The Verdict on Male Bias: Guilty

In the past month, two reports have brought to light disturbing attitudes toward women within the Los Angeles Police Department. The long-awaited Police Commission report released on the Mark Fuhrman tapes revealed that the LAPD command has known for years about orchestrated sexual harassment and intimidation of female officers and has done nothing to stop it. Internal Affairs files secured by a reporter revealed that the LAPD has been regularly covering up serious problems of family violence, principally wife-beating, within its ranks.

Enough is enough. The Feminist Majority Foundation and the National Center for Women & Policing have called for an independent citizens’ commission to investigate problems of gender bias in the LAPD. The department has proved incapable of handling these problems internally--problems that have compromised the integrity and effectiveness of our police force and the safety of our community and that have cost taxpayers millions in police brutality and discrimination lawsuits.

The report on the Fuhrman tapes confirms the existence of a clandestine organization within the LAPD called Men Against Women. Launched in the mid-1980s, following a court order to increase the hiring of women officers, this male-only rogue group’s purpose is to wage an orchestrated campaign of ritual harassment, intimidation and criminal activity against women officers with the ultimate objective of driving them from the force.

Despite claims by some department officials to the contrary, the treatment of women on the force has not improved much since the early ‘80s. Officers on the force--men and women--tell us that MAW is alive and active today. In April, the LAPD and the city attorney closed ranks to protect a top officer, dismissing serious sexual harassment complaints.

Not only has the LAPD’s failure to stop MAW created huge actual and potential liability for the city in sex discrimination lawsuits, but the constant pressure to drive women off the force has exacerbated the LAPD’s notorious brutality problem. According to the Christopher Commission and other research, female officers are far less likely to engage in excessive force. Fuhrman’s comments about women officers speaks volumes not only about MAW’s macho attitudes toward women, but also about its attitudes fostering vicious police brutality: “You’ve got to be able to shoot people, beat people beyond recognition . . . [Women] don’t pack those qualities.”

The Internal Affairs files showed that officers who beat their wives are regularly exonerated or receive only minor suspensions, even for brutal acts of violence. This February, the city settled out of court for $1.5 million with the family of Melba Terre Ramos, who in 1992 was killed by her husband, LAPD officer Victor Ramos, before he killed himself. The suit revealed that the LAPD had failed to respond properly to previous incidents of severe domestic violence committed by Ramos, relieving him of his weapon for only a short time, and never referring him for prosecution.

The policy of secrecy and cover-up for officers who brutalize their wives and girlfriends is not new. Former Assistant Chief David Dotson testified in the Ramos matter that officers were protected by an unwritten “practice that the department maintained of using internal disciplinary measures rather than the criminal justice system.” This practice not only permits officers to commit acts of violence with the tacit approval of the department, but places women who call for help in danger.

Los Angeles is entitled to a police force that is held accountable for its actions and one that does not harbor law breakers--with respect to the treatment of women on and off the job--within its ranks. Moreover, these issues must be central to the hiring of the next chief. Any candidate from within the LAPD’s top ranks must answer this question: How did these crimes toward women go unchecked on his watch?

We need an independent investigation of all issues related to gender bias within the department, of criminal acts against women officers, of family violence policies where officers are involved, of the possible obstruction of justice in these matters, and the failure of the LAPD to meet consent decree and City Council-ordered goals on hiring and promoting women.

The citizens of this community deserve better. An independent commission is a good beginning.