officers - The Black Vault

•
police officers pounding an apparently
defenseless black man have
raised the ire of civil rights groups
from the ACLU to the National
Assn. for the Advancement of
Colored People, and has brought
one more embarrassing controversy
to a Police Department recently
saddled with plenty.
· Former Laker Jamaal Wilkes
alleges the LAPD detained him
because of the color of his skin last
December when he was pulled
over and handcuffed by two officers.
· Disclosure of Wilkes' complaint ·
came on the heels of the federal
jury award of $540,000 to former
major league baseball player Joe
Morgan, who alleged in a lawsuit
ihat he was illegally detained and
!'Oughed up in 1988 by a Los
lngeles police officer who had
nistaken the Hall of Farner for a
lrug runner. Morgan was grabbed
,y the neck at Los Angeles Inter­
~ational Airport, thrown to the
loor and handcuffed before a
rowd of onlookers.
In recent months, Bradley has
loved to strengthen the civilian
'olice Commission that oversees
he department, but lost two vetern
members through resignations
'lisweek. ···
While Gates called the beating
n aberration, Bradley said it
oints to a brealuinwn in l~>;~rl,n:;hio
that begins with the chief himself. kind of beating. : • ."
1
"The supervision does, in fact, King, 25, from Altadena, ha
flow from th~ top of the depart- been working as a rna' 1tenane•
ment down-through his orders man at Dodger Stadium but wa~ '
and instructions, through his train- start a construction job on Monda)
ing," the mayor said. "All of that is the day after the incident w;itl
connected. We want 'to see where police. 1
there was a breakdown, a depar- He was released from prison' il
ture from established orders and December after serving a year fo
procedures in this case."
second-degree robbery. A parol•
Neither Gates nor any other supervisor speculated that lh•
police official would comment on might not have stopped bP.cause :h•
the King case, pending the out- feared a speeding ticket wouh
come of the department's internal jeopardiz~ his parole. But King saic
investigation.
he pulled ove~ as sqon as he sfv
P
the red lights. ·
olice contend King fought their "I may have been speeding ju1>'! ;
attempts to restrain them. But little bit," he said Wednesday. :
~he videotape made by amateur King's attorneys said they wer•
photographer George Holliday
from the second-floor balcony of
preparing to file a civil rights ~~i
ag•J.inst the LAPD. • ...
his nearby apartment-along with "But for the tape I'm not sure
more than a dozen eyewitness justice would have been done.'
accounts-have called into ques- Rentzer said. "We don't knov
tion the police officers' version. what the full extent of Mr. Kmf(:
Josie Morales, who was asleep in injuries are . . . it could be wortt
·her apartment when she heard millions of dollars.".
Sunday night's commotion, said But King's family empbasizer
about 10 police officers formed an through their lawyers that ,thei:
irregular circle around the prone · case would not be about racism.
King. She said she saw an officer "They are· not looking •o wrr
shoot him with the stun gun arid this into a racial crusade," l:tentzeJ
then begin clubbing him. King said ... His rights were totally vio·
tried to get up when two more Iated [but] it's his rights, not th<
· officers struck him with batons. rights of a race or creed or c
.. He didn't touch_ anybody. He religion that's at issue h~re. It's th(
got up and ran blmdly, but not rights of a human being." . ·
running at .. anyone, just ~ry~f t.o. ···--~.. it! .. ~:~· :·•: ·
get away, Moral7s sa1d. ~e •· nm!'S .. staff writers a.esne s~.:,ger,
thought maybe they d stopped h1m Richard Lee Colvin, Ashley Dunn, Nie·
for guns or drugs or ~ven. murder. ~n Himmel, Carl Ingram, Ronal~ J.
..• There was nothmg that the Ostrow, Sheryl Stolberg and Lois fim·
.guy did that c:oulq warrant that nick contributed to this story.