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LOS ANGELES TIMES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:
-
THURS. ~R 7, ~991
EditionMETRO SECTION, PAGE 1
INCIDENT GIVES CITY A
T~e: NATIONAL BLACK EYE
1 Incidellt
. GiyesCity
a National
Black Eye·
• Image: Old memories
of free-swinging cops are
revived. Some compare
situation to actions of
Saddam Hussein's
security forces in Kuwait.
,.: By FRANK CLIFFORD
and jOHN L. MITCHELL
' TIMES STAFF WRITERS
The shadowy scene of police
: officers last Sunday clubl?ing
· the prone body of Rodney Glen
; King, who was stopped for speed­
~ ing, aroused shock and disbelief
across the country and revived
old and painful memories of a city
patrolled by free-swinging cops.
The widely watched video,
·which was aired on network tel e­
. vision, also brought warnings
' from residents of other cities,
" such as Miami and Philadelphia,
who have seen their cities pay a
. high price, in dollars and blood,
- when police-community relations
reach a flash point.
In Dallas, Police Chief William
Rathburn, a former Los Angeles
·POlice official, -condemned the
beating incident as "gross criminal
misconduct," according to
• Dallas Mayor Annette Strauss.
• Rathburn left the Los Angeles
1-department last year to take over
a Dallas department racked by
: accusations of excessive force.
Drew Days, a Yale law professor
and former assistant at-
. torney general in charge of civil
rights enforcement under President
Jiminy Carter, criticized Los
Angeles Police Chief Dar'yl F.
Gates for not immediately con-
demning the conduct of the offi­
CIVIL RIGHTS
···cers involved in the beating. "It is Character:
· astounding that anybody could
look at that film and not conclude or 44A-LA-119954;
Classification:
that those police officers were Submitting Office:
.violating someone•s civil rights," LOS ANGELES
Days said.
'Los Angeles officials' acknowl- Indexing:
edged that airing of the videotape
-has set off a storm of criticism.
··.. There has been a widesPread,
-extremely n~g~tl;e reaction that
spans the United States and Canada,"
said attorney ·.Dan Garcia, a
MAR 20 1991
member of the LOS~geles Police
FBI LOS ANGELES J
Commission ·and a confidant of
Mayor Tom Bradley. . ·
~·we've even had callers com- ....
pare the situation with the activi- . Others close t.O the mayor said it
ties of Saddam Hussein's security : is important for Bradley. to empha-
. :forces in Kuwait," Garcia said. : size that the beating of King was
saying how ironic it is that : .an extraordinary departure from
just as we a,re congratulating our- :·.normal police practices. .
. ~lves for gettipg rid of the Iraqi ·· .. What the .city needs to do IS
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·.. tyrant, ·we ·are confronted with ~ characterize it as an aberration,"
· images of our own police doing said one of Bradley's advisers who
similar things right at home."
1
.asked not to- be named. "The big ·
E
1
stimating that the Police Com- 1· issue is going to be just how typical
mission has received more than ihis is of local police conduct with
100 ccills about the beating, Garcia ~ .. the ACLU, the media and others
said he thought it :was unfair for !· dredging up all the old cases."
people 19 conclude, on the basis ·of , The beating of King, however,
one incident, that ''there seems to i.. was not regarded as an isolated
be an inability to control police :. incident. Indeed,' early-morning
excesses in this city. :·. ~ 'But :. viewers of NBC's "'Today Show"
·clearly,·~ he, said, "that is the im- ;-·on Wednesday were treated to an ·
.. pression out there." : -impromptu conversation between
"We are receiving calls from all anchorman Bryant Gumbel, eoover
the countrY from people ex- ·'·bostJoeGaragiolaandotherToday
.pressing shoe~ outrage and dis-
1: regulars about three other instancgust,"
said Philip J. ~poian, spe- h :-es of alleged police misconduct in
-cial counselor to Bradley. ''These
~.Los Angeles and Long Beach. The
·were not just calls from Los Angel- ~ behavior of Los Angeles police was
• · es, but from San Francisco, Can a-
1 implicitly compared with that ·of
da, New Hampshire, Hawaii and all ~ police in the South,. notorious in the
;: over the place. ·I have two lines in : -past for mistreatment of blacks and
~ my office and we took more than ~--civil rights workers. The con versa-
· 150 calls." ~Aion followed an interview by
t. •• An incident like th,is doesn;t t' Gumbel with Bradley and the play-
I· help the city," said Michael Collins, ! ing of the videotape of the King
1 spokesman for the Los ~geles beating.
~ Convention and Visitors Bureau. The notion that Los Angeles is a
' "Anything that can be portrayed as .. town of tough cops did not origi-
~· more than an isolated incident can c nate on the ''Today Show.'!
have ~ terribly damaging impact "I learned something about the
, on the city. Something like this • image of the Police Department 30
! needs to be resolved very quickly." . years ago," said Harry Ushe~, a
Collins said his office has also _ partner in an executive search f1rm
1 received calls from around the . ,who was the general manager of
F country from people who saw the · -I""':... trfi' _
., police beating on televisi~m. "Peo- , / 1 1 If\_ lA .. ) /(jl'ib f..{-))- )47
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