officers - The Black Vault

FD·~50~~v. 5·8·81)
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•(Indicate page, name of ·
newspaper, city and state.)
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r----------_..:...:.:..:......_.:......:....:.,., _.:::___:_ __ __:_ ________ -!Date: LOS ANGELES TU1ES
COLUMN ONE
Bl~ckCops
_Caughtiri
the Middle
• In the aftermath of the
King beating, many must
· suffer taunts of fellow
African-Americ~ns.'I)le
LAPD officers struggle to
sort through ~onflicting
emotions.
By CHARISSE jONES
TIMES ,STAFF WRITER
·.. . There were complaints of loud
· music at a Crenshaw apartment.
Officer Garland Hardeman, an
eight-year veteran of the Los Angeles
Police Department and a
black man went to the apartment
and told the tenants to turn it
down. They did-but the volume.
went back up as soon as he was out
of sight. .
Hardeman returned, and the in-
·suits began. .
~'What are you going to do, beat
me like Rodney King?" the woman
yelled. "You black cops are just
Uncle Toms. You're no better than
the white boys!" .
That ~as in mid-March, two
weeks after white Los Angeles
·police officers had been captured
on videotape beating a black motorist-an
episode that has proven
to be an especially difficult passage
·for some of the Police Depart­
. ment's 1,150 black officers.
. Beyond the disappointment and
.anger felt by many of the de~ar~- .
ment's 8,300 officers over the meldent,
some black·officers say they
must now endure taunts from fellow
African-Americans, as well as
deal with their anguish over wear-
. ing the uniform of a department
being accused of institutional racism.
As the taped beating is run·
.again and again, and kept alive by
the .ensuing political drama, African-Americans
on the force have
struggled to sort through some-
. times conflicting reactions as po­
. ·.lice officers, as citizens, as black
· men and women.
· There is' no uniform response.
'Lengthy interviews with a):lout 20
black officers yielded expressions
of love for the department and
anger over how the actions·of a few
have tarnished their badges .. Some
said they were torn, not wanting to
believe that the beating was racial-
.. ly motivated, but saying that they
can find no other explanation. A
few talked of quitting.
Several said that it -has never
been ea.sy being a black police
officer in Los Angeles. Some described
how they attempt to tread
a thin line between the departrp.ent
they serve and the community
. they swore to protect. Some spoke
of a continual battle to defend their
occupation against widespread
perceptions in the black community
that officers are often brutal and
the department permeated with
racism. ·
Still others told stories of internal
department racism, depicting
the King incident as an inevitable
byproduct of pervasive racist attitudes.
"I know that police officers have
not been the best friends of the
'black community," said one officer.
"I knew that when I stepped over
the line and held my hand up. I had
no illusions tha~ 1 was going to'
Edition: ~-10N • , APRIL 15 1 19 91
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 1
Title:
BLACK COPS CAUGHT IN
THE MIDDLE
Character:
or
Classification:
Submitting Office:
IDS ANGELES
Indexing:
CIVIL RIGHTS
8 0-3 3 B
SEARCHED I INDEXED.._· ----:::o'-1
SERIAliZED \Jio': -FILE~ ',.__......
APR 1 7 1991
FBI
LOS ANGELES I
.change ~things.. ..
"But recently, with this latest
caper, I am ashamed." .
Hardeman said taunts now follow
him up and down the streets,
muttered by the loiterers who do
not want to move on, yelled out by
gang members who dare the police .
to bother them.
"Yeah, come on in," they tease
·from the doorway of a h1!ngout. "I
want to get my $66 million like
Rodney King."
"I can understand how people
feel," said Hardeman, 34, who. also
serves on the Inglewood City
Council. "I just ask tha~ they not
see all cops in the same light.
-because a lot of us feel for them."
As black officers, he said, "We're
-exposed to the same kind of dis­
·criminatory treatment they are."
It is on the street, in encounters
with Mrican-American civilians,
that many black officers come face
·to face with the extra tensions .
Don Williams, a 10-year department
veteran who as a
·detective trainee investigates
drive-by shootings, recalled how a
year ago he could go to a crime
scene, look into a crowd and find
witnesses who, with th~ slightest
.motion, would signal they knew
something and talk to him later. He
said such cooperation has become
iharder to come by in the days since
lKing's March 3 beating.
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