officers - The Black Vault

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FD-35'0 (Rev. 5-8-81)
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Police Commission
has kept· a loose_
leash on Gates
.,he vid~otaped beating of a black
motonst last month by the Los
Angeles Police Department -
memorialized on national
television - has transformed
America's second largest city into a·
volatile Beirut-By-The-Sea, politically.
That Los Angeles Mayor Tom
Bradley and Police Chief Daryl Gates
called a dramatic truce this week to
cool down the rhetoric in their public
battle over an incident that has
divided the city indicates the
seriousness of the problem.
What began as a focus on police
brutality, following the indictment of
four LAPD officers in the beating of
Rodney G. King, has now mushroomed
into a politicized incident shattering
alliances between ethnic subgroups,
the business community and civil
rights activists.
The King probe, already tense and
full of racial and legal overtones, has
now been reframed by some Bradley
allies as to whether the controversial
Gates is the real culprit in the scandal.
Before the cease-fJ.re orchestrated by
Cit~ .Council President John Ferraro,
politics took over when Bradley, who is
black - and after seven conflicting
statements over several weeks -told
I
-
Joe
.Scott
·"
Gates, who is w hite, ~ resign in ·,Order
to "heal" a divided c1ty.
The chief, insisting he was putting
the LAPD back on track, refused.
Bradley's hand-picked Police
Commission, following a strategy
developed weeks ago by his offJ.ce, in
concert with the American Civil
Liberties Union and black community
activists, to get rid of the chief, then
voted to relieve Gates of his duties
pending the outcome of a probe. .
By making Gates the scapegoat
before any systemic pattern of
brutality could be traced to him, the
commission ignored a prophetic
warning from its newest appointee,
Stanley K. Sheinbaum.
The astute ACLU activist and
former University of California regent
opposed a rush to judgment.
Sheinbaum, absent from the
now-famous meeting, said putting
THE OUTLOOK
Date: Thurs. Aoril 11, 1991
Edition:Front S~ctlon, Page 10
Titie: POLICE COIYlMISSION HAS
KEPT A LOOSE LEASH ON
GATES
Character: CIVIL RIGHTS
or
Classification:
Submitting Office: 80-33B
LOS ANGELES
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APR 1 7 1991
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JJWJ
FBI -
Gates on leave "in the present
circumstances would be very diffJ.cult"
because it would have the taint of a
political maneuver.
What disturbed many liberal
Westside Gates-haters about the
commission's lynch-mob gesture was
the lack of any due process afforded
the chief, accused of no wrongdoing.
· Despite Bradley's lobbying, the
weathervane Los Angeles City Council,
sensing an injustice and an
opportunity to flex its long-dormant
political muscle, ordered Gates
reinstated - at least until another
court hearing April 25.
The council's action stunned
Bradley, whose broad-based support
within the powerful business
community has been damaged by a
serious. miscalculation.
'(}ates had enjoyed a superior job
rating from the commission' for years. ·
He even got a merit raise in January
from the panel that voted, for political
reasons, to bench him.
A case can be made that the Police
Commission is the real culprit in the
King-become-Gates furor by
abdicating its responsibility.
The liberal panel - one of its
members was now-federal Judge