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AH
3li
*lai.
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATI
Fate of Police Chief in Los Angeles
Is Vigorously Debated After Beating
By ROBERT REINHOLD
*«-. liltt IV ><•• 1<*% limrt
LOS ANGELES. March 13 - From
the Mayor's office lo breakfast tables
in Walts and the San Fernando Valley,
the main question in Los Angeles today
is: Should Daryl F. Gates leave his job
as Chief of Police?
The Police Commission, which appoints the Chief, is scheduled to hold a
public meeting with him on Thursday
to discuss the March 3 healing of an unarmed, unresisting black motorist hy
white officers. The beating was videotaped by a witness and has been broadcast over and over, shaking television
audiences nationwide.
The meeting will come two days
after the Congressional Black Caucus
asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate a I legal ions of police
brutality here and elsewhere and after
Mayor Tom Bradley proposed amending the City Charter to allow him to dismiss police chiefs and other department heads who are now protected by
civil service.
To all this, the stern, dapper and
often cocky Chief has responded as he
has to numerous other storms in his
nearly 13 years as department head:
with charm, defiance, blaming ofi
others, tempered apologies and mustering of his political support.
Having developed a national stature
as an implacable foe of crime and defender of the police, Chief Gates will
not be easily moved by cries for his
resignation. "He has succeeded In
developing a constituency of his own,
unique among department heads, like
an elected official in his own right,"
said Councilman Michael Woo, who
represents Hollywood.
AdapUng to a Changed City
The 64-year-old Chief began his career with die Los Angeles Police Department 42 years ago. In those "Dragnet" days. Los Angeles was a much
smaller place and the line between
good and evil seemed clear. It has since
become the nation's second-largest
city, an international polyglot where
police work is as much sociology as
criminology.
Critics say Chief Gates has adapted
to the changes only slowly and grudgingly. They concede that he was as appalled as they al the recent beating, but
say that his longtime attitudes have
fostered an insensitlvity to minority
members throughout the 8,300-mem-
ber force, which is 61 percent white.
Over the years, the Chief's outspoken
comments have disparaged black and
Hispanic residents as well as women,
homosexuals and others.
"The lone of leadership that has
created the climate for this has to be
altered," said Melanle Lomax, a civil
rights lawyer who was recently appointed to the Police Commission by
Mayor Bradley. "The intemperate and
inflammatory statements regularly
H.^n SilRlIri fur II*- Nr» \o.k 1 inirt
Daryl F. Gates, Chief of the Los
Angeles police, is under fire as a
result of the case.
made by our chief of police tend to inflame Gestapo-type tactics by officers
who are marginal I do not believe that
he condones it, but he has blinders on."
The view is entirely different in the
police stations. "We and the officers
view him as one who understands their
Job. supports them, speaks them," said
Lieut. George Aliano, president of the
police union, the Los Angeles Protective League.
Bill Rathburn, the former commander of Los Angeles's South Bureau
who became chief of police in Dallas
eight days ago, called Chief Gates a
"very sensitive, very compassionate,
very private man" who takes any failure by his people or insult to the department very personally.
He said the Chief had been maligned
in the press and was a "strict disciplinarian with no tolerance for police misconduct of any type."
A Stubborn, Proud Man
Few people seem to know the Chief
well. Acquaintances call htm something of a loner, a stubborn and proud
man dedicated to law and order. He
maintains a stern personal regimen,
running regularly and eschewing alcohol. Chief Gates, who is said to be an excellent cook, and his wife, Sima, live in
a condominium near downtown, and
have a beach place in San Clemente.
In 1982, Chief Gates said he had disowned his only son, Lowell, because of
drug use. In 1985 Lowell Gates was arrested on charges of robbing a Huntington Beach drugstore of $5,000
worth of narcotics and was sentenced
to a year in jail. "He will get no assist
ance from me," the Chief said at the
time of the arrest.
He runs the department with the
same discipline, meting out harsh punishment for theft or dishonesty. But
critics say he has been less vigilant
about the use of excessive force and
possible racism in the ranks, allowing a
cowboy attitude to flourish. They point,
for example, to a case in 1985 In which
the Chief overruled a department
tribunal that had ordered the dismissal
of an officer who lied aboul an incident
in which his partner killed a Cuban Immigrant with a shot in the back; the
Chief reduced the penally to six
months' suspension.
A politically conservative Republican, the Chief has sometimes been
mentioned as a possible candidate for
Mayor or Governor, and he has not discouraged such speculation.
