officers - The Black Vault

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With tensions running -hlghatte~
the bea\ing, .a blue~ribbon panel
was formed to investigate the 'Police
Department. Named the Christopher
Commission for its chaiz:­
·man, former U.S. Assistant
·Secretary of State Warren Christopher,
the panel found a police
·force plagued by tacitly condoned
racism and abuse at the hands of
irogue cops. The coml!li~sion called
on Chief Daryl F. Gates· to step
'down. ·
· After Wednesday's verdicts,
·Gates met with reporters at Parker
Center but declined to express his
·opinion about the jury's verdict.
"An awful lot of people will
voice their opinion," Gates said. "I
don't intend to.'' · ·
Gates directed much of his news
, conference to urge calm in the citY..
But even as he spoke, a· ·crowd
gat)lered in front of Parker Center.
As Gates left the room, demonstra-
: tors were shouting "LAPD are
'rednecks! LAPD are racists!" ·
"This may be a test," Gat!:!s ~aid.
:1'1 believe .people will meet' that: expertS slrld. ~- .~ ;:--w·~~,...."'"":
:test." · · · · The six-man, six-woman jury
. r -.. includedoneLatinaandoneAsian-_
'L'ater,' 1 as ·violence spreag Am~rican. pqty t;t handful o~.blacks
: through partS of the city;··uates were ptes·ent in: the original jury
:activated the LAPD Emergency pool: ··· ·
·Command Center, CC!llceled police The four .officers' ·defense attor-
}leaves and declared a per~i$en~ neys had sought to portray King as
•.alert. · · · · . · a hard-to-handle suspect w)lo
1 Gates' des,gnated successor, made the officers fear for their
J.Philadelphia Police Commissioner ·lives. A convicted felon on parole,
: Willie ·L. Williams, ·who is black; King was drunk the night he led
::was monitoring the riots on te~eyi:. _police Ciil a ,high.speed ch~se
·sion at his Philadelphia home. · · through the streets of Los Angeles
~ · "The outburs~ by these people .Co.unty until stopping in Lake
f,are certainly -in no-way helping the: View Terrac:e. There, he was .'or­
:··pealing process. Jt!s making it very .dered out of his car, and the
~difficult f~r those.people whO were beatingfqllowed ..· ·
~trying to take ~i.s c~>nrt decision "I tried to put them in the shoes
tand make changes, . . . oi the police officers," said Stone,
t "lt'~ a po-win .situation, every.. "and I think 1 was able to do that.
rthing that occurre9 iJI ~e·last few ~-We got the jurors· tq look at the
(.hours, the rioting, ;the fires, the. · case not from the eye of the camera
~J1lhooting death. .: or the eye of a video cameraman,
· . "They ·are going to solidify the but from ·the eyes of the officers
: views of those people who are not who were out Utere that night!' .
. wanting to see· things smoothed Powell is ·the officer seEm level-
;over, but want them further divid· 'ing most of the blows at Iqng, whO
ed." · -was swung at more than 50 times .
. He declined to comment ·on the and stung by ap electrical Taser
· LAPD's tactics of .holding· back fWD. • . . · ·. · .
during the early stages of the · In speaking to rep6rters, Powe~l
noting, but said he will review it directed some of ·his wrath at
when he takes office in several Gates. "He should have backed u5
weeks. . , : . up," Powell said. ''He should have
· He· also said he Will consult with ·.packed up his policies," but the
Los Angeles officials today to see if verdicts· Hshow that. he wa~
'he could play any role in c~ming wrong." . . .· ··
the situation.
The jury ·heard 29 da,y~ of testi-
"Tactically," ·Williams told The mony from 55 witnesses ~d was
, Times, "it's probably one of ·the shown the videotape on numerous
most crucial.times in the history of occasions. .. .
the Police Department-:-·one of the . King did·· not testify at the trial.
-most crucial, precarious t.i.n}es in · In an interview with the district
. Chief Gates' career and mine." attorney's office four months after
· Legal ex:Perts sai.d the jurors may the'beating, he said he. "saw death
have reached the verdicts based on . in [Powell's] eyes" and was certain
·their fears of crime and pre-ex- ·he would be killed by officers who
.istjng attitudes favoring police offi- b~at him furiously and repeateiily
cers. The key'!actor, they·agreed, .. calledhim"'nigge;r.'~ ·
was the ch,ange of venue granted to . Throughout Los . Angeles 'on
the defense. Moving the trial out of Wednesday, residents whq ·.sat
Los Angeles County to' more con- . glued . to · thelr television sets to
servative and less racially' diverse · watch the delivering ·of the. ver-
Simi Valley· produced a jury dis- diets expressed. astonishment.
.. posed to siding with policE), the . '. "Th.e jliry apparf!ntly_ Wdn't S!i!e
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