Calif. Police Officials Charged with Seizing Cars of Poor Latinos and Selling Them

King City, Calif., is a small
(population: 13,169) town in Monterey County with a population that
is 87 percent Hispanic or Latino, according to 2010 census figures.
The town’s crime rate is around or below the national average, but
the police there seem to have found ways to keep themselves busy.
According to the county, the highest ranking officers in King City
have been targeting their poorer Latino residents, seizing their
cars, and then selling them for a profit or keeping them for
themselves when their owners were unable to pay to get them back.
The Monterey Herald
reports:

In what is likely the most widespread case of official
corruption in Monterey County history, six King City police
officers, including the former and acting chiefs of police, were
arrested on felony charges on Tuesday, four of them accused of
conspiracy, embezzlement and bribery. The owner of a local tow
truck company, the brother of the acting chief, was arrested in the
scheme, which involved impounding the cars of mostly unlicensed
drivers, then selling them when the cars’ owners were unable to pay
towing and storage fees.

Prosecutor Steve Somers, who is handling the case, said he
considered charging the officers with hate crimes because they
targeted disadvantaged Latino residents. He concluded their actions
targeted the victims because they were vulnerable, not out of
racial animus.

The district attorney’s office had been investigating the claims
for the past six months, but they’ve also been tracking allegations
about wrongdoing at the police department for at least four years,
according to the Herald. They were first alerted to this
scheme thanks to online comments posted on a video of a town hall
meeting in King City where citizens expressed their frustration
with the city’s police department.

Here’s how the towing company gamed the system to make it almost
impossible for victims’ to get their vehicles back:

Ana Vargas, co-chairwoman of the South County Outreach Efforts
and a King City resident, said community members have complained
for months in front of the City Council about Miller’s Towing and
the outrageous rules they had to follow to recover their cars. She
said Miller’s required owners of impounded cars to keep them there
for 30 days, with charges accruing. By the time drivers could pick
up their cars, they owed $2,000 to $3,000.

“The cars were not even worth that much,” Vargas said. Unable to
pay, drivers would just abandon their autos.

Two of the officers were arrested on crimes that had nothing to
do with the car scheme. The six of them comprise 35 percent of King
City’s police force.