LASD Gangs Googled Us w/ Cerise Castle

For episode 19, we sat down with Cerise Castle to speak on one of her latest offerings “I wrote the history of LASD gangs. Then the sheriff’s department started surveilling me”. We also get some insight on how the catalyst for their surveillance “A Tradition of Violence - The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department” came to be. Other subjects discussed include what comes with being surveilled by the pigs, the 29 page dossier on Ricci Sergienko that included coverage on his college baseball career, and the power of public records act (PRA) requests. You won’t want to miss this one!

Cerise Castle is a LA-based journalist specializing in arts & culture, civil rights, criminal justice, and human interest stories. She wrote the first history of deputy gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. She also created, produced and hosted A Tradition of Violence, a podcast detailing the history and criminal activity of deputy gangs. That reporting earned her the 2022 International Women in Media Foundation’s Courage Award, the American Journalism Online Award for the Best Use of Public Records, and the American Mosaic Journalism Prize. In 2024, Castle was a Poynter Fellow at Yale University. 

episode credits:

hosted by Jason Reedy and Ricci Sergienko

follow Cerise Castle on Twitter @cerisecastle and on IG @yourmajestee

follow us on twitter @pplscityprop and @pplscitycouncil 

follow our host Jason Reedy @AxumSelassie 

PCP theme song: Adam Smith @AdamOfTheSmiths

recorded at the Robinson S.P.A.C.E twitter: @RobinsonSpaceLA IG: @therobinsonspace

editing by Jason Reedy

sound mixing by Phillip Kim

mentions of ricci’s college baseball career: 3