convictions were for rape, murder, or child molestation.

Fiscal Impact from the Legislative Analyst's Office:
State savings related to prison and parole operations of $70 million annually on an ongoing basis, with even higher savings--up to $90 million annually--over the next couple of decades. These estimates could be higher or lower by tens of millions of dollars depending on future state actions.
One-time state and county costs of a few million dollars over the next couple of years for court activities related to the resentencing of certain offenders.

From here

We are making progress.

[JayhawkSD]

3. Which doesn't alter the gist of my statement at all.

For one, the article was about LAPD downgrading arrests from "serious crimes" to "minor offenses," so the arrests would have resulted in "three strike" trials and life sentences had LAPD not downgraded the arrest. Amended or not, the three strikes principle is still overcrowding our prisons, caussing state prisons to dump prisoners into county and city jails, and resulting in the premature release of serious offenders for the sole purpose of relieving overcrowding.

Second, assault is both "serious" and "violent," but does it deserve a life sentence? Don't be ridiculous. Amended or not the law is still appalling and inhumane.

[antiquie]

4. Yes, you are 100% right and I am 100% wrong.

We should ALWAYS look for the ugly and NEVER acknowlege improvement. It makes us better people to always be angry.


I am ridiculous for saying what?

[JayhawkSD]

5. Well, that was certainly adult.

[antiquie]

6. What is your problem?