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by Lee Williams\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.S. Justice Department\u2019s Special Litigation Section<\/a> describes itself merely as one of several sections working within the Civil Rights Division<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In truth, they are much more than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Special Litigation Section was created to protect people in several areas, including those in jails or prisons, individuals with disabilities, confined youth and \u201cpeople who interact with state or local police or sheriffs\u2019 departments.\u201d<\/p>\n This last bit is why Attorney General Pam Bondi told the Justice Department to investigate the Los Angeles Sheriff\u2019s Department for violating their residents\u2019 Second Amendment rights. The DOJ will definitely send in its Special Litigation Section. They are pros at investigating cops, and Bondi hinted they may have more agencies to review.<\/p>\n \u201cAs part of a broader review of restrictive firearms-related laws in California and other States, the Department of Justice\u2019s Civil Rights Division today announced an investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department to determine whether it is engaging in a pattern or practice of depriving ordinary, law-abiding Californians of their Second Amendment rights,\u201d Bondi\u2019s press release<\/a> states.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert G. Luna, who became the department\u2019s 34th<\/sup> Sheriff just 17 months ago, has more than 17,000 staffers, sworn and non-sworn. Luna became sheriff after a 36-year career at the Long Beach Police Department, where he served as Chief. However, should the Special Litigation Section get the case, there is absolutely nothing he can do to prevent them from determining whether his staff were, as Bondi described in her press release<\/a>, \u201cengaging in a pattern or practice of depriving ordinary, law-abiding Californians of their Second Amendment rights.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Sheriff Luna may try to slow the federal investigators\u2019 progress and keep them from finding and reporting the truth, which would be futile. What Bondi didn\u2019t say is that the Special Litigation Section has never lost a case \u2013 not a single one.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the Section has completed its investigation, which can take months or even years, they present the Sheriff or Chief of Police with two documents: a federal complaint and a consent decree. The two documents are virtually identical except for their titles. If the chief law enforcement executive doesn\u2019t sign the consent decree and agree to make substantive changes to their agency, the investigators file the complaint in federal court where, as stated, they always win.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bondi was very clear about the allegations she believes were committed by the LASD. Their deputies can take more than 18 months to process concealed handgun license applications. She pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court has strengthened the Second Amendment, which it considers a \u201cfundamental, individual constitutional right,\u201d but the LASD still has issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThis Department of Justice will not stand idly by while States and localities infringe on the Second Amendment rights of ordinary, law-abiding Americans,\u201d Bondi said. \u201cThe Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and under my watch, the Department will actively enforce the Second Amendment just like it actively enforces other fundamental constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Regan Rush, Special Litigation Section Chief, did not respond to emails seeking her comments for this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n Much of how her staff operates is withheld from the public, but the best way to judge the Section\u2019s effectiveness is by taking a close look at how they operated in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previous consent decrees\u00a0<\/strong> It found:\u00a0<\/p>\n This Justice Department did not like the special report\u2019s findings at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe report included descriptions of 77 cases in which either officers had allegedly pointed or fired their weapons under questionable circumstances or the case files related to the shooting incidents contained little or no information reflecting that any investigation of the use of force was conducted. The report also summarized 20 cases in which VIPD officers, often off-duty at the times of the incidents, brandished or fired weapons during personal arguments or fights,\u201d the DOJ said in a press release<\/a>. \u201cThe disturbing and unflattering portrait presented by the \u2018Deadly Force\u2019 report was one of a police department whose officers were poorly trained, too quick to use firearms, and immune from serious consequences for improper and in some cases illegal uses of deadly force. The article called for various actions to be taken in response to its findings, including an investigation by the Special Litigation Section of DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Special Litigation Section and the VIPD signed a consent decree a few years after the news was published. However, today \u2013 more than 22 years after the first story was published \u2013 the VIPD still remains under close federal supervision because they have not made adequate changes to a series of consent decrees<\/a> to end the civil case.<\/p>\n Two consent decrees in Delaware had opposite results. Delaware\u2019s state government was able to make changes and avoid decades of federal inspections and supervision for problems I found in its prison system<\/a> and psychiatric center<\/a>, which it cleaned up in just a few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n How LASD\u2019s Sheriff Luna will respond is not yet known, but it may be difficult for him. The best advice is to quickly realize he is no longer in charge. The DOJ is. Hopefully, he will stop his deputies from depriving residents of their Second Amendment rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Sheriff Luna doesn\u2019t act soon, he may become just another unemployed top lawman who lost his job because he underestimated the Justice Department\u2019s little-known but powerful Special Litigation Section. \u00a0<\/p>\n The Second Amendment Foundation\u2019s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn\u2019t be possible without you. Click\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to make a tax-deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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In March 2003, I was an investigative reporter at the Virgin Islands Daily News. I wrote \u201cDeadly Force\u2013A Special Investigative Report<\/em>,\u201d which was 44-pages long and examined the Virgin Islands Police Department\u2019s shootings from January 1985 to December 2003.<\/p>\n\n