officers - The Black Vault

~D-350 {~e~. 5-8·81)
.I. ce
(Indicate
page, name of
newspaper, city'and state.)
-----------~(~M~o~~~t~C~U~~~~~g~i~n~S~~~c~e~B~e~~~w~)----~~----~ LOS~~~STI~S
.- ....· ~:~~n: SUi.\i APRIL 7 , 1991
Marchers Demand Oust~r FRONT SECTION, PAGE 32
• · -~- ···-- YlARCHERS DEJ.V.iAND OUSTER
Title:
of Gates
OF GATES
I
• Protest: Jesse Jackson
urges a boycott of Super
Bowl and conventions
u~til police chief leaves.
Event is peaceful and there
are no arrests.
By KENNETH J. GARCIA
mid FRANK CLIFFORD
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
A
. t a boisterous but peaceful
· rally in downtown Los Angeles
:on Saturday, the Rev. Jesse
Jackson called for a boycott of the
1993 Super Bowl and future conventions
in Los Angeles in response
to the televised beating_ of
Rodney G. King and the ongomg
political battle over Police Chief
Daryl F. Gates.
•i.J say if we can use a boycott in
Birmingham, and if we can boycott
in Montgomery, if we can use it in
South Africa, then we can stop the
Super Bowl and conventions from
coming to Los Angeles," Jackson
told protesters who gathered in
· front of-police headquarters. Police
estimated the crowd at 5,000.
· ''We must not just remove Gates,
we' must remove Gateism," Jacksort
told the crowd in front of
Parker Center. "We know the
absence of Gates is not the presence
of Justice. The aberration
wa.Sn't the violence, it was the
video camera. The beating of Rodney
King exposed a national malady."
Jackson's remarks came after he
led a wave of placard-carrying
demonstrators on a march through
downtown Los Angeles to demand
the ouster of Gates and to condemn
the City Council for ordering the
. reinstatement of the embattled department
head. · .
It was the largest rally yet m
opposition to the chief. ·
Mayor Tom Bradley said in an
interview Saturday that he objects
to Jackson's call for a boycott of
Los Angeles by tourists and conventioneers.
.
'II think that it would be wrong
to punish the whole city, to threaten
the economy of the city and the
jobs created at the Convention
. Center and at the hotels by saying
to l:!onventioneers, 'Don't come to
Los Angeles;' " Bradley said.
However, he defended Jackson's
right to call fpr the boycott. "Jesse
· Jackson is a distinguished leader in
this country whose voice is heard
and listened• to by many people. He
has the authority and the right to
. come make his statement.::__ ~ . _ _
At the rally, protesters chanting
.. "Daryl Gates ·must go, Daryl Gates ·
i~~ must go," descended on police
~ headquarters and cheered as
'.l' speakers blasted Gates, Bradley
and other officials involved in the
political fight over the police chief.
Although the angry crowd often
shouted directly at police who.
lined the streets aiong the route, .
there were no incidents duriQg the
demonstration, which lasted nearly
five hours. Police estimated that
. · nearly 1,000 people who lined the
path of the demonstration joined
the march, which began at Olympic
Boulevard and Broadway and
ended at Parker Center.
The tensest moment came as a
group of about 100 protesters
walked directly in front of the
Parker Center entrance shouting
"No more Gates," as two dozen
police officers stood on the other
side of the glass. Police officials ·
said the multiethnic crowd was
· . well-behaved and reported no arrests.
· The demonstration included
more that a dozen civil rights.
and activist groups, ranging from
the American Civil-Liberties Union
to Janitors for Justice. The rally
began as a phalarm of marchers
massed behind a colorful 30-footwide
yellow and black sign proclaiming
"Gates must Go. Stop
Police Brutality."
There were virtually no counterdemonstrators,
although one
man, W.T. Minamoto, 46, held up a
. ·pro-Gates ~ign. and y.ralk~ for
Character: CIVIL RIGHTS
or
Classification: 8 0-33 B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
lndexin.;.;g:::.=-------:=:::;;:;;----.,
SEARCHED·--- INDEXED·---1
SERIAUZED•--- fiLE0."'----1
APR 1 0 1991
FBI
LOS ANGELES n
LX 1'(1.
awhile in front of the marchers, his
young daughter riding on his
shoulders.
"I'm sticking up for one of the
finest men in our city," Minamoto
said.
'The rally, originally ·.timed to
coincide with the 23rd anniversary
of the assassination of civil rights.
leader Martin Luther King Jr., was
, planned before the City Council's
decision Friday to reinstate Gates.
The council took the action just one
day after he had been put .on paid
leave by the Police Commission.
The events that led to the demunstration
were triggered by the
March 3 beating of King, a 25-
year-old black parolee from Altadena,
by white officers after a car
chase in the San Fernando Valley.
The incident was captured on videotape
by an amateur cameraman
and the stark images have repeatedly
been broadcast around the
' world.
Councilman Michael Woo, one of
three council members who voted
against Gates' reinstatement, said
" that the action ."raises questions