Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, Inglewood Mayor Roosevelt Dorn and I received identical letters Friday, purporting to be written by an Inglewood police officer, naming nine fellow cops as the main perpetrators of a reign of terror in that city which has resulted in the police killing of several residents and the current federal investigation thereof.

D.A. spokesperson Sandi Gibbons acknowledged Tuesday that Cooley received his letter and stated “it has been referred to the Justice System Integrity Division for review to determine whether an investigation will be opened.”

Dorn gave copies of his letter to Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks and City Administrator Timothy Wanamaker, neither of whom responded to my inquiries into what they plan to do about the letter and the allegations it contains.

The letter, specifically addressed to Cooley and Dorn, is headed with a red capitalized script thusly: THE LAW ABIDING INGLEWOOD POLICE OFFICERS NEED YOUR HELP!!!!! I have deleted a name that figures prominently in this letter and corrected the spelling and punctuation, otherwise, the letter speaks for itself and reads as follows:

“I am a police officer employed by the city of Inglewood. I am writing this letter as an anonymous person for fear of some form of retaliation by Inglewood command staff if I disclose my identity. The Department of Justice is currently investigating the city of Inglewood’s police department for noncompliance, shoot policy and other non-standard reasons.

“On Dec. 28, 2008, the Los Angeles Times published a section on the Inglewood Police Department, specifically the massive amount of recent shootings of unarmed citizens. I have firsthand knowledge that there is a handful of Inglewood police officers that have created and are operating as GANG MEMBERS under the knowledge and acceptance of command staff.

“Going back to the 2002 televised beating of minor Donovan [Jackson] by Officer Jeremy Morse: In 2005, the Inglewood Police Officer Gang Members started a rave of excessive force on citizens ranging from pepper spraying innocent people with their department-issued O.C. to contact taser without documenting the use of force or even making an arrest. The citizens would make a complaint and the complaints got swept under the rug by some sergeants. The sergeant that actually took the complaint forwarded it to [name deleted], where [name deleted] swept it under the rug with a verbal disposition.

“Between 2005-2007, so many citizen complaints of unnecessary use of force came through the watch commander’s door that [name deleted] could no longer cover up the actions of these officers, so [name deleted] began to forward the complaints to I.A. and immediately transferred from the Commander of Patrol to the Commander of Detectives (CYA).

“This situation concerns me because I am afraid that once DOJ completes their investigation, the Police Gang Members will go back to the same old illegal activity. I am requesting that you launch a separate investigation that specifically investigates the following Inglewood Police Officers and their I.A. packages in regards to excessive use of force.

“These officers have identified themselves with a tattoo saying the words: ‘Crazy P.I.G,’ meaning violent police officers. The tattoo is located on their forearm (some right forearm and others left forearm). I can’t help but to believe those four people would still be alive today if [name deleted] would have stopped the criminal activity of our officers when [name deleted] was notified of this years ago.”

The letter concludes with the names of nine officers whom the writer identifies as IPD gang members who sport the identifying tattoo on their forearms.