Los Angeles residents let out a collective “gasp” when social media users started uploading the chaos from a recent graduation ceremony for students in alternative high schools where some of them are currently housed inside juvenile halls.
Social media users were quick to attribute the fight to gang activity which spilled out onto a downtown Los Angeles sidewalk that began inside the Disney Concert Hall. Law enforcement officials also confirmed shots were fired.
Probation employees quickly identified one of the adults running for cover inside the venue as Chief Deputy of Juvenile Operations Kimberly Epps who is second in command of the department under Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa.
Epps is a transplant from San Bernardino County who regularly presents at work wearing fatigues to the amusement of long-time employees.
Seeing her “run for cover” after alleging being pushed during the melee, offers a glimpse into the struggles both probation and detention services officers face daily inside the two County run juvenile facilities.
The department was quick to issue a statement stating that “all detained probation youth had already exited the building” but let’s be honest, the people in the audience fighting were there to see them graduate many of which are in gangs.
Gang activity is the single most disturbing and distressing factor facing probation department employees, whose leadership has taken an altruistic approach to blaming staff for failure to “control” the situation without the proper tools to do so.
For subordinates to see their second in command running for cover, while walking them out and attempting to file charges against some of them for how they attempt to address fights that could include up to a dozen detainees at a time is outrageous.
Employees didn’t view Epps attempting to break up the fight, they saw her RUN!
Probation employees are also women who are expected to jump in and break up fights as men are expected to do, however, when they are viewed staying out of the way, they are suspended.
Epps regularly appears at union meetings for employees and is often quoted in place of the probation chief on matters regarding the safety of the halls and addressing failures of staff to take appropriate steps to mitigate violence in the juvenile facilities.
I’m not mad at Epps for running but i wholeheartedly find it disgusting that she supports penalizing employees for taken the same approach.
If leadership “starts at the top” she should follow the old saying “practice what you preach”!
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What gangs?
No that can not be!
Haven’t we been told by leadership they do not exist anywhere but in our imagination.
The State/County Administrator over Inglewood Unified declared closure of Morningside and sending students to Inglewood High would not be a problem even after several told him the gang culture was very strong !!
Hmm if he would open Board Meeting doors for elementary school parents to discuss closures we can only imagine how much faster he would sprint from any kind of gang interaction…maybe these 2 should enter the Olympics….