Since the 1970s, there have
been at least 18 gangs within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department,
and they continue to brutalize and even murder community members today.
My name is Cerise Castle and I am a journalist.
In the summer of 2020,
I was working for a local radio station here in Los Angeles,
and I was out covering the George Floyd
rallies that were happening across the country across the world.
I was shooting photos of people protesting,
and while I was doing that two cars with police officers on them
in riot gear rolled into the area where people had gathered
and they shot people with less lethal munitions.
And although I identified myself as press,
I was shot and the resulting injuries landed me in the hospital.
A few days after that happened, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
killed a teenager
who was working at his job in the Compton area.
Very quickly after this young man was killed.
His name is Andrés Guardado, it was reported that his killing
may have been part of a gang initiation, and there are some new allegations against
the deputy involved in Guardado's case who did not fire his weapon.
Civil rights attorneys accused Christopher Hernandez of being part
of what some call a sheriff's department clique or gang.
While I was bedridden, I started researching
the history of the gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department,
and I found out that this dates back at least 50 years.
I spent six months
researching deputy gangs
within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Conservatively, I estimate I read about 100,000 pages of legal filings.
And what I came away with was a 15 part series
detailing 18 gangs that I was able
to confirm the existence of within the department.
There are the Little Devil's posse, the Wayside Whities, the 2000
Boys, the 3000 Boys, the Jump Out Boys, the Bandidos, the Executioners,
the Spartans, the Cowboys, the Rattlesnakes and the Tasmanian Devils.
They have killed 19 people, all of whom were men of color,
several of whom were in a mental health crisis when they were killed.
Government from the county level, the state level, and the federal level
has known about this issue since the early 1990s,
and no significant action, policy change
has been brought forth.
So let's do a quick run through of the gangs of the Los
Angeles Sheriff's Department, all of them have stuff in common.
You usually have official gang tattoos, a hand signal and a way to join, usually
by shooting or killing a civilian or doing something like falsifying paperwork.
These are just a few of the gangs operating within the L.A.
Sheriff's Department.
The Wayside Whities.
The Wayside Whities was a gang of white deputies at the Pitches Detention Center
in northern L.A.
County in the 1980s and 1990s.
Their sign was having their middle fingers crossed to create a "W" for White.
The Lynwood Vikings.
The Vikings were a gang based out of the Lynwood station.
Their tattoo was of a Viking and their hand sign was
an "L" made with the thumb and index finger for Lynwood.
And they were one of the most powerful and most violent gangs.
A lot of their members became leaders in the department.
The 3000 Boys. the
3000 Boys were based out of the men's central jail in downtown L.A.
The 3000 boys are particularly violent because that's where the department would
transfer deputies convicted of crimes to keep them away from the public.
The Jump Out Boys. the Jump Out boys
operated across the county in the Operation Safe Streets unit.
Their tattoo was of a skeleton with glowing red eyes holding a revolver
and the dead man's hand, a popular poker holding among law enforcement officers.
They kept their manifesto in a notebook.
The Regulators. Out of the Century Station, you have the regulators
who allegedly have many members working in department leadership.
The Executioners.
At the Compton Station, you have the Executioners.
Their tattoo is of a skeleton with a Nazi helmet holding an assault rifle.
Black people and women are not allowed to join the gang.
The Bandidos. The Bandidos operate mainly out of the East L.A.
station, and their tattoo is of a skeleton wearing a sombrero
with a smoking revolver and a sheriff's badge.
They have a culture of working backwards, arresting or shooting civilians
and coming up with probable cause later by planting and manufacturing evidence.
There are others like the Rattlesnakes, the Pirates and the Buffalo Soldiers
that we know a lot less about.
[Protesters shouting] Jail Killer Cops!
Without that badge you ain't nothing!
Wihtout that badge you ain't nothing mutherfuckers!
You are nothing!
Anyway, I'm here today at a rally.
Two year anniversary of the killing of Paul Rea,
18 year old young man at a traffic stop by Hector
Saavedra, who is an East L.A.
sheriff's deputy,
who was the prospect
for the deputy sheriff gang Los Banditos.
Now how do I know that?
