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Two Los Angeles cops have won a $4 million settlement with the city after arguing that they were discriminated against after they fatally shot an unarmed autistic man in the face.
That’s four times what the victim’s mother got in her own 2012 settlement: $950,000.
The shooting took place in L.A.’s Koreatown neighborhood in 2010. Long story short: the shooting was found justified by the police department, but the city’s civilian review board found that the officers violated the department’s use-of-force policy, and that the shooting was unreasonable.
The officers returned to work, this time with desk jobs. Two years later, the officers filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging they had been discriminated and retaliated against after the shooting. They settled that case on Friday: $2 million for one officer and $1.9 million for the other.
Confused? Here is the logic.
The officers alleged they faced an internal backlash in the department, since they were both Latino and the slain man was black. Requests to return to the field were denied, and the duo was repeatedly passed over for promotions and transfers, they argued.
“I do not have confidence in their ability to perform the duties of a field officer,” Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said during the trial. “I have no immediate intention of returning them to the field.”
He added that they “made serious tactical errors” during the fatal encounter, but he adamantly argued that the shooting was justified.
