[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap]lex Villanueva, who made history just five months ago when he defeated a sitting L.A. County sheriff in the November 2018 election, has spent the better part of his tenure so far locked in a public battle with county officials over hiring practices and deputy cliques. The sheriff spent Tuesday in a 90-minute public hearing on those issues with the civilian oversight committee, where a retired lieutenant sheriff said the situation is "tarnishing the badge."
"We are very disgusted with what's going on," James P. Harris told Villanueva. "It's definitely a very different world today." The "world today" is in reference to a group of deputies that call themselves the "Banditos" at East Los Angeles Sheriff’s station. That clique has been a persistent mark on the department for several years, with accusations of misconduct going back to at least 2011.
In 2014, a sexual harassment lawsuit by a seasoned veteran on the force alleged the Banditos had about 80 members, many of them sporting tattoos of a sombrero-wearing skeleton holding a gun and draped in bullet belts. During the campaign and immediately after the election, Villanueva said he would not ban these types of tattoos as a matter of free speech.