Compton Faces a New Spike in Violence

So far this year, Compton already has experienced triple the number of killings the city suffered over all of 2015, reports the L.A. Times, and that’s not good. But also troubling is the fact that this rise is leading to the expansion of a sheriff’s department currently plagued with racism and police-brutality scandals. On May 16, two L.A. county sheriffs were convicted of beating a mentally ill inmate and are now facing up to 40 years in prison. On May 2, Tom Angel resigned from his post as the L.A. County sheriff’s chief of staff after the L.A. Times publicized a string of emails from his deputies disparaging Muslims, Mexicans, and African Americans, and made sexist comments about women.

But it’s this sheriff’s department that Compton, a majority Mexican- and African-American city, has had to depend on since its municipal police department was disbanded in 2000. Compton now contracts with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to handle its policing. Given the recent rise in crime, Compton is now expanding the sheriff’s presence in the city, with the U.S. Justice Department’s assistance.