officers - The Black Vault

Association, Gates told report­
- era "there's no way I'm going
to leave under a cloud of controversy.'~
Job security
: Gates has civil service protection
from fll'ing, but could
be removed for gross misconduct
"by the Police Commis-
• sion, a standard commission­
·.ers have $Sid is not met by the
circumstances of_ the King
beating.
Wednesday's luncheon at
the Los Angeles Police Academy
followed a show of support
for the chief by fellow officers.
· Lt. George Aliano, president
of the Los Angeles Police Protective
League - which has
butted heads with Gates during
labor negotiations - sai~
his organization is tak_ing out
newspaper advertisements to
counter the "ale~ ad" placed
· in publications by the Ameri­
. can Civil Liberties Union to
.. pressure Gates to resign. ·
.· 'Lyn~h mob'.
,. "We are gratified quite
· frankly that Chief Gates is rlot
submitting to the lynch mob
. mentality," added LAPD
~-.Commander Lome Kram.er. ·
, ·.The City Council ordered
Gates to appear at a City Hall
' hearing next week to explain
how officer& are disciplined for
use of excessive force.· ·
But the couricil. fell three
votes short of adopting an
· emergency motion requiring
Gates to answer the panel's
. questio~s sp~cifically about
. the ·King beating.· .. ·
The failure of the motion -
it received seven of the re-·
quired 10 votes on the . 15-
member council - indicated
that Gates still enjoys political
. support on the ·papeL
·· Accusing his main antagonizer,
the ACLU,. of "prejudice
against police," Gates -compared
his detractors to those
who criticized President Bush
for sending U.S troops .to the
Persian Gulf. .
"Most of the people who disliked
George Bush and disliked
what we were doing in
the Middle East ••·• they're
the same people who are at-
. tacking me," Gates said. ·
1 In insisting Gates leave office,
the ACLU has been
·joined .by groups such as the
National Association for the
: Advancement of Colored People
the Me:r.ican American
. Polltical Association, the Chicimo
Caucus Democratic Party
Mothers of East L.A., imd
members of the ·Urban
League. . .
The organizations accused
Gates of fostering the atmosphere
that led to King's beating
by repeatedly Dlfl;king ethnically
insensitive · and
inflammatory statements .during
his 13 years as chief.