officers - The Black Vault

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"What about the Ii officers who stood. by and did
·. i nothing?" he asked. "They didn't try to stop it. They
... didn't report about it. Then they lied about it."
The onetime Democratic presidential candidate also
accused the Los Angeles City Council of turning the
issues raised by the King case on their head when they
voted earlier this month to restore Gates to his position
after the Police Commission placed him on a paid leay~ _
•I • -•
of absence.
• "They have made Gates the
victim, Rodney King the provocateur
and [Mayor] Tom Bradley the
expedi~nt politician," Jackson said.
"That's not true."
As he did at a rally in Los
Angeles last weekend, Jackson
urged the congregation to keep up
the pressure for change in the
Police Department, including the
ouster of Gates. He recalled remarks
made by the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. just before he was
assassinated in 1968: ·
"Don't s~y 'peace, peace, when
there is no peace.' "
Jackson also blasted President
Bush for praising Gates just three
days after the King beating. He
asserteh that the praise, in combi­
-nation'with Bush's recent nomination
of a controversial Miami judge
to. a federal ~ppeals judgeship,
~ shOwecHhat he; too, was failing to
· prqvidemoralleadership.
Last week, the Senate Judiciary
Committee rejected Bush's nomination
of U.S. District J~dge Kenneth
L. Ryskamp to the U.S. 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals after it
tame to light that he had made
. negative comments about blacks
and. Latinos. Jackson compared
Ryskamp's remarks to statements
Gates has made.
Jackson said that a Los Angeles
City Charter amendment giving a
mayor the power to remove a
police chief was needed because
otherwise the police chief bas too
much power.
"When you have the power to
investigate, to spy, to compile dossiers,
to arrest, you C(!n rule by
intimidation," he said.
Gates, in his rally remarks, asserted
that the Police Department's
reputation has been above
reproach for decades. · ·
_ uName me another Police Department
that has been uncorrupted
for 40 years," he said. ,
Sporadic calls of "Gates for Mayor"
emanated from the estimated
300 people at the ~ally sponsored
by Citizens ip Support of the Chief
of Police.
Asked afterward if he was considering
a mayoral bid, Gates responded:
"I'm chief of police and I
· like being chief."
Among those speaking in sup-
. port of Gates were San ·Fei:nando
Valley City Councilwoman Joy Picus
and Deputy Dist. Atty. Lea P.
D'Agostino, who said: "Those of us
who support Chief Gates are indeed
a force to be reckoned with.''
Times staff writer James M. Gomez
contributed to this story.