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Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Police
Chief Daryl Gates was under
mounting pressure Tuesday to ,
resign as a grand jury heard testimony
to support indictments
against officers whose beating of
a motorist was captured on home
video.
The 23-member citizens'
panel, which could hand down
indictments as early as this
week, began a second day of
closed.door hearings in the case
of Rodney Glen King, the victim
of the bone-shattering March 3
beating. ,
According to publish;ed
reports, the grand jury already
heard testimony from George
Holliday, who shot the video, witness
Josie Morales and Highway
Patrol Officer Melanie Singer,
who was involved in the King
purs\lit.
Authorities said King, 25, was
stopped after a 100 mph-plus
CHP chase on the Foothill (210)
Freeway. Police joined in the
after King left the freeway
and began
running red
lights through
the Lake View
Terrace area of
the San Fernan·
do Valley, officers
said.
What followed
was a brutal
beating by Gates
police officers using batons and
an electric stun gun, an incident
that horrified television viewers
worldwide and blackened the eye
of the 8,300-officer Police Depart-
Gates lias labeled the beatmg
''an aberration" and has said he
will not resign. An amendment
to the City Charter, fixing a term
of office, would be n,ecessary to
change the lifetime tenure of the
police chief.
In a letter to the City Council •
on Tuesday, Mayor Tom Bradley
urged the council to draw up a
June ballot referendum requiring
contract renewals every five
years for all city department
heads and general managers.
The American Civil Liberties
Union took out a full-page ad in
the Los Angeles Times with a
photograph of a baton-wielding
officer and the headline, "Who
do you call when the gang wears
blue uniforms?"
The advertisement featured a .:
return coupon urging Gates to
resign.
. "In the interest of the city and
the Police Department, the time
has come for Police Chief Daryl
Gates to resign," the ACLU said.
HJoin in demanding the resigna·
tion of Chief Daryl Gates. We
need your help to convince him."
were these other devel­
, opments in the King case Tues­
, day:
• Black and Latino congressional
leaders met with FBI
i
Director William Sessions in
Washington to seek reasEmrances
that the officers involved in the
case will be punished. Mterward,
the lawmakers said Sessions
promised a thorough probe of the ,
incident.
• Bradley met with members I
of the Brother hood Crusade,
National Association for the
Al, Press Telegram
Long Beach' CA
3113191
Title: PRESSURE GROWS FOR
GATES TO QUIT
Character:
or
Classification:
Submitting Office:
ng Beach RA
Indexing~=------~---..,
SEARCHED INDEXED·---1
SERIAU~EO fiLED'-----1
MAR 19 1991
FBI -
LOS ANGELES