Frank Tenpenny, Jimmy Hernandez, and Eddie Pulaski
Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) was an anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department that itself was extremely corrupt. Led by Frank Tenpenny, C.R.A.S.H. was at one point affiliated with the Grove Street Families. Their actions caused the 1992 Los Angeles Riots after Tenpenny was acquitted of corruption charges, resulting in several deaths. The unit was disbanded in 1993 to end the riots.
History[]
LA Riots
The Los Angeles Riots of 1992
The "Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums" project was meant to stop gang violence in Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Police Deparment failed to stop the daily murders in the city. CRASH was a special division of the LAPD, formed in 1977. The CRASH were involved in beatings, intimidations, planting of evidence, and getting leverage over gang members enforced by fear of retaliation on CRASH's part. Frank Tenpenny, an officer in the LAPD, was its leader in the 1990s, and was extremely corrupt, working with the drug lord Big Smoke of the Grove Street Families. He forced Carl Johnson, a high-ranking OG in the gang, to work for him and participate in jobs against other gangs.
In 1992, the CRASH group generated controversy after Tenpenny was ruled innocent and many people decided to wake up, grab a fistfull of steel and raise hell. People armed with guns destroyed buildings and killed each other, so the LAPD and SWAT had to shoot protesters. 53 people were killed and thousands were injured, while over $1,000,000,000 was reported in property damage. During the riots, Johnson stormed Big Smoke's crack house and killed him, and Tenpenny died when his firetruck veered off of the Ganton Bridge and plummeted down into Grove Street, killing him.
In 1993, CRASH was disbanded, ending the riots and restoring order and peace in the city.