Law Enforcement

Child abduction alert issued for 2-year-old taken from Los Angeles courtroom
The Los Angeles Police Department issued a CARE Alert to help find a 2-year-old girl taken from a downtown courtroom Wednesday after her maternal grandmother was granted temporary custody. Mariah Salguero's parents took her out of the downtown Superior Court courtroom and her father was seen walking away with her and several family members, police said. The parents may be headed to Arizona where they have family, police said. There is no vehicle description.
City News Service

LA crime stats released
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said Wednesday that domestic violence calls are up about 10.5 percent so far in 2014 compared to the same period last year, contributing to an overall 13 percent rise in the number of aggravated assaults since the beginning of the year. The assault category is one of the few registering an uptick in a year in which most crimes continue to decline, according to LAPD statistics.
City News Service

Hundreds of LAPD officers sue city
In a dozen lawsuits, hundreds of Los Angeles police officers claim the city violates fair labor standards by making them work through meal breaks and stiffing them for overtime. Hundreds of unionized police officers sued the city in Federal Court on Monday, in closely related complaints. The officers had joined other plaintiffs in two fair labor complaints against the city.
Courthouse News Service

Union objects to L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, police discussing contract
Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday he will not back down and plans to talk directly with cops about the proposed one-year contract that was rejected, despite threatened legal action seeking to block him from doing do. The Los Angeles Police Protective League said it plans to file an unfair labor practices complaint with the city Employee Relations Board to block Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck from discussing the matter directly with officers.
Los Angeles Daily News

CHP stuck in the middle on motorcycle lane-splitting
The California Highway Patrol has withdrawn its safety guidance on motorcycle lane-splitting. The law enforcement agency two weeks ago quietly removed from its website a series of recommendations for riders using the popular traffic-avoidance practice, one often reviled by automobile drivers. Lane-splitting, or lane-filtering, is the term used to describe motorcyclists riding in the space between lanes, usually on freeways, and usually when the traffic has slowed or stopped.
Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles, Burbank police departments make 21 arrests during Operation Blue Knights II
A joint operation by the Los Angeles and Burbank police departments resulted in 21 felony arrests, the departments announced Tuesday. In the early hours of Thursday, Operation Blue Knights II was set in motion and the result were arrests on charges including narcotics violations, identity theft and violation of restraining orders, according to Sgt.
Darin Ryburn of the Burbank Police Department.
City News Service

Legislation

State alert system would target drivers in hit-and-run collisions
The driver of the minivan that hit bicyclist Damian Kevitt in Griffith Park last year never slowed down, even as Kevitt's leg was crushed and he was dragged 600 feet down a highway onramp. The van sped off onto the 5 Freeway and hasn't been seen again. It is the type of aftermath that Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) hopes to prevent with a new system of alerts that would notify the public when authorities are searching for a vehicle suspected of being involved in a hit-and-run that results in serious injury or death.
Los Angeles Times

Prisons

California inmates win class-action status over race-based treatment
A federal judge in Sacramento on Wednesday awarded class-action status to California prison inmates who allege that their rights are violated by what they say are widespread instances of race-based punishment. Prison officials acknowledge they respond to outbreaks of violence by ordering sanctions, including sweeping lockdowns, that can last for months. They say every inmate is assigned a race or ethnic code: black, Hispanic, white or other, and at some prisons, inmates live in cells where their race is denoted by color-coded signs.
Los Angeles Times

City Government

Ex-Los Angeles councilman Richard Alarcon, wife found guilty of voter fraud
Former Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife Flora Montes de Oca Alarcon were found guilty of more than half a dozen counts of voter fraud and perjury Wednesday by a jury in a case that centered on where the couple lived in the San Fernando Valley. The jury dismissed the majority of the charges against the couple, tossing 14 counts, but delivering guilty verdicts on seven counts.
Los Angeles Daily News