officers - The Black Vault

1
i , resipents
r FD-350 (Rev. 5-8·81)
c·:e
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(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
I THE TIMES POLL
1 pivided City
' Sees Politics
I
: fin May-or's Move
i
I By SHERYL STOLBERG.
')I~IES STAFF WRITER
• While ~os Angeles resident~ re-
: main sharply divided over whether
i Police Chief Daryl F. Gates should
1
resign because of the Rodney G.
1 King beating, a majority believe
politics rather than civic good
drove Mayor Tom Bradley to call
for the chief to step down, a Los
· Angeles ~imes Poll has found.
The poll also revealed that 58%
. of Los Angeles x:esidents approved
. of the Police Commission's decision
· Thursday to place Gates on a
60-i:lay leave of absence, .while
· 38% opposed it. -The leave was
thrown into question Friday, when
· the City Council ordered the city
attorney to reverse it Monday in
·. court.
· The -poll portrays a city that is
! divided along racial lines in its
. attitudes toward Bradley and Gates
.and tpeir actions·resulting from the
~King affair.
•. ··The survey found that six out of
-'10 respondents beli.eve that/ in
calling for Gates to resign last
week, the mayor was trying to
· further his political aspirations
1 • < rather than, as he stated, to mend a
divided city. In addition, 42% of all
believe that the mayor
has further split the city. Only.20%
believe -he has helped heal it, and
· the rest said he has had no effect.
"Bradley ce_rtainly did himself
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
no good,';· ;~id-Ti~es :Poll director
Jolin Brennari, who supervised the
survey. "Whether his motivations
were sincere or political, he has
failed on both accounts." ·
The Times Poll, which was con­
:ducted Wednesday and T~ursday,
:has a margin of sampling err~r of
~plus or minus 4 percentage pomts.
The poll surveyed 916 city residents·
620 were interviewed
-Thursday, after the Police Com-
. mission voted to place Gates im. a '
.paid administrative leave.
iT he. King ·beating, captured on
, · videotape by an amateur pho­
; tographer, has thrust Gates and the
~Police Department into a center of
:a national uproar over police misi
conduct. Four LAPD ·officers have
: been md1cted on charges of felony
·assault with a deadly weapon; othi
ers who stood by and did not
:intervene are being investigated
by a grand jury. ·
... The March 3 beating has carried
racial overtones ·because King is
black and most of the officers who
·were at the scene are white. This
jweek as Bradley asked Gates to
~tep:ctown, the focus ~f ~he cox:tyo- ·
versy shifted to a bitter pohtlcal
-=struggle between the two most
yrol:hinen~ public officials i':l Los
,'.:Angeles. Deep division rema1~s on
~he central question of Gat~s future.
.
· · Twenty-sev~n percent of Los
'Angeles residents said they now·
beiieve that Gates should resign
1mniedia."tely over the King beatqng:'
Thiit is a slight decre~se from
'th~ previous survey, in which 31%
!:said the chief should step down
fright away.
" .Among those polled this week,
ianvaddition~l
37% said the chief
~hould step aside if an investigation
proves his pfficers committed .
rWJ?Qngdoing, up f~om · 31% two
-;W~!'!kS agq. -
-.- r,he percentage who ?elieve
r-Gates should -stay in office has
• remained the same, 32%.
. ;arennan said the figures ?em~n­
:.str.ate a solidifying of pubhc opm-,
:ion on the resignation question.
· · ·r.r think we've got·a very polar­
''ized city," he said. ''I think that
· p~ople are beginning to dig in with
r their opinions." ' .
. _J3radley's call for Gates to. resign
· m~de public a l9ng-simmering po­
-litical feud. The poll found that.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Da~':: SAT APRIL 6, 1991
Edtbon:FRONT SECTION, PAGE 1
DIVIDED CITY SSES POLITICf
Title: IN l\1AYOR 1 S iYlOVE
CIVIL RIGHTS
Character:
or .
Classification: 8 0-3 3 B
Submitting Office:
IDS ANGELES
lndex:::in_;g~: --~-----;;:;;:;;;~--~
SEARCHED·--- INDEXED·----•
SERIAUZED·------ FILED·---.... ~
APR t 0 1991
FSI - LOS ANGELES Q :
£while residents generally are more
£supportive of Bradley than Gates,
. 'tll~ir support for .the mayor in this
'political battle is diminishing. ·
_ . After the King beating, Bradley
, ca1led for an amendment .to the
~Glfy Charter that would ·give him
l'the authority to remove the police
chief after·a five-year performance
review. Gates, who is protected by
the city's Civil Service system,
TiiETIMES
rPOLL
J. 11 r
I~opposes such a measure, saying it
~ W_.ould make the Police Department
vulnerable to political pressure.
!. )L The Times Poll found that more
1 ~an half of all city residentsi
~3%-now oppose giving the may­
·t"•n· such authqrity, while 39% favor
rJ.t. In the survey taken two weeks
.,~go, city r_esidents wer~ split even­
'ly on whether Bradley should-be
'leble to remove the chief.
ha However, the poll found that
·r~hen people are asked to choose
~1 ~etween the positions Gates and.
~Bradley hold on specific issues,
:;plore ·side with Bradley than with .
Gates .
1
~· 'The numbers are sharply divided
1·albng racial lines, with blacks and
L~tinos more often siding . with
0
oBradley and Anglos more often
~stjpporting Gates.
The poll found stark racial dif­
. ferences when it asked residents if
'-they believe Bradley, :who says
·Gates must leave in order to re-
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