Because two deputies who worked here
were interviewed on national TV.
[Journalist] L.A.
Sheriff's Deputy Hector Saavedra Soto is he a prospect for the Banditos.
[Whistleblower] Yes, he is.
He's a prospect.
Paul Rea is my son,
he was murdered on June 27, 2019.
It was a supposed to be a traffic stop.
They pulled him out of their car
with guns, and when they're questioning where they're getting pulled over.
They were scared because they didn't know why they were getting pulled over.
And they're getting pulled over with guns, you know, to their heads and being told
that if they move, they're going to shoot their fucking heads off.
They pulled the driver of the car,
and when they pulled my son out, they're going to handcuff my son.
And I know my son was feared for his life, him just from childhood.
You know, growing up, seeing me harassed before
he ran, he didn't even get four feet away
when Hector Saavedra shot multiple times in the back.
Paul's father was actually killed by sheriff's deputies,
so he grew up his whole life being afraid of this deputy gang.
So when they asked him to get out of the car, naturally, he was afraid.
So he attempted to exit that interaction, which is perfectly within his right
since he was not the driver.
Unfortunately, Saavedra pursued Paul
and shot him in the back multiple times right here, and Paul died.
The two deputies that killed Anthony
Vargas were also prospects for the East L.A. sheriff's gang.
Anthony Vargas was shot by Sheriff's
Deputy Nicholas Perez and Sheriff's Deputy Jonathan Rojas.
Are they also part of the Banditos gang or prospects for the Banditos?
[Whistleblower 1] Prospects? Yes. [Whistleblower 2] they're prospects.
[Journalist] How do you know were, [Whistleblower 2]
You know, just personal conversations with them and them saying
that was one of their main goals to be a part of this gang.
August 12th of 2018,
my nephew, he had attended a barbecue.
He was just following what he always did,
you know, whenever there was a barbecue he showed up, took his rub.
He thought it was the best rub so hey, get it out there, right? He took it and
you know, that was the last
time, that's the last day that we seen in was August 11th.
There was a robbery call that had went into the East L.A.
Sheriff's Department, where an individual
had said that they had their twelve dollar watch stolen.
They gave a description of an individual 30 to 40 years old
over six feet tall.
You know, nothing of Anthony's description
wearing a completely different color shirt than my nephew had on him.
You know, two deputies from the East L.A.
Sheriff's Department were, you know, servicing the area at the time,
and they saw my nephew walking down
one of the fire paths on his way home.
And they targeted him.
My nephew was punched in his head
multiple times, punched in his ribs by these deputies.
You know, before
falling to his knees, where he was shot at 16 times.
It was just like, Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Like continuous shots.
[Reporter] One man shot and killed by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies.
Investigators say the young man did have a gun on them,
but they're not sure if he was a part of the robbery.
Anthony was not known to carry a gun on him.
He slept in a room with my mom, which is his grandma.
He slept directly across from my seven year old niece at that.
She was seven years old at the time.
Anthony was not known to carry a gun.
You know, he was not known to carry weapons.
He was. [Off camera] You've never seen him with a gun?
No, never. [Whistleblower
1] If you get in a shooting, that's a definite brownie point.
[Journalist] And according to these deputies,
to justify those shootings, they plant weapons on the people they stop.
[Whistleblower 2] There's been multiple occasions
where they say, Hey, we got a guy that has a gun and he's running from us.
In reality, that person never had a gun and they would say, Oh,
it was a phantom gun. It was something that really wasn't there.
So you have personally witnessed that. Yes.
And we started reading the DA report and matching them
with, you know, other things that we found on our own,
which includes, like, you know, the autopsy report.
You know, we found out through forensics that the gun that they're saying
my nephew had on him had absolutely no DNA on it.
None of my nephew's DNA.
And I find it strange because these these deputies are saying that my nephew
has the gun in his hand and he was like an imminent threat to them.
But if he was holding a gun in his hand,
there would have been fingerprints on the gun.
Immediately after I released
the first part of the series, I began receiving death threats.
I regularly receive threatening messages on my social media.
I receive phone calls from people threatening my life.
I have my loved ones have received these messages as well.