Warning lo Officers
Chief Gaies's pres,s office did not respond to repealed request! for an interview with him. At press conferences
and television appearances since the
Ix'adng of Rodney G. King, the Chief
bus caned the incident an "aberration"
in an otherwise "model department"
and has rejected suggestions that he
resign
He was in typical form today when
he addressed the Los Angeles County
Peace Officers Association. "We have
brought shame and dishonor upon the
police profession," he said, but later he
lashed out at critics like the American
Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which has been running newspaper advertisements calling for his
resignation.
Indeed, many political leaders say
Chief Gates just might win out. Los Angeles is perhaps unique among major
American cities in placing the chief of
police and all other department heads
under civil service protection to insulate them from political corruption.
Chief Gates cannot be removed by the
Mayor or the commission, which Is appointed by the Mayor, without "cause,"
generally meaning malfeasance or
moral terpliude.
Even then, his ouster could be delayed for years by appeals. No Chief
has been ousted since the revised City
Charter was approved in the I930's.
'A Praetorian Guard' of Whites
Such insulation has had its negative
aspects, critics say, making the police
unaccountable. "Sun Belt cities have
prided themselves insulating police
from political pressure," said Henry
W. McGee Jr., who teaches criminal
justice and urban planning at the University of California at Los Angeles
School of Law. "But it has insulated
ihem from any minority influence.
"So the L.A. police turn out to be a
praetorian guard of blue-collar whites
who are blatantly and openly hostile to
non-white minorities. While they are in-
Object Description
| Title | Correspondence: complaints against LAPD, 1978-1991 |
| Description | Newspaper clippings (Los Angeles Times, L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Daily News, New York Times, Sentinel) and magazine articles (U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek) documenting Los Angeles Police Department misconduct under Chief Daryl F. Gates, 1978-1991, compiled by Irving Kessler and Lynn F. Kessler. Includes: Introduction, Contents, Excessive force, Rodney King, Mexican nationality, Civil rights, Property, Silence, Discrimination, Accountability, Gates intolerance, Recommendations. PART OF A SERIES: Materials in the series fall into one of several categories related to the Independent Commission's work product: (1) Commission meeting materials, which include meeting agendas, work plans, memoranda, and articles about police misconduct that were circulated and reviewed during the Commission's internal meetings; (2) public correspondence, which includes citizen complaints against the LAPD in the form of written testimony, articles, and an audio cassette tape, as well as letters drafted by citizens in support of the LAPD; (3) summaries of interviews held with LAPD officers regarding Departmental procedures and relations; (4) public meeting materials, which include transcripts, supplementary documents, and witness statements that were reviewed at the Commission's public meetings; (5) press releases related to the formation and work product of the Commission; and (6) miscellaneous materials reviewed by the Commission during its study, including LAPD personnel and training manuals, a memorandum of understanding, and messages from the LAPD's Mobile Digital Terminal (MDT) system. |
| Coverage date | 1978/1991 |
| Creator |
Kessler, Irving, compiler Kessler, Lynn F., compiler |
| Publisher (of the original version) | Los Angeles Times; L.A. Weekly; U.S. News & World Report; Los Angeles Daily News; New York Times; Newsweek; Sentinel |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California, USA; Washington, DC, USA; New York, New York, USA |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California |
| Date created | 1991 |
| Date issued | 1978/1991 |
| Type |
texts images |
| Format | 368 p. |
| Format (aat) |
clippings (information artifacts) articles summaries |
| Format (imt) | application/pdf |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991 |
| Series | Independent Commission File List |
| File | Complaints, suggestions, and support |
| Box and folder | box 23, folders 7-9 |
| Provenance | The collection was given to the University of Southern California on July 31, 1991. |
| Rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Repository name | USC Libraries Special Collections |
| Repository address | Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 |
| Repository email | specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | indep-box23-07_09 |
Description
| Title | Correspondence: complaints against LAPD, 1978-1991, p. 157 |
| Format (imt) | image/tiff |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | AH 3li *lai. THE NEW YORK TIMES NATI Fate of Police Chief in Los Angeles Is Vigorously Debated After Beating By ROBERT REINHOLD *«-. liltt IV ><•• 1<*% limrt LOS ANGELES. March 13 - From the Mayor's office lo breakfast tables in Walts and the San Fernando Valley, the main question in Los Angeles today is: Should Daryl F. Gates leave his job as Chief of Police? The Police Commission, which appoints the Chief, is scheduled to hold a public meeting with him on Thursday to discuss the March 3 healing of an unarmed, unresisting black motorist hy white officers. The beating was videotaped by a witness and has been broadcast over and over, shaking television audiences nationwide. The meeting will come two days after the Congressional Black Caucus asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate a I legal ions of police brutality here and elsewhere and after Mayor Tom Bradley proposed amending the City Charter to allow him to dismiss police chiefs and other department