# "Thie Shield" Strike Team is modeled after a real life police unit. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 9, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thie-shield-strike-team-is-modeled-after-a-real-life-police-unit/343732 "2006-02-09T20:26:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thie-shield-strike-team-is-modeled-after-a-real-life-police-unit/343732/1 "2006-02-09T20:26:19Z")
Interesting- I never knew. I thought it was all writers imaginations. [Rampart CRASH Scandal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampart_Division) > [@](#): > > Rampart CRASH Scandal > One such CRASH unit was stationed in the Rampart Division, which the rest of this article covers. In August 1998, the same month that Chief Bernard Parks claimed that the Christopher Commission reforms were “essentially complete”, officer Rafael Perez, a nine-year veteran of the department, was arrested on charges of stealing six pounds of cocaine from an evidence room. In September 1999, in exchange for partial immunity from prosecution, he testified about a pattern of abuse and misconduct that threatened to overturn thousands of criminal convictions, accusing about seventy fellow CRASH officers. > > Though three officers were convicted of obstruction of justice and other charges in October 2000, these convictions were overturned that December. Three more reached plea bargains the next year. > > These events are sometimes referred to as the Rampart Scandal. > [@](#): > > LAPD Rampart Division > > The Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department serves the districts to the west and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, including Echo Park, Pico-Union and Westlake. Its name is derived from Rampart Boulevard, one of the principal thoroughfares in its patrol area. The station house is located at 2710 W. Temple Street in Westlake. > > The “Rampart Scandal” > The Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang program initiated under the direction of LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates had encountered some success in the Rampart Division. However, in 1998-99, graphic allegations emerged of extreme police misconduct among Rampart’s CRASH squad. The resulting scandal—exacerbated by what is widely viewed as inept public relations management by then-chief Bernard Parks—severely compromised the credibility of the LAPD, and the Rampart Division in particular, during a time when the department had only just begun to recover from the public relations fiasco of the Los Angeles Riots. > > The most prominent casualty of the scandal was Parks, who was not rehired by newly elected Mayor James K. Hahn in 2001. While Parks’s termination was hailed by outside observers and the LAPD’s rank and file, Hahn’s indelicate handling of the matter cost him the support of South Los Angeles’s black community, leading to his crushing defeat by Antonio Villaraigosa in the 2005 election. > > The pullback in Rampart Division CRASH operations following the scandal is widely believed to have enabled Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a notoriously violent gang, to establish a firm base of power in Westlake’s huge Salvadoran population. ---
**Author:** ![garius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19b73/32.png) [@garius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garius)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thie-shield-strike-team-is-modeled-after-a-real-life-police-unit/343732/2 "2006-02-09T21:15:59Z")
Yep - In fact the original name for the series was meant to be _Rampart_ if i remember correctly, but the police were none too happy about the idea 🙂