THE COMMUNITY FOUNDED UPON A ROCK"
SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1988
Eagle Rock man charges
LAPD discrimination
By Charles Cooper
An Eagle Rock resident filed suit
against the Los Angeles Police
Department, Chief Daryl Gates and
two named officers, asking for $1
million in damages because of
alleged discrimination against
Latino officers.
Ernest F. Valdez, who served in
the LAPD from 1980 to 1985, named,
in addition to Gates, two former
Northeast police commanders,
Chester Spencer and Robert Taylor.
Spencer is a commander of
employee relatioons, and Taylor a
commander in support services.
Valdez, in a wide-ranging press
conference at his home, also charged that Assistant Chief Robert Vernon, generally considered to be the
second ranking officer in the
department, has promoted
members of his fundamentalist
Christian church to the point where
they control important parts of the
command structure of the LAPD.
DENIES CHARGE
Vernon, in a letter to the editor
when such charges were raised
earlier, said that since 1980 he has
selected five adjutants and two
assistant adjutants. "Not one of
them has ever been a member of or
attended my church," Vernon said.
He listed the seven names in an
attachment to the letter. Three of
the names be listed were included on
a list Valdez released of the "12 most
influential fundamentalist Christians" who he said influenced and
controlled promotions and advancements within the department.
After similar charges were aired
last year, Chief Daryl Gates issued a
statement declaring that the
department does not discriminate
' within or without of its ranks, according to press officer Lt. Fred
Nixon said Friday he did not know if
such a statement was ever issued.
Valdez charged that Latinos are
excluded from the promotional process by a series of steps, including
"cheating on oral boards,
predetermination of promotions"
and "defiance of the rule of three
whole scores."
Nixon said the department follows
accepted policy in its promotional
process, including observance of the
rule of three whole scores, which he
said meant every candidate on
promotional exams who falls within
broad score range is considered.
Nixon said there are currently
three captains and one commander
of Hispanic descent in the department. One of the captains, Art
Lopez, commands Hollenbeck Division.
Valdez released a series of tables
with figures which he said showed
under-representation of Latinos in
ranks, compared with numbers in
the population as a whole.	
In each rank, including Policeman
II, Sergeant I and Sergeant II,
Detective I, n and III, Lieutenant I
and II, and Captain I, II and III,
Valdez said Hispanlcs lagged far
behind any parity figure. He said
parity would be a range of 22.5 percent to 30 percent.
Valdez said he wanted the public
to be aware that he wasn't a
disgruntled officer who couldn't
make it in the department. He Is a
graduate of Occidental College, and
left a management career to join the
department in 1980.
BLAKE DECISION
He predicted that the city will be
faced with the same kind of costly
remedy it faced following the Blake
decision in 1972, which found the city
guilty of discrimination against
female police officers.
Valdez said the attitude Latino officers face in the department was
inherited from previous chiefs, and
he released a list of Latino officers
who had retired from the department since 1947, to refute any
statement that there were no officers to be promoted in previous
years.
He was joined at the press conference by Sergeant Don Jackson of
the Hawthorne Police Department,
representing an organization called
Law Enforcement Officers for
Justice. Jackson said he endorsed
Valdez's statements, and said the
same kind of systematic
discrimination exists against bia,qkj
police officers, though more hdve^
been promoted to command ranks.
Valdez said he has hot received
the support so far of Hispanic
organizations such as the Mexican
American Legal Defense Education
Fund. He said he is also waiting for
promised hearings on his charges
from Councilman Richard
Alatorre's police, fire and public
safety committee.
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