Harassing the gang members and watching from across the street apparently was no longer enough, however. On the week of September 20, the officers approached Victor Cosme, the church custodian, seeking to set up a listening post. ”They asked me to let them in. They asked if they could hide someplace where they could listen,“ Cosme said in a recent interview.
”I said, ‘No, I’m not the one to make those decisions.‘ That’s a serious thing, if they want to spy.“
On September 30, state Senator Hayden convened a hearing of the state Task Force on Gang Violence to take testimony from gang-intervention workers on systematic harassment by police. The site was Immanuel Presbyterian.
The latest Rampart revelations had sent a shockwave through the city, and in his opening remarks, Hayden delivered yet another critique of the LAPD. ”Peace workers have been subjected to harassment and arrest in such a manner as would seem to indicate that police are opposed to these efforts,“ Hayden said. Noting that deported gang members often encounter violence in their new ”homeland,“ he continued, ”This is a life-and-death issue as well as one of public policy.“
As the hearings got under way, Amezcua and three other officers slipped into the church to confront the gang members; one pair dropped in on the hearing itself. ”It was so bizarre,“ Raugen recalled later. ”Here‘s this meeting about police brutality against peace workers, and these two officers came and stood in the back, just glaring at everyone.“
The same night, Amezcua confronted one gang member in the church bathroom. According to several people who were there for the hearing, Amezcua shoved him out of the bathroom, out of the church and into an alley. ”They told him they didn’t want to see him there any more,“ one gang member said. ”They said they‘d be back and they’d take us all in. And they said they were looking for big Al.“ As in Alex Sanchez.
Amezcua caught up with Sanchez soon after nightfall on Friday, January 21, outside his home near the corner of 8th Street and Normandie Avenue. According to police, Amezcua made the stop because CRASH had recently ”received information“ from the INS that Sanchez was illegally residing in Los Angeles. As the LAPD acknowledged in a statement, department policy ”forbids officers from initiating police action“ where the only offense relates to immigration status. ”However, in this case the INS provided information to the LAPD that they were actively looking for Mr. Sanchez.“
Critics of the arrest point out, however, that the INS first issued a warrant in October 1998 charging Sanchez with illegal reentry into the U.S., and that the matter had lain dormant since then. According to an affidavit filed in support of that warrant, INS Special Agent Hung Nguyen discovered Sanchez‘s illegal status while conducting a routine review of DMV records. Nguyen is a member of a federal task force deployed to identify and deport violent gang members.
Sanchez told friends that when Amezcua arrested him, he said, ”I’ve got you now,“ and added, ”Homies has got six months to live.“ But if the LAPD has Sanchez where it wants him, the department has also garnered a fistful of new enemies at a time when it can ill afford the excess animosity. Some of them, like Hayden, are longstanding critics. But some, like Frank Alton, the pastor at Immanuel, have been friends of the police.
”This church has had a good relationship with the Rampart police in the past,“ Alton said in an interview. That may be changing, however. In a formal complaint to the Rampart brass on October 14, Alton said, ”I understand the difficult task the police department has in keeping this area safe. But I do not believe that having the police behave illegally will help this community.“
For his part, Captain Hansohn said he‘s planning to meet with Alton and representatives from Homies later this week. ”I’ll accept anyone‘s support in trying to limit gang activity,“ Hansohn said
