bfc
- 'I've provided leadership in every single major disaster in this city for 17 years.
But that's all been forgotten now, no one seems to appreciate that anymore.. ,'
En#m'etin High Bltcti TZ"^'~'" f ;'**r:r
When Gates talks about his "political enemies,*' they
a>F7ibTTiyYle7nFT?f^5~rrrra
liked, both professionally and personally, by some of the
city'8 most powerful leaders, people he must.deal with
dafty i"n running the LAPP
T^One prominent observer of the ongoing war between
Parker Center and-CUy Hall who requested anonymity
blames Gates for most of his own predicament.-
"When Gates took over from Davis, why didn't he anticipate what was corning? Everybody knew that the
consent decree (to hire more women and minorities;
was inevitable, so wh> didn't Gates take the initiative
and start active minority recruitment himself like the
Sheriff's Department did? Why did he wait to be forced?
"And he knew the economy"wa3 in trouble, too, so
why did he wait for Bradley to run over him, shove
"Would you like my card?" he asked. Then. With a —JfiQtgaflitiji»m<ton frrtikroa,t? Why didn't he take the
full-iimechauffeur-bodyguards.
Trimrcomposed and impeccably dressed as usual (in
shades of eggshell and beige on this occasion), Gates
-movedthrough the. sweltering Tibise^^lutehihg^ari-alV
most untouched Scotch and water, a small, slightly shy
smile on his face. He looked both eager to please and as
out of place as a deacon in a whorehouse.
_ Jiis bawdy officers, barely subdued by their chiefs
presence, somehow managed to cut an aisle for him as
he passed through the wall-to-wall bodies.
His quiet voice nearly inaudible amid the din, Gates
paused to make brief small talk with nearly every officer, got whacked heartily across, the back a dozen times
and laughed, usually belatedly, at assorted drunken
• jokes. His own-offering was a little gag
bashful smile, he handed over a small white business
card which read: "My Card." Officers, standing around
rum-offered their besLpblitei guffaws,.,
"Somebody gave thenrto me just npw," Gates self--
consciously explained of his "cards;" He looked eThbaj^
rassed at himself.  —~~^-rrr-:; ■ ■ .y -,a ...,-.     .^..v
-After paying his respects to the party'honorees, both
^ until l'jn genef.Tinhibit them. ,          ......
 • '. '■'■'    *;      -^shallow summation. In the firsuplaee.'he points out an-
Gates'Wars grily'.'wTveh'. he took office, he-did cut back on LAPD
brass. He reduced hlsow/i personal staff, he reminds, by
Darvl Gates took office in April. l<r7S-i..st in time to  more £an 2Q%..e|linlnatlng. among^ther positions, his
:    -        _ ;       * —L±iiiL±iiiiLiiL 0wn chief of staff, a deputy chief whowas reassigned.
inherit the Proposition 13 budget cutbacks and a de-
cidedly changing  sociopolitical' environment.  Mayor
Tom Bradley, who. retired as an LAPD lieutenant in
1961 and became mayor in 1973. had already begun to
put an end to the LAPD's days of endless spending arid
unchallenged power. Determined to bring the depart-
—iwroV under-sir ieieivHiaf»--eontrolrhe-appoirited police*
^..commissioners who would renectTTis will^ '
T~ The LAPD's era of semi-autonomy, the police world
as Gates had almost always known it, was over.   " • \ ■'"■
*—in-Ihe first Uramalic public showdown-ofbistenureas
—chief, the commission publicly cono^en^ned ^e^c^oji-^
trovcfsfal 1979 shooting of Eulia Love, the 39-y ear - old
j' black woman with the unpaid $22.09 gas bill who hys-
I—lerically threatened two officers with a kitchen knife-
1' and wound up dead, shot eight times. Despite the public
•-: uproar. Gates steadfastly defended his officers—and, in
general, he has been on the defensive ever since. ^-
*
lead and cut back on the brass himself?
.  "I'll tell you part of the reason why.- Gates is stubborn
and, he's politically naive. He was banking on Inaction
, .Irom the'politicians. He thought they'd be afraid to
•   move against LAPP for fear of seeming to beantl-po-''-■
"Tji6e. Ana it.backfired on him. Now he's aI classic example
■ of management by martyrdom. He hopes that if he just
"ButNobodyremembers that how" herald, shaking his
head, offering oneof his exasperated little half laughs;
And, in the second place^bfiiumed, what City FUJI is
doing to him is political, not fiscal. >••'•■'.,   I
• ' "I am the only chief in the history of this department
to be told how. to run this organization," he declared.
t? And, rye told thenv(city, officials)_repeatedly, all they
itft^e^^tf'ttell"*^ wt don't tidSfc theTnoriey—il can
undersUnd-that. Bjit when they tell me they just don't
-"landersland why. we're^^ng^i»or-that,;'.hec1ontinued,^
..his A-oiceTdrippirij^
it's true <—I^don'^understarid ..:. attthesepeople who
. don't know what the hell they're doing, teihrig me how
to run my organization!'' ■:.: v ■% ;•*."; ••* '■: ■/■ :-V... :;'s^ '. ^
:,'•; Although he has several iargeCs, the central foetus Qf
jGateslwrath. jsJx^die^^iiateaJias nothing buitcoh-
tempt-, for Bradley "and his adrhjnistratipn.aricj^r galls
himJiist Bradley is.runnihg for gp*>|rnor oh a' strong
iaw*and-order platform whenGajef;thinksi Bradley is
thejjiccoaUejiemy.th^ law enfcifement e ver HacLBraaV!
ley, Gates is cqnvinced^ is playing political fo^tballwifrT
the'LAPD,Villing^imself as a fiscal'cbnservatiye to wjn~
votes at the expjense'of public safety. •;   7 ■■■. ,; .• ■-•>%.
Besides.that, Gates thinks Bradley is^in.'generai;^"a,.
ILousy .mSyor^-he hasn't done anything for the. city,'
^v^^rhere's been hapro^ess^fj^scaJplannihg-hasbe^r^
>a7disaster,ariiit!s_been,nothing buia.constant bl'udg?
veqning ofthe Police Department eyer^since-l becairie*
7- : Endorsing/Chartej^mehdm^ent H, placih
^*n cost-of-living;i^nsl^
was only the latesCeyidehffiof Bradley^sanU-poOcgatf
iS