officers - The Black Vault

:and-others watch, at least three
officers appear to take turps kick­
~ ing King and beating him with
· nightsticks. Gates said the man was
·.struck more than 50 times.
The grand jury exceeded the
; scope of Gates' recommendation
·that only three officers be prosecuted:
Although Gates had singled
, out the sergeant with the stun gun
~for criticism-saying that he
should have controlled his offi­
~ers-and vowed to take adminis­
. trative disciplinary actions against
all 15 officers, the chief did not
. believe there was cause to crimi-
~ nally prosecute the 14-year ve.ter- .
an.
. According to their attorneys, the
' officers ordered to appear in court
: are Sgt .. Stacey Koon, 40; veteran
. Officers Ted Briseno, 38, and Laurenee
Powell, 28, and Timothy
Wind, 30, a rookie still on probation. ·
A law enforcement source said all
four were indicted, and attorneys
for Koon and Powell confirmed that
their clients face prosecution. .
. · N:one of the four attorneys con­
. tacted by The Times said they had
, been told what charges would be
: pressed against their clients. All
· were told to report to Department
· 100 of the Los· Angeles Criminal
: Courts building at 1:30 p.m.
· "They just said be here," said
:Paul DePasquale, Wind's lawyer.
. Whether any of the other 11
~officers were indicted was not
r. known. The four who were indictted
had been identified earlier as
lthe first officers to be removed
from field duty after the incident. .
·· The grand jury's action came
hours after a tumultuous meeting
of the Los Angeles Police Commission,
a special session for which ·
an open invitation had been ex-
"'
tended to anyone with ·an opinion
on the King beating.
Gates sat stoically through the
three-hour session, which was frequently
in'terrupted by chants of
"Justice! Justice!" and "Daryl
Gates must go!" Later, the chief
held an impromptu news conference,
declaring some of the criticism
"poppycock."
Although Gates has said there iS
no .~vidence
thai the beating was
ra_c1ally motivated, the long line of
_Wltnesses at the hearing was drawn
mainly ·from the city's African­
American community and its leaders.
..
"I'm here today as a black man,"
said Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr.
(D-Inglewood), "and I'm here today
to ask Chief Gates a question: How
long? How long will this continue to
go on in our community?"
Black people, Tucker said, are
afraid when they are pulled over.
by the police: "They don't know
whether justice will be meted out,
or whether a judge, jury and executioner
is pulling up behind
them. . ·. . How can we respect a
department that does not respect
us?"
.Danny Bakewell, leader of the
civic group Brotherhood Crusade
· received one of the crowd's many
standing ovations when he de- .
clared: "The people are sick and
tired -of this! We ar~ not going to let
black people be brutalized in our
•.. ·community .... You take an oath
to protect and serve but when you
go to the black community all you
do is abuse." ·
The meeting, ·held in the ·450-seat
auditorium at Parker -Center the
Police Department's .downtown
, I headquarters, was standing-room
._only. Outside the Police Department
building, several hundred protesters
picketed, shouting through bull- .
· horns and carrying signs such as one
that read: "LAPD..:..Humans Need
. Not Apply."
Inside, while they were waiting
for the commission and Gates to
arrive, the crowd erupted into
chants of ·~Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Daryl
Gates has got to go!" The chanting
continued, growing louder and
louder until it became thunderous
as Gates and the commissioners
entered the room. ·
Later, they cheered wildly as~
representative of an association
of black lawyers told the commissi~l!
that-despite the widespread
belief that Gates is virtually immune
to firing because of the city's
. Civil Service. s~stem-the panel
does have the nght to discipline,
suspend or remove the chief. ·....
. Quoting from the City Charter
I
Geoffrey T. Gibbs, a lawyer with
the John M. Langston Bar Assn.
told the citizens panel that th~
·hoard may remove Gates for "in-
1 competency, dishonesty, discour­
; tesy or neglect of dufy." While
I noting that Gates is entitled to a
;· hearing before the Civil Service
: Commission, Gibbs said the board
· may discipline the· chief in the
. same manner that he disciplines his
· own officers. ·.
"Rodney Glenn King is fighting
. -to restore his eyesight and regain a
r normal life," Gibbs said as the
crowd applauded. "We see no rea­
. ·son why the commission should
h~sitate to make Chief Daryl F.
· _Gates fight to keep his job."
; At his news conference, Gates
: made a plea for his supporters to
~"'sendJetters to the Police Department.
The chief said he -was worried
that the rank-and-file oificers
would become demoralized' after
seeing the hearing on televiSion.
."~:m not as~ing them to support
me, Gates satd. "I'm asking 'them
to send in support for the i.os·
Angeles Police Department. I can
take care of myself."
There was no action by the
Police Commission on Thursday,
nor was any expected. Commission
Vice :President Melanie Lomax said
at the outset that the meeting was
intended to give the public a
chance to voice its concerns about
what she called "this tragic affair."
,At the end of the meeting, she said
the commission would take more
testimony at its regular meeting
next Thursday .
The commission, which currently
has two vacancies, is appointed
by Mayor Tom Bradley and has the
authority to change departmental
policies and practices. Lomax said
th_e community's views will become
part of the commission's
inv~stigation into police training,
• tactics and :wh~ther a pattern of
l'. police brutality exists in minority
., ,communities. Bradley requested
~