Police Brutality

Jose Luis Munoz pocketed the $200 "gate money" and jumped inside a prison staff car that drove him to the bus station in Delano, just up California 99 from Bakersfield. Flames fanned by October's Santa Ana winds had Southern California ablaze, but after a year behind bars, he was willing to walk through fire to get home. The bus ticket set him back $20, but the man known by the gang moniker Dopey was returning to Anaheim richer than he ever imagined.

The Los Angeles Police Department, grappling with problems triggered by the Rodney G. King beating and reignited by the explosive comments of former Detective Mark Fuhrman, has completed its first comprehensive manual on how and when police should use force to subdue suspects.

Already under FBI investigation for suspected jailhouse brutality, the Orange County Sheriff's Department has now been accused by prosecutors of conducting a "fatally flawed" probe into the 1999 beating of an inmate. The Orange County district attorney's office, in a March 14 letter, criticized the Sheriff's Department for, among other things, letting one of the accused deputies help with the internal investigation in its early stages.

The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday rejected the recommendation of Police Chief William J. Bratton and ruled that the officer who fatally shot a 13-year-old after a brief chase violated department rules and should face discipline. The decision marks the first major test of a panel that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed last summer to provide tougher oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Amid an escalating campaign to defy apartheid in South Africa, throngs of demonstrators were chased down Cape Town streets Saturday by police using whips, tear gas and water cannons spraying purple dye. More than 500 people, including 52 journalists, were arrested. The protesters, including the Rev.

Just one day after five New York City policemen were arraigned on murder charges involving the fatal beating and choking of an auto-theft suspect in Queens, three more officers were charged Thursday with beating and pistol-whipping three men without provocation in a separate incident last December in mid-town Manhattan.

Bud Grose seemed like the last person who should attract the attention of police when the 76-year-old retiree hopped on his antique tractor and rumbled through the annual parade in this small Wyoming town. But what was supposed to be a day of fun at an end-of-summer festival ended abruptly when police shot Grose with a Taser in a dispute about where to end the parade route. The incident nearly incited a riot as outraged neighbors rushed to his defense. Now residents of this tight-knit town of 2,400 are seething over what they see as police brutality, and town officials are scrambling to ease the tension.

Allegations of sexual misconduct, racism and brutality are roiling the Police Department in the small suburb of Maywood, prompting the City Council this week to request an immediate investigation by the state attorney general's office. The probe comes after years of accusations from residents that the Police Department has mistreated Latino immigrants, who make up a majority of the town's population of 40,000.

Los Angeles County officials on Monday tentatively approved a $1.75-million settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of a 27-year-old paranoid schizophrenic inmate who has sued claiming he was nearly beaten to death by sheriff's deputies in the Hall of Justice Jail. Michael Frlekin was in a coma for several weeks and suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the Oct. 15, 1990, incident, his lawyers say.

The FBI has launched an investigation into allegations that Hermosa Beach police officers roughed up and falsely arrested three area residents last spring and then lied in police reports and in court to justify their actions. At least two of the three said they have been interviewed by agents in recent weeks.