Brickbat: To Serve and Protect

Dana Rothstein / Dreamstime.com

The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department says it has disciplined some of the deputies who failed to properly investigate multiple abuse complaints against the mother of Gabriel Fernandez and her boyfriend. The two are charged with killing the 8-year-old. But court records indicate the pair beat, burned and otherwise tortured the boy for months before his death. His teacher filed multiple reports on the injuries he came to school with. But social workers and sheriff's deputies made only minimal investigations of the family. Four social workers have been charged with felony child abuse, but the sheriff's department refuses to say what discipline the deputies received.