officers - The Black Vault

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"In spite of that," he added, "in
spite of how difficult it is, he
deserved that apology and I apologized
.... Now that's the point I
was trying to make, but like so
many things that have been said
today and all throughout my career,
there has been an awful lot of
misinterpretation."
Requests by The Times to inter-
. view Gates last week were declined.
But the chief agreed to have
a reporter present during a meeting
with The Times' publisher and
editors Thursday-a meeting instigated
by Gates because of concern
that the newspaper's editorials
have. been unfair.
During the hourlong conversation,
Gates touched on a wide range ·
of topics, from the problem of
excessive force to the continuing
integration of his department.
Asked if under any scenario he
could envision himself resigning
now, Gates said he would first heed
the advice of his wife of 21 years,
Sima, whom he affectionately calls
·~sam."
"You think it's hard on me?" said
Gates, 64. "Actually, I can handle
it. But, boy, it's really tough on her.
• . . So, I asked her this morning. I
said, 'Sam, would you rather I
quit?' She said, 'Ab-so-lute-ly not.
Ab-so-lute-ly not. You can't.' So
that's my answer. Absolutely not."
Gates predicted that the department
would degenerate into chaos
if he were to leave, with morale
plummeting and an exodus of top
officers continuing. He will stay, he
said, "because I need to stay."
"You know, in so many situations,
I could be a good guy," said
Gates, his voice dripping with sarcasm
as he lingered on the last two
words. "[But] my police officers
would say, 'Oh, man, the chief is
selling us out.' I could be a great
guy. I could be very popular. . . .
But that's not the way you develop
confidence and respect from your
personnel." ·
The difference between this and
.previous controversies, he sai~, is
that few others have so greatly
impacted the entire department. In
most cases, officers are divided in
their opinions. "There are no divided
opinions in this one. They ~
know it's bad.''
The bonfire erupted March .3,
when amateur photographer
George Holliday focused his new
camcorder on the street belo:w his
Lake View Terrace apartment. On
the tape he captured 15 officers, at ·
least three of whom appeared to be
taking turns kicking and clubbing
King, a 25-year-old construction
worker.
The video first aired March 4 on
a Los Angeles television station,
but Gates was in Washington, D.C.,
attending a meeting on crime with
the U.S. attorney general and did
not see it until the next day. By
then, it had been shown on Cable
. News Network and the national
furor had begun to brew.
Gates said he .has now seen the
tape "too many" times, "more than
I would like to count." But th; first
time, he said, was the worst.
"It made me physically ill," he
said.
Literally?
"Physically ill," he said. "Physically
ill.''. .
That first afternoon, at a meeting
of the Police Commission, Gates
called the tape "shocking.'' But
when he added that he would
withhold judgment until after the
incident had been fully investigated,
.the furor quickly began to
mount.
: Steve Delsohn, a writer who is
~elping Gates with his autobiography,
said that he spoke with the
thief shortly after the incident and
was certain that Gates intended to
take action.
"As soon as he said the tape was
'shocking,' that word jumped out at
me," said Delsohn, whose last book
was a collaboration with former
NFJ,. running back and activist Jim
Brown. "I know Gates. I knew that
meant somebody was going to get
nailed.''
. ~o days later, in his first press
conference since the tape was
aired, Gates attributed the incident
to "total human failure" and called
for the criminal prosecution of the
t.Iu-ee officers who appeared to be
beating King.
B
~t by calling it "an aberration,''
he failed to resolve the issue
for hundreds of critics who have
Insisted that excessive force is a
commonplace occurrence, especia~ly
in the city's minority communities.
"Qates is simply not good at
puolic relations,'' said Mark Ridley-Thomas,
head of the local
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and a candidate for the
~th District City Council seat. "He
bas ·exacerbated the 'us against
them' mentality."
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