officers - The Black Vault

1-. In any case, the escalation of a
!fdeepiy personal and political battle
. between the city's mayor ·and po­
·: lice chief is troubling to many city
leaders.
"I have a lot cif respect and
admiration for both Chief Gates
and Mayor Bradley," said Richard
Riordan, a prominent Los Angeles
· attorney and supporter of both
men. "-I think that it is very
divisive for the city to personalize
any fight between the two of them.
We should be focusing in on the
problem of racism and how we
-solve it rather than making it into a
' ·.Personal fmht.~.. . .
Said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky:
"I wpuld like to see a ceasefire
-between the chief and the
·mayor for a while. As long as there
is a contest of wills between them,
the city is going to be increasingly
divided." ·
The mayor is "very comforta- ·
ble" with his decision, said Ma'rk
Fabiani, Bradley's chief of staff.
"He felt it'is the only d~cision
that is in the best interest of the
city. And the complaints of some
members of the City Council who
have never had a negative word to
say about the chief in their lives
really doesn't make any difference
to the mayor," Fabiani said.
Although the mayor and police
chief have engaged in a feud that
has spanned several years, the
animosity boiled over last year
when Gates said Bradley had written
a "dumb letter" calling for an
investigation related to alleged police
vandalism at 39th Street and
Dalton Avenue.
The furor surrounding the King
beating provided Bradley with an
. opportunity to push for Gates'
-removal, something the mayor's
office had been contemplating for
some time, sources said. A behind-
· the-scenes campaign was launched
immediately to pressure the chief
into resigning.
Bradley sought to further pressure
Gates on Monday by appointing
a seven-member citizens' com­
:mission to launch a wide-ranging
investigation of the Police Department,
including problems of police
.brutality. The mayor. announced
that Jesse Brewer, recently retired
assistant police chief under Gates,
• would serve as one of three senior
-advisers to the panel. ·
But two sources told The Times
' on Wednesday that Brewer 'did not
agree to serve the mayor's commission
in an official capacity. "He
feels he got tricked," said one
source, who said he talked to
Brewer about the subject and
asked not to be named.
nother senior adviser an-·
· A nounced by Bradley, criminologis~
James Q. Wilson, ~aid Mon-
•
day that he, too, had agreed to
answer questions informally for.
the panel but was not asked to
become an official part of the
commission. He has refused to do
so.
'
While BradleY" his consistently
denied any effort to sack Gates, his
press conference Tuesday marked
the first time that the mayor pub-. ·
licly called for the chief to step
down.
Shortly after the announcement,
Gates shot back at Bradley by
bringing up City Atty. James K.
Hahn's findings after a 1.989 inves-:
tigation that the mayor had "~!early
failed" to avoid the appearance
of conflicts of interest. The investigation
involved Bradley's ties to
financial institutions that dealt
with the city and his efforts to
secure city funds for a scandalplagued
group formed to promote
trade with Mrica.
Gates' department participated
in that inquiry, whi~h resulted in
$20,000 in civil penalties against
the mayor but no criminal charges ..
For the last several months, the
Police Department has been conducting
a second investigation of
political fund raising for the mayor's
campaigns and allegations of
corruption that involve, the mayor.
One focus of the investigation is
Bradley's relationship with campaign
fund-raiser Harold·R. Washington,
a developer-consultant
who obtained a ci.ty-subsidized
housing project. Informants have
told police that Washington sought
'money for contributions or payments
to Bradley and other city
officials to help secure the project.
The police also are investigating
possible conflicts of interest and
misuse of city resources in the
fund-raising activities of Bradley
aides and commissioners.
Bradley; Washington and the
mayor's aides have denied doing
anything improper.
•
Sources close to the investigation
have insisted the Gates-Brad­
·: -ley clash has not affected the
course of the current investigation,
although one source acknowledged
1
that the escalating political fight i;­
making it "more ticklish." · i
"Na matter what you do, you'r~
open to charges" of either movingtoo
aggressively against the mayor
or holding back, -the source said!!U
"Nobody has pushed -this one waY,~
or the other . . . we don't want -to~
get into that." . , ~.
Capt. Doug Watson, who heads i
the Bunco-Forgery Division that i$;;
conducting the investigations, said r
Wednesday that he has given
Gates and . other top department
officials briefings on the inqulries~ 0
But he said neither the chief nor''
:any other superiors have shown'5
unusual interest or attempted to·;
influence the investigation. \:)
"It was already so sensitive" that"
the Bradley-Gates clash makes)
little difference, Watson said. ·
-Bradley has no concern aboui'l
the outcome of the police investi..: :-r
gations as long as they are "han-'r
dled objectively and professional-:''
ly," Fabiani said. "If they become,
the subject of political influence by~~
the .chief, the public will see1r
through that in a split second."
·•·;!J
Times staff writer Louis Sahagul)')
. contributed to this story. '! ~