officers - The Black Vault

FD-350 _(Rev. 5·8·81)
•
(Indicate
. 4- D 't
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
.---:-----====~~~~~~~~:2_----~.:-_-::-.~-=-=-=-=-="!eate:
G
Edition:
tio·rs·
page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
. ates: .. 0 n GA~~~~C~ON'
:
T FORSAKE
~. ~e·· po.
. li
Council Warned that foilure to
·support department will damgge
. . . force
·By Patrick McGreevy
-and John Polich
; Daily News Staff Writers
In a sometimes angry exchange
-with City Council members, Police
Chief Daryl F. Gates defended
his department against brutality
charges Wednesday and said
officials should support his offi-
. cers or face a weakened police
force. ·
In his first appearance before
the council since the beating of
Rodney Glen King by police offi-
·. cers in Lake View Terrace on
March 3, Gates promised to review
his department's operations
but said that mounting criticism
threatens to destroy officer morale.
"This chief of police, one of
these days, will leave this department,
.. Gates said, drawing
cheers from critics in the audience
although he gave no indication
he would give in to calls for
resignation.
"But if you let this department
down, if you don't speak out on
"behalf of the men and women of
the Los Angeles Police Department
who serve this city well -
if you don't do that at this crucial
moment in our history, then I'm
going to tell you, you're going to
have a Police Department that is
t not going to be the kind of de­
- partment you want, the kind of
departmeqt that people expect."
Gates' remarks drew a sharp
, response from Councilman Mii·
c::hael Woo.
I
"I want to know, did you· mean
that as a threat?'' Woo d,emanded.
"In other words, if I or other
members of the council are going
to be criticizing you or the department,
are you saying that you
will withhold support of these
neighborhood or street services
to fight crime in our districts?''
Gates angrily denied inaking
threats.
•.•That is the most insulting
thing I have heard on this council
floor in all of the time I've been
. here and I've been here a lot
longer than you've been alive,''·
Gates said. "Absolutely not. This
is a professional organization.
What do you think we are?"
Woo said he was satisfied. that
the chief was not threatening the
council.
Later Wednesday, a handful of
Gates supporters clashed verbally
· with scores of critics at a conten-
___ tious meeting of the city Police
Commission, which held a sec- .
ond public hearing on the King
incident that focused on charges
of racism and brutality in the department.
.
King, 25, is black an4 was
, beaten by white officers after a
traffic stop. Some of the officers
involved made racists transmis­
'5ions on the pollee communications
system before the incident.
. Police Commission members
said that they will focus their investigation
on police bmtality
complaints and lawsuits filed
against the department during
the past five years.
DAILY NEWS
~~g~~· S~~~I~~: ~!~~ 1
.. . e. 0
c"":rsr. CIVIL RIGHTS
Classification: 8 0-3 3 B
Submitting Office:
. LOS ANGELES
lnde. ARCHED, ___ INDEXED._.....,..,_,
SERIALIZED
fiLED.•..,.....,.,.,.....,.._,
MAR 2? 1991
FBI- LOS ANGELES
L---------------------
Because the incident took
place in the San Fernando V_alley,
commissioners said they will review
the ethnic makeup of the
Valley force and complaints involving
police officers in the Valley,
and at the Foothill Division
station in particular. .
Mayor Tom Bradley, who arrived
back in Los Angeles on
Wednesday evening after a t_rip
to Hawaii as part of a delegation
·that won National Football
League agreement to stage the
1993 Super Bowl in Los Angeles,
repeated his view that Gates
would aid the ••healing process"
by stepping down.
••I did not and I have not yet
called for the chief to resign,''
Bradley told reporters at. Los An·
· geles International Airport. ••1 am
saying that the only way we can
start this healing process is for
him to remove himself."
Four officers have been indict­
'; ed by the Los Angeles County
' djury in connection with the
ting ofKfug, who was clubbed
. and kicked after being stopped
for speeding. The incident
1
,pro~pted a nationwide furor
, over police brutality because the
beating was dramatically recorded
by a witness with a home vi­
-deo camera.
FBI/OOJ