officers - The Black Vault

FD·350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
• •
(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
r-----------~(M::..:o::u::,:nt:....:C::.:Iip~p::.:in:::9..::in.:..:S:!p::a::ce:..:B=:e:::lo:.:.w:.!.) __________ l LOS ANGELES TIMES
Date:
. ' .
Edition: SUN . , ~1AR 17 , 1991
OPINION SECTION, PAGE 1
1 Wheri DePartment Integri!Y
i:Suffers and Public .support ~~!~~'
.. - theChiefM:ust .. Qu~t
•. . ....:._. ' .... · • . . . TIUe:
• Beating: Gates' repeated
. claim that the King pummeling
· was an "aberration" is an
attempt to escape responsibility,
. ~tactic he's prone to exploit.
·1 n
By Joseph D. McNamara
SAN JOSE
some ways, a police chief's job is
simple. The chief directs his officers
in the proper enforcement of the
laws and protection of life and
. property. The chief must also win
support for his department's work from
the public. When people support the
. police, they will report crime and serve as
' witnesses; juries will believe police testi~
· mony. But when the people can't tell the
·Joseph D. McNamara has bee11 San Jose
. Police Chief for 15 years.
good guys from the bad, they will not
, work in partnership with the police, and
the criminals win. It is thus incumbent on
the chief to exert the kind of leadership
that results in his troops performing their
duties in a way that maintains credibility
in the community. If the chief fails, he or
she should resign or be removed from
office. ·
The brutal videotaped beating of Rod~
· ney G. King by officers of the Los
Angeles Police Department and subse~
quent opinion polls indicate that Police
Chief Daryl F. Gates has failed both to
maintain the integrity of his force and the
confidence of the public. When two~
thirds of citizens polled by The Los
Angeles Times believe that brutality by
LAPD officers is common, and the majori ~
. ty think that the chief is not doing a· good
job, it sl).ows that Gates has become a
liability" to his department and to his city.
As painful as it is, G~tes should hold
himself as accountable as other m~~bers
l __ ,
. .,., .. ~·.~ ."
·of. his department are. He should retire
from office. It is difficult to see the LAPD
regaining its -credibllity with him remain:~
ing as its chief. .
Gates' repeated c!aim that the King
beating was an ·~aberration" is an attempt
io escape responsibility. It is one thing to
say that .an· occasional act of bru~ality
· takes place; it is.quite another to concede
that there is a pattern of abuse protected
by a code of silence within the depart"
ment. Yet the videotape of the beating
shows four officers systematicallY. kicking
and beating a helpless .and · unresisting
King without apparent fear that any of
the witnessing cops would report them.
Those actions and the fact that the
officers coolly took turns in assaulting
King make it hard to believ!'! that this was
a spontaneous flare~up, especially when
the police ·supervisor pr~sent just
watched. So far, Los Angeles has paid
$3 milliQn in damages in a similarly brutal
incident in 1988, .when a larg~ _grQ'!:!P .9f
-·~ . - _, "'"~ --L... ~- ._ --· -.
WHEN DEPARTMENT INTEGRITY
SUFFERS AND ~UBLIC SUPPOR
FA~~S, TaE CHIEF MUST QUI
CIVIL RIGHTS
Of
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Submitting Office:
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out-of~control officers ransacked the · man who had been, subjected to a choke~
apartments'of 52 residents· in South-Cen~ hold. And after the tragic killing of a
tralLos.Angeles. . . .female Los Angeles officer, Gates pro~
At the time, Gates was mild in disci~ claimed that she was killed by an El
plining the officers, saying he understood Salvadoran who TShouldn't have been
their frustrations. When Gates was ini~ here. That, too, was irrelevant. The
tially asked to comment on the video- · officer was killed by a drunken criminal.
4\ped beating of King, he showed similar The chief's statement ·did nothing to
, defensiveness. Unlike the rest of Ameri- lessen the tragedy, but.no doubt appealed
· · ca, he refused to draw any conclusions to deeply held anti-minority prejudices in
and said he would look into events leaqing · some of his officers .
. up to the in~ident. The events leadi~g up It is the' duty of the chief to appeal to
to the incident were irrelevant to the the liighest ideals of police professionalbrutality.
When the chief fails to quickly ism. When the chief sounds more like
and firmly condemn such conduct, it Rambo, no one should be surprised if
further fosters the climate that leads to some officers on the street interpret the
brutality.
message to mean that they can administer
Los Angeles police chiefs have the· justice as they S!'!e fit. Any city that allows
habit of sending out not so subtle mes- .the unhealthy pattern of the Los Angeles
sages. Gates has continued the tradition, Police Department to develop can looK
_·recently suggesting that casual drug forward to national embarrassment, as
.users should .be shot. . IIi .1982, he said . well as to a drain on taxpayer money as
· blacks were different from "normal" more lawsuits are won against .police
.. people in explaining the death of a black misconduct. . . , . D
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