officers - The Black Vault

FD·350 (Rev. 5·8 ·81)
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e
(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
Daryl
Gates
With LAPD Under Attack
the Chief Defends Himself
By Jesse Katz
nder fire for-a videotaped beating in which his officers apparently kicked
U and clubbed an unarmed man, Los Angeles Police Chie( Daryl F. Gates
paid a visit to The Times on Thursday, hoping to correct what he be)ieves are
·misconceptions about his department and his leadership.
Gates, a veteran of many controversies during his 13-year reign, has had to
defend himself before. His "inelegant" speech, as he calls it, has led to numerous ·
public-relations problems: his suggestion that some blacks may have been more
susceptible to police chokeholds than "normal people"; his reference tO local TV
anchor Christine Lund as an "Aryan broad" at a closed dinner meeting, and his
branding of the killer of Tina Kerbrat, a women officer shot to death last month
by a foreign national, as an "El Salvadoran drunk."
But in recent days, the chorus of critics calling for his resignation has
intensified; he was booed at a Police Commission meeting; the ACLU placed a
newspaper aq branding _his department a "gang"; and a citizen's committee is
forming to demand his ouster.
Gates, however, has vowed to stay put. In fact, he has launched ·a
counteroffensive of his own, including a flurry of national TV appearances and
press conferences, aimed at restoring his and the department's image.
Dressed in a brown suit with a powder-blue hanky and DARE pin on his
lapel, the 64-year-old chief spent about an hour with The Times' publisher and
editors, discussing the . current crisis, his proposed remedies and past
. accomplishments. .
Despite what he considers to be an adversarial relationship with The Times, ·
he spoke calmly and cordially, never raising his voice,. and doing far more
talking than his questioners. Intensely private, Gates was so relaxed that he said
his decision to resign would ultimately hinge on the advice of his wife of 21
years, Sima: who is urging him to stick it out.
Date:
Edition:
LOS ANGELES TU1ES
SUN. MAR 17, 1991
OPINION SECTION, P AGE
3
Trtle: DARYL GATES
Character:
CIVIL RIGHTS
()(
Cla.sslflcation: 80-3 3 B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
Indexing:
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SERIALIZED·--- FllED·----1
MAR 26 1991
FBI - LOS ANGElES /,11
Q uestiop: Could you talk a little ah out
yo_ur. impression of, the police co m-
, mtsswn hearings thts morning.
J Answer: . . . . Cleariy (it 'was] an
· ·opportunity for people to vent and tha t's
what a lot of p~ople did do today-vent ed
. . . . I've been through it two or thr ee
times perhaps not that vehement ea ch
time but almost.
Of course, the rocks are all being aim ed
right at me, as if I created all this-t he
entire problem-and that my ouster w ill
solve the problem. I ·don't feel that w ay
and so therefore I have no plans to lea ve '
the department much to the unhappine ss
of many people I'm sure.
But I don'.t see that that would be i n
anyone's best interests. Certainly· n ot
mine. I didn't spend 42 years-and devo te
my life to this department-to slink awa y
'under a cloud of thunder. I'm not going t 0
do that. If I leave, and when I leave it' 11
be at a time -when I can leave witho ut
slinking Jmd without running away fro m
something when it's not my nature to ru n
away.
• . . . I read ·a lot of what has bee I)
printed-particularly pn the editoria 1
pag!'ls-and I wonder where you guy s
:have been. I don't think you know the Lo s
Angeles Police Department and tha t
b~thers me t?at you are not acquainte d
•With what we ve been doing . . . .
. I hired ~he fir~t department psycholo
~st, the f1:st police psychologist. I hire d
-
hm~ back. m 1968, before anyone in: th e
:PO!lCe busmess eyer thought i.t was a goo
I
d
thmg to do. That s been our history: To b e
way ?-head_ o.f po~icing in America, at th e
lead m pohcmg m America. And I thin k
I ·we continue .to do that. .
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