Seven members of a L.A. sheriff’s deputies secret clique that
prides itself on celebrating shootings of mostly Latino and black
gang bangers have been notified they are about to be fired, according
to officials.
The secret group known as the Jump Out Boys prides itself on
aggressive policing, much of it in Latino communities, and brands its
members with matching tattoos of a red-eyed oversized skull bearing
the clique acronym and a bony hand holding a revolver.
Smoke is tattooed over the gun’s barrel for members who have
been involved in at least one shooting.
L.A. sheriff’s department officers fired
Those seven officers aren’t being fired for any known criminal
behavior but apparently for tarnishing the department’s reputation
and unethical conduct at a time when it is struggling through a
federal investigation.
As part of that growing investigation, a criminal grand jury
recently subpoenaed materials about the Jump Out Boys and other
deputy cliques.
The seven have been on an elite gang-enforcement team that patrols
high violence neighborhoods.
A spokesman said the firings show that Sheriff Lee Baca “does
not take any of this lightly and will move forward with the
appropriate action.”
The seven deputies of the L.A. Sheriff’s department have the
right to fight the firings.
The existence of the secret clique was reported last year
The existence of the secret clique was first reported last year by
the Los Angeles Times, as well as the discovery of a pamphlet
describing the group’s creed.
“We are alpha dogs who think and act like the wolf, but never
become the wolf,” the pamphlet stated in one passage likening
criminals to wolves. “We are not afraid to get our hands dirty
without any disgrace, dishonor or hesitation… sometimes (members)
need to do the things they don’t want to in order to get where they
want to be.”
Shortly after the clique’s existence became known, the captain
of the division told his deputies that they “shamed the department
by forming the group and urged those responsible to identify
themselves,” according to reports.
When one deputy came forward naming six others, all seven were
placed on paid leave.
According to one clique member who spoke anonymously with the
Times, the group compared itself to an Ivy League fraternity and the
Boy Scouts
“We get called a gang within the badge? It’s unfair,” he
said. “People want to say you have a tattoo. So do fraternities. Go
to Yale. Are they a gang?…. Boy Scouts have patches and they have
mission statements, and so do we.”
Jeremiah 50:7- All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.
Zechariah 11:5- Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
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