officers - The Black Vault

F0-350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
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•(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
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Date:
DAILY NEWS
Mayor: wants :::::~:~:T:::::!::O:E
}-ract·sm .. P·.· · fiob~ez~~:~~ 3 ::GHTS
~Says retirement of Gil_tes ·U!ould
t ~elp restore public faith in LAPD
. By Rick Orlov
and James W. Sweeney
:- ·Daily News S~aff Writers
. Jn his strongest· statement yet
. on the Rodney Glen King beat·
• · ing, Mayor Tom Bradley said
· Tuesday night that he will seek
·. an investigation of racism at all
levels of the Los Angeles Police
Department and that Police
'-Chief Daryl Gates' "retirement
would help in the healing pro-
.cess." . . .
In a telephone interview·from
· 'Hawaii where he is attending a
. national Football League owners
!llleeting in an effort to win the
Submittihg Office:
· LOS ANGELES
:1993 Super Bowl for the ciiy,
Bradley said growing evidence
about the attack has convinced
him that raCism is ·not confined
to the LAPD's Foothill Division
in the San Fernando Valley
where a bystander captured the
beating by officers on videotape.
The mayor said he is considering
the appointment of an inqependent
commission to conduct the
investigation of the LAPD "from
top to bottom.'·' ~
"That's the- chief, the deputy
chiefs down to the training offi­
·cers and the supervisors in the
fiel4.;~:»radley said. ~-
1_ ''This (racism) is not isplated," ·1
, he added. "If it exists, h.'s likely
' to be departmentwide."
· Despite mou.nting calls for
i" Gates to Iesign, Bradley again
1 • said _he woulq ·not inteJ.ject him­
, ~self m the debate over whether
· the chief should stay on.
later, in an interview broadcast
on television station ~CAL
(Channel 9), the mayor .. said he
was not calling for Gates' resignation·
although he believes Gates'
· retirment would help restore
, public confidence in the Police
;Depart11_1ent
; But Assembly Speaker Willie·
':
Brown Jr .. D-San Francisco, and
.Bill Robertson, leader of the Los
, Angeles County Federation of
. ·labor, joined civil rights advo­
: cates cal.ling for Gates' ·resigna-
' tion. ·
Brown and Robertson said that
Gates should step aside so that
public confj.dence in *e depart­
• -ment could be rebuilt
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MAR 2 6 1991 A
FBI - LOS ANGELES U.
~ ··-Gov. 'Pete Wilson~ in .his first
,- statement on· the controversy
··-condemned the officers involved
. in the beating but stopped short
: _.,of criticizing Gates. . ·
.. Wilson issued a statement calr
Jin~ the. officers :·a disgrace to
their uruform and Its proud tradi­
: ;t~ons" and applauded the deci­
. s10n to prosecute them. ·
l "The brutality of the video-
. _taped beating could not help but ·
r;:outrage and turn the stomach of .
r -any decent person, but must have
!:especially repulsed the vast rna- ·
~ jority of decent and conscien-
. tious police officers," Wilson
1
said. . .
. No member of the Los Angeles
!~City Council has called for Gates'
f-resignation, with 'many saying
, they don't have the a~thority or
,_.the ,grounds to demand that the ,
1 chief step down. · -
· "This is )lOt just any depart-
~ )rient head,·: said Councilman
~:Robert Farrell. "This is the chief
• Qf·police. We are talking about
· :fundamental issues and make
:-.f4ndamenta1 decisions about the
f:Opef!ition of the.