LA cop sentenced to 102 years

Had five felony arrests for burglary- and theft-related offenses BEFORE being hired by the LAPD

By James Edwards
Political Cesspool Blog

Over the past several years, the electronic and print media have featured quite a few reports and articles on the problem of corruption in the Los Angeles police department. And it’s a big one - check out the Ramparts scandal. Read LAbyrinth. But what most of them don’t like to mention is the fact that the corrupt cops are overwhelmingly non-white. On the rare occasions when they do mention it, they certainly don’t dwell on it, let alone explore just how so many bad apples have gotten hired to enforce the law. That’s a road they don’t want to go down, because it leads right to affirmative action.

The latest headlines involve a group of cops who were committing home invasion style armed robberies. The ringleader, Ruben Palomares, was sentenced to 13 years in prison last week. Yesterday another non-white former cop, William Ferguson, was sentenced to 102 years for his role in the robberies. His brother, a Long Beach policeman, was also in the gang.

We’ll be seeing more and more of this type of thing in the future, as police hiring standards keep getting lower and lower to allow them to hire enough non-whites to “reflect” the city’s demographics. And I’m not just talking about test scores. That’s bad enough, but it doesn’t even begin to tell the story of how affirmative action has destroyed the hiring standards in law enforcement. Until the push for more non-whites on police forces began a few decades ago, in most cities, applicants for the police academy had to pass rigorous background checks and if they weren’t squeaky clean, they didn’t get in. Not anymore. Check out the background of William Ferguson:

Ferguson had five felony arrests for burglary- and theft-related offenses before being hired by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1996.

At one point, while trying to cite mitigating factors that might persuade Feess to impose a lesser sentence, Deitch told the judge that the incidents were not sufficiently serious to prevent him from being hired by the Police Department.

The judge shot back:

“To which I can only say, ‘Why?’ ”

Feess added that he found it “stunning to me” that a prospective officer could be hired with even one criminal conviction.

Why, indeed.

And the answer is affirmative action.

 
Article Source: The Political Cesspool Blog

Media Report:

Former LAPD officer sentenced to 102 years in prison for role in robbery ring
The former LAPD officer’s federal prison sentence is the latest in the case involving bogus drug raids.

By Scott Glover, LA Times  May 20, 2008

Seemingly defiant to the end, a former Los Angeles police officer convicted of participating in a home invasion-style robbery ring declined Monday to address a federal judge moments before sentencing, an opportunity many defendants use to plead for leniency.

William Ferguson, a 35-year-old father of three, stood silently with his hands chained at his waist as U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess sentenced him to 102 years in federal prison.

Ferguson was the latest in a string of ex-cops to be sentenced in connection with the ring, which conducted bogus drug raids staged to look like legitimate police operations

Before sentencing, Ferguson’s lawyer, Philip Deitch, argued that the 112 years being recommended by the probation department amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment” and was wildly disproportionate to the sentences of co-defendants who had cooperated with prosecutors.

The admitted ringleader, former LAPD Officer Ruben Palomares, received a 13-year sentence last week.

Feess seemed somewhat sympathetic to Deitch’s argument. But the judge noted that he was bound by a federal law that dictated a minimum sentence of 82 years in the case and that Ferguson had done little to help himself.

“There has been no acceptance — ever — of any sort,” the judge said at one point. “There is no way to paint Mr. Ferguson’s behavior as anything that is honorable . . . or good.”

Deitch countered that Ferguson had at one point told prosecutors that he would admit to his own crimes, but that a potential plea deal fell apart when he said he would not testify against his brother, Joseph, a Long Beach police officer also implicated in the ring.

His brother was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.

Outside court, Deitch said Ferguson, an ex-Marine who served in Desert Storm, had told him that he refused to talk about his brother out of a sense of familial allegiance.

“I risked my life for my country,” the lawyer quoted his client as saying. “I would certainly do the same for my family.”

Ferguson had five felony arrests for burglary- and theft-related offenses before being hired by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1996. (…Full Article)