heads who are now protected by civil service. To all this, the stern, dapper and often cocky Chief has responded as he has to numerous other storms in his nearly 13 years as department head: with charm, defiance, blaming ofi others, tempered apologies and mustering of his political support. Having developed a national stature as an implacable foe of crime and defender of the police, Chief Gates will not be easily moved by cries for his resignation. "He has succeeded In developing a constituency of his own, unique among department heads, like an elected official in his own right," said Councilman Michael Woo, who represents Hollywood. AdapUng to a Changed City The 64-year-old Chief began his career with die Los Angeles Police Department 42 years ago. In those "Dragnet" days. Los Angeles was a much smaller place and the line between good and evil seemed clear. It has since become the nation's second-largest city, an international polyglot where police work is as much sociology as criminology. Critics say Chief Gates has adapted to the changes only slowly and grudgingly. They concede that he was as appalled as they al the recent beating, but say that his longtime attitudes have fostered an insensitlvity to minority members throughout the 8,300-mem- ber force, which is 61 percent white. Over the years, the Chief's outspoken comments have disparaged black and Hispanic residents as well as women, homosexuals and others. "The lone of leadership that has created the climate for this has to be altered," said Melanle Lomax, a civil rights lawyer who was recently appointed to the Police Commission by Mayor Bradley. "The intemperate and inflammatory statements regularly H.^n SilRlIri fur II*- Nr» \o.k 1 inirt Daryl F. Gates, Chief of the Los Angeles police, is under fire as a result of the case. made by our chief of police tend to inflame Gestapo-type tactics by officers who are marginal I do not believe that he condones it, but he has blinders on." The view is entirely different in the police stations. "We and the officers view him as one who understands their Job. supports them, speaks them," said Lieut. George Aliano, president of the police union, the Los Angeles Protective League. Bill Rathburn, the former commander of Los Angeles's South Bureau who became chief of police in Dallas eight days ago, called Chief Gates a "very sensitive, very compassionate, very private man" who takes any failure by his people or insult to the department very personally. He said the Chief had been maligned in the press and was a "strict disciplinarian with no tolerance for police misconduct of any type." A Stubborn, Proud Man Few people seem to know the Chief well. Acquaintances call htm something of a loner, a stubborn and proud man dedicated to law and order. He maintains a stern personal regimen, running regularly and eschewing alcohol. Chief Gates, who is said to be an excellent cook, and his wife, Sima, live in a condominium near downtown, and have a beach place in San Clemente. In 1982, Chief Gates said he had disowned his only son, Lowell, because of drug use. In 1985 Lowell Gates was arrested on charges of robbing a Huntington Beach drugstore of $5,000 worth of narcotics and was sentenced to a year in jail. "He will get no assist ance from me," the Chief said at the time of the arrest. He runs the department with the same discipline, meting out harsh punishment for theft or dishonesty. But critics say he has been less vigilant about the use of excessive force and possible racism in the ranks, allowing a cowboy attitude to flourish. They point, for example, to a case in 1985 In which the Chief overruled a department tribunal that had ordered the dismissal of an officer who lied aboul an incident in which his partner killed a Cuban Immigrant with a shot in the back; the Chief reduced the penally to six months' suspension. A politically conservative Republican, the Chief has sometimes been mentioned as a possible candidate for Mayor or Governor, and he has not discouraged such speculation. Warning lo Officers Chief Gaies's pres,s office did not respond to repealed request! for an interview with him. At press conferences and television appearances since the Ix'adng of Rodney G. King, the Chief bus caned the incident an "aberration" in an otherwise "model department" and has rejected suggestions that he resign He was in typical form today when he addressed the Los Angeles County Peace Officers Association. "We have brought shame and dishonor upon the police profession," he said, but later he lashed out at critics like the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which has been running newspaper advertisements calling for his resignation. Indeed, many political leaders say Chief Gates just might win out. Los Angeles is perhaps unique among major American cities in placing the chief of police and all other department heads under civil service protection to insulate them from political corruption. Chief Gates cannot be removed by the Mayor or the commission, which Is appointed by the Mayor, without "cause," generally meaning malfeasance or moral terpliude. Even then, his ouster could be delayed for years by appeals. No Chief has been ousted since the revised City Charter was approved in the I930's. 'A Praetorian Guard' of Whites Such insulation has had its negative aspects, critics say, making the police unaccountable. "Sun Belt cities have prided themselves insulating police from political pressure," said Henry W. McGee Jr., who teaches criminal justice and urban planning at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. "But it has insulated ihem from any minority influence. "So the L.A. police turn out to be a praetorian guard of blue-collar whites who are blatantly and openly hostile to non-white minorities. While they are in- |
| Filename | indep-box23-08-01~09.tif |
| Archival file | Volume77/indep-box23-08-01~09.tif |
