Alex Villanueva, the Los Angeles county sheriff embroiled in a number of scandals, seems headed for a runoff election in November as early outcomes counsel he did not win sufficient votes to safe re-election.
Villanueva, who has been derided by critics because the “Donald Trump of LA”, is prone to face off with Robert Luna, the previous police chief of Lengthy Seaside. Luna was endorsed by the LA Instances and LA Day by day Information editorial boards, which argued that the embattled company wanted an outsider to take over, although Luna’s police division additionally confronted controversies.
As of late Tuesday evening, Villanueva held a slight lead, with 32% of the vote to Luna’s 26% and 35% of votes counted.
Regardless of nationwide scrutiny of Villanueva surrounding a collection of misconduct, abuse and obstruction circumstances, his critics didn't unite behind one candidate.
Villanueva has grow to be a favourite regulation enforcement determine amongst some far-right pundits, and is understood for aggressively opposing efforts to convey accountability to the division. Lately, he has publicly lashed out at critics and the media and launched felony investigations into the officers who've sought to reform his company, incomes him comparisons to the previous president.
The sheriff was a little-known lieutenant when he was elected in 2018 and have become the primary candidate to beat an incumbent for LA sheriff in additional than 100 years. He was backed by Democrats and progressive teams throughout his marketing campaign after pledging to reform an company with a lengthy historical past of scandal. However over the past 4 years, he has misplaced the assist of Democratic teams, civil rights activists and a variety of LA county leaders, who say he broke his guarantees and permits officers to have interaction in violence and misconduct with out consequence.
The Los Angeles sheriff’s division (LASD) is the most important county sheriff’s workplace within the US, with hundreds of officers who patrol almost 200 southern California cities and cities. The sheriff additionally oversees one of many world’s largest jail programs. A former head of the division was despatched to jail in 2020 after he was convicted of obstructing a federal investigation into systemic abuse of incarcerated individuals within the county jail system.
LASD has confronted rising outrage over stories of “deputy gangs” inside the division – cliques of officers with names just like the Banditos and Executioners, who allegedly have matching tattoos and promote brutality and racist policing. Regardless of rising testimony from whistleblowers and LA county officers in regards to the presence and threats posed by these inner teams, Villanueva has repeatedly denied their existence.
The county inspector common, the highest watchdog for LASD, has recognized greater than 40 such teams inside the division, however Villanueva has outlined subpoenas by the IG and demanded the county’s board of supervisors stop utilizing the phrase “deputy gangs”. Villanueva has aggressively attacked the IG, accusing him, with none proof, of being a “Holocaust denier”, a declare the IG stated was “deeply offensive” and false. Villanueva additionally has a “civil rights and public integrity” unit, reportedly identified internally as his “secret police”, that has launched investigations into his political opponents.
In a separate controversy, a whistleblower not too long ago claimed that Villanueva personally directed a cover-up of an incident, captured on movie, during which jail guards knelt on the pinnacle of a handcuffed man for 3 minutes. A number of high-profile killings by his deputies have additionally sparked nationwide headlines in recent times, and households of victims have accused his division of harassing them.
Villanueva campaigned on a platform of hiring extra police, cracking down on homelessness and opposing “woke” reform efforts. In a current interview with the Guardian, he dismissed the whistleblower and different claims towards him and his division, saying they had been “pushed by trial attorneys and opportunistic politicians” and a “cabal of individuals” making a “false narrative”.
Luna campaigned on a platform of restoring belief within the division and “reforming and modernizing” the LA jails, although as Lengthy Seaside chief, a place he held from 2014 by way of 2021, he additionally battled scandals; there have been claims of racism within the division and considerations about extreme drive and killings by officers. Luna grew up in East LA, in an space closely patrolled by the sheriff’s division, and he has talked about witnessing dangerous policing techniques within the neighborhood.
Lengthy Seaside is the second-largest metropolis in LA county, and if he wins, Luna can be the second police chief from town to take over the sheriff’s workplace.
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