officers - The Black Vault

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Stephen Reinhardt - a longtime,
behind-the-scenes, Bradley confidant
- inexplicably tapped Republican
Gates in 1978, although he was second
on the list.
Despite numerous controversial
statements offensive to blacks, Jews,
Latinos and women, the passive
. commission has kept a loose leash on
Gates, rarely disciplining him and
establishing no paper trail for ouster.
The commission has soft-peddled
brutality complaints by citizens for
years.
Its lack of action ranges from
charges of excessive LAPD restraints
against right-to-life activists to baton
beatings of union janitors in Century
City last June.
The city charter gives the Police
Commission head-of-department
status.
As such, Gates' immediate superior
is the panel which serves at the
pleasure of Bradley, whose attention
has centered on the harbor and airport
commissions.
But the mayor and his allies insist
that the current powers granted the
commission by the charter are too
weak, an argument voters have
rejected.
The charter makes clear that the
commission has the power to
supervise, control, regulate and
manage the LAPD, and make and
enforce all necessary rules and
regulations.
Bradley's only adroit move was
naming an independent commission to
investigate the LAPD's structure and
operation.
Heading it is influential Los Angeles
lawyer Warren M. Christopher, vice
chairman of the McCone Commission
which probed the 1965 Watts Riots.
The fJ.rst of the Christopher panel's
seven charges is to investigate the
"proper role, staff'mg and resources" of
the Police Commission.
A report by mid-summer may offer
some clues about whether the mayor's
commission has been derelict during
Gates' watch.
Could the present problem have
been averted by -more vigilance at the
top?
I
Joe Scott is editor of The Political:
Animal and The California Eye
newsletters, and political
commentator for KCBS-TV. He lives
in Redondo Beach.