officers - The Black Vault

FD·350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
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~Indicae page, name o
newspaper, city and state.)
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.Hard Q-riestioris for
; Chief Daryl GateS
Thursday's hearing must yield some honest answers
T
he
Los Angeles Police Commis-
. sion is scheduled to hold a
special session on Thursday in
t response to the videotaped police
. beating of Rodney King. Among the
many urgent issues the commission
must ~ddress is the job Chief Daryl
.· Gates is doing-or not doing.
. Here are some of the questions the
~il>olice Commission must ask:
.' 1. Is there a pattern of harsh and
· unequal treatment directed at minorities
in Los Angeles?
If there is, what has Chief Gates
done to change the behavior of those
,officers who have betrayed their .
· colleagues and the people they are
· .sworn to protect and serve? Gates
,- rose through the ranks during his 42
years on the LAPD. He has been the
chief for 13 years, which is certainly
· long enough to get the right message
across about his expectations of how
: the department should operate and
how the officers under his command
.. should conduct themselves-including
the all-important issue of when to
use force.
That beating-captured on videotape
by an amateur cameraman and
televised repeatedly-has provoked a
growing national outrage, most notably
among minorities. Those shocking
, images have also disgusted some
like-minded people, including many
big-city cops and business leaders
who privately-and a few publiclyhave
expressed distress over the King
incident and how it affects the city's
image and commerce.
2. Can Gates do anything now to
counterbalance his history of inflammatory
statements?
In the wake of the uproar over the
King beating, the chief has begun to
aggressively preach against police
brutality. In his own videotape played
during weekend roll calls 'for all
~ officers, Gates sounded like a stern
:father as he told his officers: "When ·
. · the law says you will use only that
' force which is necessary, you will
only use the force that is necessary.
, People look to you for protection.
But, after more than a dozen years
at the helm, why was it necessary for
the chief to make such .an obvious
point after all this time?
The lecture surely came too late for
King, who was savagely beaten by
LAPD officers following a police
chase prompted by a speeding violation.
By Gates' own tally, officers
clubbed King as many as 56 times
with nightsticks wielded high over
their heads like baseball bats.
Is such behavior part of a pattern, a
problem the chiefh.as helped foster?
Why has he continued his inflammatory
style of leadership despite repeated
criticism?- What message was
given when Gates said black people
were more likely to die from chokeholds
because they didn't react the
way "normal people" did? What conelusions
were drawn when Gates said
a Latino father was "probably lucky"
that he had only received a broken
nose during a raid by police officers
who suspected the man's son was a
gang member?
To what extent has the chief been
sending two very different mes­
.sages- the official and the unofficial?
To what extent have his off-the-cuff
remarks encouraged those cops to
take the law into their own hands?
3. To whom, if anyone, is the police
chi~f of Los' Angeles accountable?
Chief Gates is responsible for inflammatory
comments, for the actions of
his officers and for the $8 million in
taxpayer money paid out last year to
satisfy complaints against the department.
But because of rigid civil service
protections, the police chief is
not accountable to the mayor, the
City Council or to the city's voters.
In the aftermath of King's beating,
the chief must answer to the Police
.Commission. He must also answer on
Friday the questions of civil rights
leaders who look at LAPD history
and don't believe .that this police
beating was an aberration. Will
Gates' answers Silence the growmg
'chorus of calls for his resignation? Or
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Date·
Editi~n: WED • MAR 13 1 1 9 91
METRO SECTION,PAGE 6
Tille: HARD QUESTIONS FOR CHIE:
DARYL GATES
CIVIL RIGHTS
Character:
or
Classlftcation: 80-3 3 B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
Indexing:
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SERIAU~EO fiLED. ·---I
MAR 19 1991
FBI - LOS ANGELES ~
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further inflame a controversy that , ,-; 1 ~ 1 IJ f
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