officers - The Black Vault

.. ....
calls Thursday for comment.
, A lawyer for Bryant Allen,
one of the two passengers in
King's car, flied a federal civil
. rights lawsuit Thursday seeking
unspecified damages against
the police officers, Gates and
Bradley, alleging that Bryant
was "sadistically threatened"
with great bodily harm.
Attorney John Burton said
Allen was "proned out, ·handcuffed,
stomped on the back,
kicked in the side, slammed on
the hood of a .police vehicle
(and) asked, 'Do you want to
wind up like your homeboy?' "
The King beating and other
recent incidents with racial
overtones like the Wilkes case
have resulted in a polarization
over the LAPD.
One of three residents be­
·lieves Gates should resign immediately
over the videotaped
police beating of a black motorist,
according to a Los Angeles
Times poll published today.
Thirty-one percent of the respondents
to the Los Angeles
Times poll said Gates should
step down at once, and another
31 percent .said the chief should
resign if an investigation cites
his officers with wrongdoing. .
Bradley said Los Angeles residents
overwhelmingly say
Gates should go.
"Yes, clearly the peoplet in
general strongly say to me an~
to others by letter, phone call
and in person, they want the
chief to retire," Bradley said at
an appearance at Banning· High
School in Wilmington. .
At Pis news conference, Wilson
called the beating a "terri-
, ble miscarriage of justice and
disgrace to the uniform of the
department," but he suggested
Gates should not be forced out
·by a "lynch mob/'
The governor said police
· squad car computer messages,
which included racial slurs
aborit an incident involving a
black family shortly before 'the
beating, were intolerable, but
Gates should not be held personally
responsible.
"I think there are people who
are seeking to make him a
scapegoat," Wilson said.
Recall effort under way
A coalition of civil rights
groups led by City Council candidate
Kerman Maddox formally
began a recall effort against
Gates by publishing a ''notice of
intent" and serving a representative
of the chief with a copy
Thursday morning.
Maddox is seeking to use an
unexplored section of the City
Charter to recall Gates and a
spokesman for the City Attorney's
Office said the . issue is
still under review.
If the city's lawyets approve
the plan, the group must get
57,000 signatures to place the
recall on the next b8llot.
A short time after the recall
proponents left Parker Center
police headquarters, a group of
citizens largely from the San
Fernando Valley announced the
"blue-ribbon" campaign to
show support for Gates. ·
Peggy Rowe Estrada, ex-wife
of actor Eric Estrada, told a·
news conference "the silent majority"
supporting Gates must
make their feelings known.
The newly formed organization,
Citizens in Support of the
Chief of Police, has scheduled a
,rally for Sunday.