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OAKLAND— A class action federal suit was filed Thursday on behalf of at least 12 black men who say their civil rights were violated by four Oakland police officers known as “The Riders.” 

Lawyers for the group also called for a federal investigation into the department’s “ongoing pattern and practice of police misconduct.” 

The suit names as defendants the four officers charged in the scandal, Frank Vazquez, 44, Clarence “Chuck” Mabanag, 35, Jude Siapno, 32, and Matthew Hornung, 29, as well as Police Chief Richard Word and the city of Oakland. 

Mabanag, Siapno and Hornung have pleaded innocent to charges including assault, kidnapping and filing false reports. Authorities are still looking for Vazquez, who may have fled to Mexico. 

A call to Word’s office seeking comment Thursday was not immediately returned. 

But Word and Mayor Jerry Brown repeatedly have said the four officers’ alleged misconduct was isolated to about three weeks last summer and that no additional officers were involved.  

Word vehemently has denied any “code of silence” or institutionalized abuse. 

Two of the officers, Mabanag and Siapno, have been fired. Vazquez and Hornung remain on paid administrative leave. 

Calls to the officers’ attorneys were not immediately returned Thursday. 

Lawyer John Burris, who filed Thursday’s suit, called the misconduct “a matter of official policy rooted in an entrenched posture of deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of African-American males” in West Oakland. 

He said Word and other high-ranking officials tolerated abuse within the department and were aware of a “repeated pattern of misconduct” by “The Riders,” but failed to stop them. 

”(Former Police Chief Joseph) Samuels and Word are both men of honor who want to do the right thing,” Burris said. “But the chiefs only get the information that filters up to the top at the very end.” 

There was a “breakdown within the department to allow officers to feel comfortable when this behavior can go on,” he said during a news conference attended by at least 10 black men who said they had been beaten up, framed or otherwise abused by “The Riders” and other officers. 

At least four of the alleged victims who filed the civil suit also are named in the criminal complaint against the officers. 

All 12 of the men who brought the suit have had their criminal cases dismissed. 

Prosecutor David Hollister has said about 50 cases have been dismissed so far, but Burris said hundreds more could be affected as calls from people who believe they were wrongly accused pour into his and other lawyers’ offices. 

Lawyer Jim Chanin said he asked the district attorney’s office to “accelerate the process of finding victims of ’The Riders”’ and “reversing those injustices.” 

“The Riders” case has been compared to the Rampart scandal in Los Angeles in which three officers were convicted of framing suspects, more than 100 cases have been thrown out and 70 civil rights suits have been filed. 

Burris said the Oakland case is even more disturbing because the officers intimidated and coerced their victims with name calling and personal put-downs. 

“It’s a subversion of the whole criminal justice system,” he said.