L.A. Port Police nabs 3 suspects amid string of bronze plaque thefts
After the theft of hundreds of bronze plaques in the last few months across Los Angeles County, investigators say they are making progress in recovering some of the stolen plates that tell the history of the region.
On Tuesday, police recovered two stolen plaques during a traffic stop, the Los Angeles Port Police announced.
Since early December, bronze plaques commemorating the history of the ports have been ripped and pried off from several memorials, including the American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial erected in 1989, law enforcement said in a news release.
A plaque stolen from Terminal Island in San Pedro honors members of the local Japanese American fishing community who were imprisoned during World War II.
Both those plaques remain lost.
Manhattan Beach police are asking for the public’s help in locating the plaque from Bruce’s Beach that was stolen this week — stripped from its large plinth.
After pulling over a vehicle during the traffic stop Tuesday, L.A. Port Police found a cemetery marker stolen from a site in Long Beach and a plaque taken from St. Joseph Catholic Church in Long Beach, Port Police Chief Thomas Gazsi said.
Police arrested Dionzay Tisby, 42; Brittany Draper, 37; and Deona Jackson, 28 on suspicion of grand theft, authorities announced.
The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation, and the suspects could face additional charges if police are able to connect them to other thefts.
“We all took it very seriously,” Gazsi said about the thefts. “We believe they are responsible for additional thefts. I’m appreciative of the lengthy investigation that involved significant field and forensic work from our investigators.”
Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents the district that includes the Harbor area, called the thefts “heartbreaking” and said the community views the whole situation as a “great disrespect to the fishermen, the industries who built the ports.”
There are plans to replace the plaques if they cannot be recovered, said McOsker, who is talking with port officials to help with the effort.
Los Angeles Port Police is the lead agency in the investigation, which extends outside their jurisdiction.
In January, more than 100 bronze plaques were stolen from Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Carson. About a week before, thieves toppled over gravestones and stole metal plaques from Woodlawn Memorial Park in Compton, according to volunteers at the cemeteries and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Perhaps the most egregious of the bronze plaque thefts happened in Manhattan Beach, where Los Angeles County returned a piece of land to the family of Willa Bruce, who sought to create a beach resort for a Black community in 1912.
A Carson cemetery, already in limbo over ownership, had more than 100 bronze plaques stolen by vandals over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
The city rededicated the site last year with a new plaque that told the history of racism the family faced in Manhattan Beach. In late January, the large bronze plaque was pried off its base, according to the Manhattan Police Department.
Anyone with information about the thefts can contact Los Angeles Port Police detectives at (310) 732-3500.
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