Local News in Brief : Gates Ouster Urged; Racism Alleged
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Local officials with a statewide Latino political group Wednesday urged Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley to fire Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, calling Gates a “Rambo” responsible for racist police policies toward the Latino community.
Members of the local chapter of the Mexican-American Political Assn. made the demand two weeks after a federal court jury ordered Gates to personally pay more than $170,000 to a Latino man from East Los Angeles whose nose was broken and whose house was ransacked by officers searching for a murder weapon.
“The courts found Gates personally responsible for this brutal attack. . . . We want his immediate resignation,” said Raul Ruiz, a professor of Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge.
Bradley said he would have the Police Commission, which oversees the Police Department, investigate the allegations of racism.
Gates was not available for comment but Cmdr. William Booth, a department spokesman, dismissed MAPA’s allegations as “totally unjustified.”
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