officers - The Black Vault

minus ~ percentage points. Among
.certqin subgroups the margin is
somewhat higher.
·City residents are following
J news o! the King beating extremely
closely, the poll showed. Nine
out of 10 people interviewed said
they are following the story, and
more than half said they are following
it very closely.
In addition, 70% of those surveyed
said they were familiar with
the patrol car computer messages
made public earlier this week.
Two-thirds said the correct
amount of attention is being given
to the King case.
The poll revealed a broad sense
of outrage among Angelenos over
the beating of King, who was
repeatedly kicked and clubbed by
officers. According to the poll, 94%
of all respondents are upset about
the beating-and three-fourths of
aU respondents described themselves
as "very upset."
Because some questions in this
week's poll are identical to those in.
.the earlier Times survey, its find-,
ings serve as a measure of how·
public opinion has changed during·
the controversy. The results show
that as the case has unfolded,
disapproval of both Gates and the
LAPD has climbed. ·
But the King beating has had
little effect on the popularity of
Mayor Tom Bradley, who has been
quoted frequently about the incident
but has stopped short of
calling for Gates' resignation.
Bradley's approval rating-61%
two weeks ago-has dipped slight·
ly, with 57% of Angelenos approving
of the way he is handling his
job. .
Half the respondents said that
Bradley is doing what he should to
address the King beating, down
slightly from 551% two weeks ago.
More people now disapprove of
the way Gates is handling his job:
61% as compared to 55% two
weeks ago. More think the chief
has been too lenient on the officers
involved: 55% as opposed to 38%
two weeks ago.
Gates' negative .ratings are .
strongest among African-Americans.
According to the poll, four
out of five blacks disapprove of the
, way the chief is handling his job.
However, a majority of Anglos- • :
52%-also disapprove of the way :
the chief is handling his job.
A majority or the respondents
believe that Gates deserves "a
good amount" or the blame for the
is~ing its job. Two weeks ago
th.onse was nearly split, with
46% saying they approved and
47% saying they disapproved.
The poll showed that the percentage
of residents who believe
police brutality is common among
Los Angeles police officers is now
up slightly, from 63% to 68%.
Among African-Americans, 87%
of those surveyed this week said
brutality among LAPD officers is
common. Among Latinos, it was
80%. Among Anglos, it was 58%.
Asked how they feel when they
see a Los Angeles police officer or
a police vehicle these days, 23% of
all respondents said they felt reassured,
while 25% said they felt
uneasy. Half said they feel neutral
when they see an officer.
Yet public confidence in the
. LAPD's ability to fight crime has
remained both steady and high. In
both polls the Times has conducted
on the King incident, three-quarters
of those surveyed said they had at
least "some confidence" that the
police would protect them from
crime, while about a fifth of the
respondents said they had a lot of
confidence in the Police Department.
Despite the public furor surrounding
the King case, this
week's poll also showed that crime
is clearly the No. 1 concern on the
_ minds of Los Angeles residents.
The Los Angeles Times Poll
interviewed a total of 909 adult
Los Angeles city residents by
telephone on Wednesday and
'J'hursday. 'fhc sample Includes
556 Anglos, 143 Lullnos und
117 blacks. Results are weighted
to reflect the proper proportions
of the city's population
subgroups, utilizing census data
on race and national origin,
sex and labor force characteristics.
The margin of sampling
error is plus or minus four
percentage points. For the Anglo
subgroup, the error margin
is plus or minus four points, for
Latinos it is plus or minus eight
points and for blacks plus or
minus nine points.
!
I
Asked to name "the most impor- ;
tant problem facing the city of Los :
Angeles today," crime ranked the '
. highest among blacks, Latinos and
Anglos, with 28% of all residents
naming it as the city's biggest woe.
Next highest was the drought,
with 13%. Police brutality ranked
.third, With 8% of all respondents
. naming it as the city's biggest
problem, but an additional 5%
specifically mentioned the Rodney
King aff~r or Gates.
Asslatant Tlmea Poll Director Suaan
Plnkua contributed to thla report.
King-beating, while 18% think the
~hie! bears no blame at all. In
addition, hall of those polled said 1
Gates is not doing everything he I
can to get to the bottom of the King
· incident.
With regard to the police force
as· a whole, three out of five
disapprovedof~avtheT.APD __ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------