Gang Bangers With Badges...

...The Murderous Police Gangs of Los Angeles County

Meet The Lil Devils, The Wayside Whities, The Vikings, The 2000 Boys, and The Executioners. These are just some of the most well-funded, well-connected, well-armed, and thus most dangerous street gangs in Los Angeles County, according to a 15-part investigative report written by journalist Cerise Castle.

All of these official street gangs, and many more, have memberships comprised of Los Angeles County police officers. Castle’s reporting reveals how Police Gangs in Los Angeles have a history going back at least a half-century.

“Since the 1970’s there have been at least 18 gangs within the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department and they continue to brutalize and even murder community members today,” the opening lines of a new documentary film centering on Castle’s reporting, produced by The Gravel Institute (below), state.

Castle herself was shot by police while covering protests of police brutality in 2020, and though she survived being hit by the less lethal rounds Los Angeles area police fired at her, the journalist was hospitalized because of injuries sustained from the police attack.

While laying in her hospital bed Castle began researching Los Angeles Police Gangs. She found that, of the many people who have been killed by the Police Gangs, all were people of color. Castle’s reporting details how sworn officers are initiated into their Los Angeles gangs by doing things like falsifying paperwork or shooting a civilian.

Teenaged Andres Guardado may have been one such civilian. The teen was shot five times in the back and killed by police while at his job, evidently as a part of a Los Angeles Police Gang initiation ritual.

After Los Angeles Police officers are initiated into their gangs by committing these crimes, they’re often tattooed with their gang’s symbols and can begin flashing their gangs’ hand signs.

Read and share Castle’s reporting on Los Angeles Police Gangs, titled, “A Tradition of Violence: The History of Deputy Gangs in The Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department.” Also, watch The Gravel Institute’s documentary film on the subject, above.