Ice Cube Joining LAPD in “Rampart”

The (racially insensitive epithet) you love to hate is playing a cop in director Oren Moverman's upcoming film "Rampart," about the scandal that rocked the LAPD in the '90s.

Cube's view on life has clearly softened in the years since he co-wrote "F*** tha Police," but it's interesting that he's signed on with this project, considering how outspoken screenwriter James Ellroy's has been in defending -- if not excusing -- the actions of the Rampart division that was at the center of the scandal.

"(T)he Rampart scandal, (was) a stick of dynamite with a wet fuse. Rampart is another of these misperceived criminal conspiracies. It's really the story of a handful of rogue, criminal cops who ratted out a wider number of untainted cops to save their own skins," Ellroy told National Review Online in 2005. "And the entire event blew out of proportion into a media event that most people took to represent large-scale endemic corruption in the LAPD. In reality it wasn't that. Cops are afraid to do their jobs now. There are nuisance suits filed routinely on officers who bruise the pinkies of violent street suspects, and they all have to be dealt with through the civilian complaint process. This wastes time and diverts energy from the real business of police work."

The Rampart scandal was an epic mess, with more than 70 officers implicated in a ring of violence, theft and other gang-related activity, that would inspire both Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the hit TV series "The Shield."

Cube will star as a homicide cop investigating a dirty officer played by Woody Harrelson, reported Deadline Hollywood. Earlier this year Harrelson got an Oscar nomination for his work in Moverman's "The Messenger." Ben Foster, who also starred in "The Messenger" has signed on for "Rampart" as well.

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