officers - The Black Vault

FD·350 (Rev. 5·6·61 )
• ••
(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
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WS~~~STI~S
[H•EkTIMES Poi:i.'~ , ·::~· ... -----~r- 1 - ... \ ~::~n: ~~~~t ~:~~i~~: ~!:; 1
Majority SaYs Pollee·
Brutality Is COinmo·n
f -"~·Los
, By TED ROHRLICH
i-TIMES STAFF WRITER • • •
Angeles residents o;~rpartment
officers. Three out of four
city residents ·said they favored
·such a board. · - . .
While 'the poll :round that 'three
whelmingly believe that police of four Los Angeles-residents have
~·used excessive force. .in arresting •. confidence in the abi_li~y of the
Rodney G. King and lhat jnstances. ·. police lo prptect them from crime,
-~of _police brutality are common-. it also found substantial distrust of
:·_place, a Los A~geles 'J)m:s }>~~~-... the department. :-:; :-_--. :. _ ·• · . .
:)las found. ·· · · · Asked, ~'When 1t comes to bemg
~- Nearly two-thirds of those honest, -what is ·your impression of
f:polled, including a majority .of An- the. Los Angeles Police Depar~-
..glos, said they believe incidents o~ .. ment?" 50% of ~.esponde~ts sa1d
. brutality by Los Angeles police are they had an unfavorab!e lmpres-
: common, with 28% saying such rsion anq 44%. had a favorable
':incidents are very common. ! impression. · · ' ·
·. One out of four of thos~ surveyed l This expression of distrust was
!)aid that in the last five·years they }.higher than the -38% recorded .in
1
had personally seen or·. been in- ~'1979 when The Times Poll asked
!·valved in an incident in which a l·the same ·question after a con-
. Los .Angeles. Police Department I troversial incident in 'which police
1
officer-used excessive-force. One of 1 shot to death a black woman,:~ulia
· · three blacks said they had seen or t Love, outside 'her house. ·
been a party to such an incident. ~ Eighty -six percent of those sur-
• The poll found widespread belier veyed in last week's poll said they.
among Anglos, blacks and ·Latinos I had seen th~ often-televised vidthat
King was beaten because he ~r eotape, ·Which shows King being
was black and that police generally
·are tougher on black;:; ~nd Latinos · · ~
than "they are on Anglos.
THE TIMES
Los Angeles Polic~ Chief Daryl. t POLL ..
F. Gates has apologized for the •
, pe~tin?, of Kin~, c~Hing it an "aber- f .,.._...._...._...._...._ ___ _.....__ __ _
rat10n. The mmdent last week ! r·epeatedly krcked and,-clubbed
prompted scattered calls for the r .more than 50 times by uniformed
.. chief's resignation by ·some civil 11 officers. .
.. Tights and community activists. · t'' The beating 'occurred after po-
~ More than half of those polled t, lice said King had led them on a
; said that they disapprov~ in.gen~r- j high-speed chase that ~nded with
-!alofthewaythatGa~esis)~andhng ··him refusing to leave his car.
~his job. But only on,e of eight : Police said that when King
'residents believe that the chief } emerged they 'thought he might
! should resign immediately over the }· have a weapon. . ;
~beating.of King, which was video- !. · King, however, bas said that he
; taped by an onlooker. .. f pulled his car over as sopn as police
; The poll _found extremel;y strong t requeste~ and that his manner was .
~.sentiment m favor of settmg up a f; cooperative.
f civilian board to review alJeged ~ · Asked whether they 'believed
r.cases of misconduct by Police De-
~.·King's ·version or the police's, re­
;: spondents favored King's by a
~·margin of 52% to 15%. The rest
• ··were unsure.
1ltle: !11AJORITY SAYS POLICE
BRUTALITY IS COMMON
Character:
or
Classification:
Submitting Office:
WS ANGELES
Civil Rights
8 0-3 3 B
lnde ;,..,.,.
SEARCHED·--- INDEXE0. ___ 1
SERIA!J~ED·~----- fiLEO,__ ___ I
MAR 2 0 1991
FBI - LOS ANGELES 1
~ .. 'Biacks were most ·distrustful of
i the police accoupt, declaring ~elief ·
f in King's version by a margm of
r 78%to2%.
'
• Whether they believed King rer
sisted arrest or not, an overwhelming
majority of those polled- .
92%-believed police .. used "too
much" force against King.
~ Even 89% of those who believe
: King resisted arr .:st said officers
l..:..us.ed excessive force.
, ·rhepoll was taken by telephone
Thursday and Friday nights, as
officials w~re reacting to the incident.
~ On Thursday, Gates told a news
~ · conference that he was asking the
district attorney's office to file
1·. felony charges against. three of the
15 officers at the scene, and
planned to administratively disci-
• pline the sergeant who was present
• . and to discipline as many as 11
other officers.
On Friday, the district attorney's
office announced tha:t it would take
the case before the county grand
jury Monday and that more than
three officers might be criminally
· charged. ,
i Despite moves to prosecute
\ those responsible, the poll found
that only 28% said they were very
'· confident that "justice will end up
: being done.'' .Another 30% were
· somewhat confident; 23% were ]
': somewhat doubtful and 14% very
·· doubtful. The rest were not sure.
· In their. assessment of how common
police brutality is, 63% of all
surveyed said it was common, with
28% saying it was "very common"
··and '35% "fairly common." ,
FBI/DOJ