The sheriff of Los Angeles County has instructed
anyone that I reported on to personally sue me,
and when I attempted to attend a press conference
featuring the sheriff's department, I was detained.
[Off Camera] Why?
I think the sheriff's department
has decided to target me since I released the series.
We started like just finding shit and everything we would find out
about Anthony or about the sheriff's department, we will come out and talk.
And the more we will come out and talk,
the cops have passed by the House and they would park
on the corner of our street, which they still do to this time.
They would park in the corner of our house and they would sit in thier car
and they would eat their lunch.
And you know, there is a corner store from where our family residence is so
the kids will walk to the store and they can't even walk to the store
because they see the sheriff's department
right there and because they know what they did to Anthony.
And these are kids under the age of like 15.
[Reporter] Deputy
Art Gonzalez is a documented hero,
a former Marine who became a deputy rewarded by the L.A.
County Sheriff's Department with the Medal of Valor in 2018
for saving the life of a four year old boy.
The time is 10:59 and we are on the record.
OK. Now, he is sounding the alarm of a group of 15 officers inside the
Compton station with matching tattoos
allegedly known as the Executioners.
I now call them a gang because that's what gangs do.
They beat up other people.
Deputy Gonzalez,
he's he's afraid for his safety right now.
He also reports that graffiti appeared at the station entrance.
"Art is a rat" and that was placed at the keypad to get into the parking lot,
so that's the most visible place in the entire station.
His lawyer says he's now on leave from the department
and in fear for his life.
In addition to having to hire
security guards to go with me when I do my job,
I've had to start wearing a bulletproof vest.
And these death threats are credible and I've been told by people
inside the department that I should be careful.
So I invested in this.
This is a bulletproof vest.
I, yeah, this guy comes with me very often.
[Off Camera] Why do you keep doing it?
I continue to report on this story
because no one else really is.
And seeing the closure,
I suppose, that I'm able to bring to families,
you know, oftentimes they had suspected for years
that their loved one had been killed by a gang member.
And I can come along and confirm that.
And I've also seen my reporting
make a very real difference in some of the ongoing cases.
Just recently, the Democratic Party of Los Angeles County
passed a resolution asking for the sheriff to resign.
And now that, you know, everything's came out like there's a complete,
you know, turn in like, I can't tell you how it feels to like, see the tide turn.
You know, like, it's fucking groundbreaking,
and it's like it shows you the progress that's being made.
You know, it just makes you want to keep pushing more and more.
Because when we were fighting back then, like that push now has come,
it's come even further and it's just like, it's fucking it encourages you.
[Caller] The sheriff, Alex Villanueva, they're the lead gang member of L.A.
County, he's a Bandito himself.
This is 3000 boy, Deputy Mark Romero is one of them.
And now today, I believe he's a homicide sheriff when he's a 3000 Boy underneath.
We're out here spreading the word and saying it "Google LASD gangs".
Everyone should be tagging their neighborhood with "Google LASD
gangs" "Google LASD gangs" Fuck the Banditos Fuck Sheriff Villanueva.
Fuck LASD as organization.
[Hasan Piker] by the way, when you're done Googling 40% cops,
Google Los Angeles Sheriff Department gangs OK. LASD gangs.
We know about your gangs.
We're telling our people to "Google LASD gangs" and we're coming for your asses.
And then there's another woman, Cerise, who has been putting together
a series about the gangs and the sheriff's department.
So I'm going to take a look at all of this as these investigations are going on.
We have video proof, we have pictures.
We've taken them to the sheriff's department.
We've called the COC meetings.
We've done what we had to do and nothing's gotten done.
It is unacceptable.
We will send a clear message to the L.A.
County Sheriff's Department that you clean your house,
you get your house in order, and we will surely help you do that.
You have executioners, you have gangs in your own house.
Keep going out there and just keep fighting
and keep exposing them for what they are, what they're doing because it's,
you know, their reign of terror isn't going to stop unless we put a stop to it.
So. We're not going away anytime soon.
You know, like we we're here to stay.
There's a lot of different thought
that into the back of his ear came out of his mouth, he's bleeding.
There's blood. And don't.