Gates for Jackson’s Drug Plan

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, addressing the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday regarding the city’s war on drug dealing, said Jesse Jackson is the only presidential candidate “that has a real, viable, hard, aggressive program” to deal with nation’s narcotics problem.

Gates, stressing that he was not endorsing Jackson, volunteered the praise during a discussion to which he was invited by Supervisor Kenneth Hahn.

Speaking with reporters afterward, the police chief said Jackson discusses the drug problem “the way I feel about it. . . .”

“With Jackson, it’s not just drugs. He’s really looking at the youth of America and the failure of this country to deal” with drug abuse, he said.

Of Republican contenders from his own party, Gates said, “I don’t see the same aggressive fervor” that is needed to combat the problem.

As for his department’s efforts, Gates reported that sweeps in recent weeks against gangs and drug dealers in Los Angeles have resulted in nearly 1,700 arrests, the elimination of 32 fortified rock houses used to sell drugs and the confiscation of 343 vehicles and more than 100 guns.

The supervisors endorsed Gates’ efforts and those of Mayor Tom Bradley to win federal support for a drug enforcement task force here that would expand efforts of U.S. prosecutors, drug agents, Border Patrol officers and the Coast Guard.