officers - The Black Vault

FD·350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
Police
~remark
revealed
Racism
apparent
I
Six more police officers
present at beating are
identitied./B2
By Howard S. Gantman
COPLEY NEWS-SERVICE
Explosive new evidence
released Monday revealed
that one of the four Los
Angeles police officers
charged in the beating of a
black motorist made an
.apparently racist remark
before the assault and later
declared he had not
"beaten anyone this bad
in a long time."
The release of the radio
computer communication
logs inflamed the growing
furor over the bludgeoning
of Rodney King, 25, early ·
March 3 following a police
pursuit in the northeast
San Fernando Valley.
. It· also led tQ renewed
demands that Chief Daryl
Gates resign or be flred by
the Police Commission·:..::'
something the chief has
consistently vowed to
flght.
Not surprised
"I am sickened, but I'm
not surprised. The only
gratification is that I think
we are seeing the final
nails driven into the Daryl
Gates regime," said Danny
Bakewell, president of the
Brotherhood Crusade.
The four white officers
- three patrolmen who
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
allegedly participated in
the beating, and a sergeant
who did not stop it
- have all been indicted
on assault and related
charges by the Los· Angeles
County grand jury. ·.
They are free on bail
awaiting a court appearance
Friday.
The probe also continues
into possible charges
against the other 11 police
officers at the scene for
aiding and abetting in the
assault.
According to the logs
from the computer communication
systems in the
patrol ears, just 16 minutes
before the chase began,
one of the four indicted
officers typed a
message on his computer
to an uninvolved patrol
car.
He said his last call was
"right out of 'Gorillas in
the Mist,'"'' a reference to
a movie about a white
woman living with apes in
Mrica, which both police
and -civil rights groups
said was apparently racist.
4 •
THE OUTLOOK
TUES., l~R 19, 1991
Front Section, Page 1
T~:POLICE RE~~RK REVEALED
Character: CIVIL RIGHTS
or
Classifteation: 80-33 B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
Indexing:
MAR 2 '/ 1991
: ..: Police Commissioner Melanie Lomax, a former
~egal counsel for the Los Angeles chapter of the
~AACP, said the comments were "racially derog­
_.atory and insulting" and helped show what there
~as "racial animosity" in the King beating.
. .
$traight out of South Africa'·
: "It is straight out of South Mrica or the Deep
South at another time," Lomax said. She noted
. tthat the comments help "verify what has long
:been suspected, at least by members of the mi-
;hority community." ·
· _"We already had the smoking gun - we had
.the video," said Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr.,
D-lnglewood. ~ just goes to show what state
:Of mind the officers were in when they stopped
~King - obviously racist, hostile to King, obvi­
.:Ously confrontational."
: .Mayor Tom Bradley issued an angry statement
llpon landing in Honolulu on a city business trip.
: "The transcript sickens and saddens me,"
Bradley said. "It is clear that the officers demon-
1iltrate a casual and cavalier attitude toward this
llorrific beating. In addition, it appears that big­
;nted remarks are not only tolerated but applaud­
)d (within the Police Department).',
:. Gates has previously denied that racism was a
FBI/OOJ