Police & Community

Trayvon Martin supporters marked the first day after George Zimmerman’s acquittal with protests in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere Sunday, blocking the 10 Freeway for about 20 minutes, while President Obama called Martin’s killing a tragedy and asked Americans to honor the jury’s verdict.

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I first met Cynthia Mendenhall two hours before the funeral of her nephew, Frank Evans Jr. We were seated in the booth of a Denny’s on the edge of Watts, eight miles south of downtown Los Angeles. I expressed my condolences. She received them with a nod. Her sister-in-law, she said, was taking it hard.

Two wide-ranging investigations into alleged abuses by deputies have portrayed a department culture sharply at odds with Sheriff Lee Baca’s vision.

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Antelope Valley civil rights leaders praise a $12.5-million payment demanded by the United States, but ask Sheriff Baca to oust deputies who mistreat blacks and Latinos.

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U.S. Department of Justice officials have demanded that Los Angeles County, Lancaster and Palmdale pay a total of $12.5 million to residents who the federal government found were victims of harassment and intimidation in the Antelope Valley.

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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department violated the U.S. Constitution and federal laws in its treatment of blacks and other residents of public housing in the Antelope Valley, the U.S. Justice Department concluded.\

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Since the May 8 beating of David Sal Silva, who later died, residents have remained largely silent while a public outcry grows elsewhere in the state.

Read more in the Los Angeles Times.