officers - The Black Vault

FD-35"0 (Rev 5·8·81)
J
(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
1 Patrol Car Log in -~
· Beating Released::·;
:
•
• Police-: The officers' messages include racial slurs .
about an earlier case. ·'A big t~e use of force' against
Rodney King is referred to in the transcript : ...-
By TRACY WOOD and SHERYL STOLBERG
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
~ Los Angeles police officers accused in the beating of Rodney G. King,- a
.: black motorist stopped for speeding after a freeway pursuit, had made
.. racial slurs about blacks involved in a previous incident and referred to the
: King arrest as "a big time use of force," according to transcripts of patrol
•. car computer messages made public Monday .
.. I haven't beaten anyone this , .. ,
- bad in a long time," read a computer
message sent from the squad car
.,. assigned to officers Laurence M.
Powell and Timothy Wind, both of
whom were indicted last week in
the videotaped assault.
It was not known which officer
was operating the squad car computer,
which Police Department
· personnel use to communicate with
one another in the field.
Another message, sent from
·Powell's and Wind~s car just before
the King incident, described a domestic
dispute involving African-
. Americans that the officers had
handled as being "right out of
'Gorillas in the Mist.' "
The squad car that receive.d the
·:·message responded: "HaHaHaHa.
Let me guess who be the parties."
A Los Angeles police official
investigating the King affair said
the reference to "Gorillas in the
Mist," the title of a movie about ape
research in Africa, and the usage of
black dialect by white officers
apparently had racial connotations.
I • RELATED STORIES: A20 I
"Without drawing assumptions,"
said Cmdr. Rick Dinse, "I am led to
!' believe that is a racial comment."
Release of the four pages of
' starkly worded police communiques
immediately brought intensified
complaints from Mayor Tom
Bradley and civil rights leaders
' that King's beating was racially
motivated and extended from a
pattern of abusive behaVIor by
·police toward }:>lacks. ·
In a strongly worded statement
is.sued by his s~f late ~onday
rived in Hawaii to press the city's
Super Bowl bid-decried what he
called the "bigoted remarks" of the
officers. The mayor said the comments
"raise questions that are just
as serious and disturbing" as the
actual beating, which Police Chief
Daryl F. Gates has repeatedly
called "an aberration."
·Said Bradley: "It is no longer'
possible for any objective person to
regard the King beating as an
aberration. We must face the fact
that there appears to be a dangerous
trend of racially motivated
inGidents running through at least
some segments of our Police Department."
Said Police Commissioner Melanie
Lomax: "The disappointment
is in the minds of those who had
hoped against hope that this did not
appear to be something straight out
of South ·Africa and the Deep
South, as it appeared to be. Of
course, that hope against hope
turned out not to be the case."
The LAPD released the police
log hours after Bradley publicized
a letter in which he instructed
the Police Commission to make
the "information public as soon as
possible. Bradley. and several police
commissioners had been informed
of the nature of the com::
puter messages last week by Gates. ·
Although the mayor's staff had
alerted Gates that the letter was
coming, an _Police _Department
spokesman wd that did not prompt
the chief to make the transcript
public. According to Cmdr. Robert
"'Gil, Gates wanted to release the
LOS ANGELES TIMES
DaEd~t:: .TUES. MAR 19~. 1991
rron.F ,
ront Sect~on, Page 1
Title:
PATROL CAR LOG IN
BEATING RELEASED
Character: CIVIL RIGHTS
or
ClassifiCation: 8 0-3 3 B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
Indexing:
SEARCHED
SERIALIZED
MAR 2 6 1991
FBI -
INDEXED•----1
fllED·----1
LOS ANGELES I
information 'Friday, but was advised
against doing so by Dist.
Atty. Ira Reiner, who cautioned
that the material was. part of the
criminal investigation.
Reiner's spokeswoman declined
· comment, citing the confidentiality
of the grand jury probe. But both
• Gil and aides to Bradley said they
learned Monday that Reiner was
not. opposed to making the information
public.
The log shows a series of 19
messages sent during the 48 min­
, u~es surrounding the controversial
; VIdeotaped beating of King, 25, an
! unemployed construction worker
; from Altadena on parole after a
· roobery conviction. The transmis­
: sions include those sent by Powell
· and Wind to foot patrol officers
who were not at the March 3
beating in Lake View Terrace as
'well as messages sent by Sgt. S~cy
-c. Koon-who was also indicted
..