In a rather ironic development, 13 children allege that they were physically abused at a police boot camp meant to scare them straight. Given the recent rash of shootings and beatings, the officers’ violent deception of policing methods might arguably be the most realistic depiction possible, but the officers are now finding themselves in hot water.
Two Huntington Park Police Department officers, Patrick Nijland, 47 Marissa Larios, 36, and two South Gate Police Department’s Carlos Gomez-Marquez, 31, and Edgar Gomez, 35, were arrested earlier this week, but have since been granted release on $20,000 bonds.
So far 13 of the 37 students who attended the camp are now claiming that they were physically abused. Allegedly, one participant was beaten bloody, while another suffered broken fingers. Other methods of alleged torture included being locked alone in a dark room, being slammed into objects, and other forms of abuse.
In terms of reality one might argue that the officers delivered the most realistic experience possible. Gathering data on police abuse has proven to be notoriously difficult, but one estimate concluded that large municipal police departments, such as the Los Angeles department, receive 9.5 complaints of abuse per 100 sworn officers, though the data was gathered in 2002.
According to a Pew poll conducted in August of 2014, a majority of people report that the job performance of police officers was only fair or poor. Seventy percent of African Americans reported that service was poor, while only 27 percent of white Americans reported the same. 57 percent of African Americans indicated that police officers used inappropriate amounts of force, compared with only 23 percent of whites reporting the same.
All four of the officers were arrested on suspicion of willful cruelty to a child, criminal battery, and abuse under color of authority. Gomez, Gomez-Marquez, and Larios were also accused of criminal conspiracy, while Nijland escaped said accusation.
The arrests came after the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office received reports of abuse from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services on May 28th. Interestingly, the students and their families/sponsors, were required to pay $400 dollars for the privilege of being beaten.
