officers - The Black Vault

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attempted to officially serve Gates at Parker Center on
Thursday with notice of a recall campaign to remove
him from office.
After a brief press conference, Maddox was stopped
at the front d~r of police headquarters, where Nixon
arrived to accept the. letter, promising he would
·deliver it to the chief.
"Clearly the public would like the chief to step
down," .Maddox said. "Since he has refused to step
down, we want to place this squarely where it belongs,
which is before the people. This is democracy at its
finest." ·
The· city attorney;s office later reported, however,
that the recall notice which appeared in The Times
was invali4 because it was in Spanish: A Times
spokesman said the paper had inadvertently deleted
the English version of the legal notice and would
publishittoday. ·
Parker Center was also the site of another press
conference-organized by a newly formed pro-Gates
·group, Citizens in Support of the C}?.ief of Police. The
group announced plans for a rally backing Gates on
Sunday at the Police Academy in Elysian Park. ·
"We have been the silent majority,'' said Peggy
Rowe Estrada, a spokeswoman for the group. "The
Police Department is a family ..•. In any family, if
the parents get in trouble, they don't put the parents in
jail."
About 15 people joined Estrada at the press
conference held at the entrance to Parker Center,"
wearing blue ribbons showing their support for the
chief and the department. But as the press conference
drew to a close, the Gates supporters were confronted
by an equal number of protesters shouting "Gates got
togo!" ·
The multidenominational Council of Religious Leaders
called for establishment of an independent citizens
commission to "throughly but speedily" investigate
problems in-the Police Department.
And finally, in one of the day's stranger developments,
the Gun Owners Action Committee joined the
dump-Gates bandwagon-they are still angry at the
chief for his opposition to assault rifles.
Spokesman"Mike McNulty appeare4 at a Hollywood
·. press conference with Cedric Innis, son of Congress of
Racial Equality founder Roy Innis, who also called for
Gates' resignation. Innis called the police chief "arrogant,
hostile ... totally-insensitive to the needs of the
community."
nmes staff writers David Lauter In Washington and Lealie ·
Berger, Michael Connelly, John L. Mitchell, Shari Roan,
Sheryl Stolberg and Tracy Wood In Los Angeles contributed
to thla story.