THE TIMES POLL : 31% of Angelenos Say Gates Should Quit Now

Almost one out of three Los Angeles residents believe that Police Chief Daryl F. Gates should resign immediately over the police beating of a black Altadena man, and a majority say he bears substantial blame for the incident, a Los Angeles Times Poll has found.

Though there was not overwhelming sentiment for the chief to step down right away, the poll indicated that support for both Gates and the Los Angeles Police Department continues to erode in the wake of the March 3 beating of motorist Rodney G. King.

The poll found that 31% want Gates to resign immediately, and another 31% believe Gates should resign if an investigation finds that his officers committed wrongdoing.

In a Times poll two weeks ago, 13% said Gates should resign immediately and 27% said he should resign if his officers committed wrongdoing.

In this week’s poll, 32% said Gates should not resign, down from 48%.

While public attention after the King beating has focused on the department’s leadership, the poll also found that residents believe racism and brutality are widespread within the Police Department and that these problems might not be solved by the chief’s departure.

Two-thirds of the respondents said they believe that police brutality is common in Los Angeles, and two-thirds said they believe racist feelings are common among police officers.

Residents were divided on the question of whether Gates, who has made controversial remarks about blacks, Latinos and Jews, is racist. Thirty-six percent said yes, 39% said no and 25% were unsure.

The poll found that six in 10 residents believe that Gates bears “a good amount” or most of the blame for the King beating.

But a majority generally believe that the problems of misconduct by the department stem more from the “beliefs and personalities of the typical police officer” than from the policies of those who run the department. The survey found that 58% attribute misconduct to individual officers and 29% to department policies.

Asked how the departure of Gates would affect the department, 38% said it would have a positive effect, 20% said it would have a negative effect and 33% said it would have not much effect.

The King beating, captured on videotape by an amateur photographer, has thrust Gates and the LAPD into the center of a national uproar over police misconduct. Four officers have been indicted on felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon. A host of public figures--from civil rights activist Jesse Jackson to conservative columnist George Will--have called on Gates to resign.

The beating has carried racial overtones because King is black and the indicted officers are white. In addition, transcripts of patrol car computer messages made public this week revealed that two officers made a racial slur about an African-American family they had encountered just before the King beating. The message likened the family to the movie “Gorillas in the Mist.”

Following these disclosures, the poll showed that nearly two-thirds of the city’s residents--including 60% of the Anglos, 72% of blacks and 73% of Latinos--now believe the King beating was racially motivated. Two weeks ago, slightly more than half of those polled said the beating was racially motivated.

When asked, “How common do you think racist feelings are among Los Angeles city police officers?” three out of 10 respondents said such feelings are very common and an additional four out of 10 said they are fairly common.

Among Anglos, 19% believed racist feelings are very common and 38% said fairly common.

Among blacks, 37% said such feelings are very common; 37% said they are fairly common.

Among Latinos, 38% said they are very common; 38% said fairly common.

In an interview Thursday on NBC’s “Today Show,” Gates acknowledged that racism exists within the department, but blamed it on a larger, societal problem.

“Racism is a problem in the United States of America and we hire people from the United States of America,” the chief said. “We know some racism exists. But we screen our people very carefully. We talk to them about this kind of thing and we tell them it has no place in being a Los Angeles police officer.”

The Times poll, which surveyed 909 Los Angeles residents, was conducted Wednesday and Thursday. The poll, supervised by Times Poll Director John Brennan, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Among certain subgroups the margin is somewhat higher.

City residents are following news of the King beating extremely closely, the poll showed. Nine out of 10 people interviewed said they are following the story, and more than half said they are following it very closely.

In addition, 70% of those surveyed said they were familiar with the patrol car computer messages made public earlier this week. Two-thirds said the correct amount of attention is being given to the King case.

The poll revealed a broad sense of outrage among Angelenos over the beating of King, who was repeatedly kicked and clubbed by officers. According to the poll, 94% of all respondents are upset about the beating--and three-fourths of all respondents described themselves as “very upset.”

Because some questions in this week’s poll are identical to those in the earlier Times survey, its findings serve as a measure of how public opinion has changed during the controversy. The results show that as the case has unfolded, disapproval of both Gates and the LAPD has climbed.

But the King beating has had little effect on the popularity of Mayor Tom Bradley, who has been quoted frequently about the incident but has stopped short of calling for Gates’ resignation. Bradley’s approval rating--61% two weeks ago--has dipped slightly, with 57% of Angelenos approving of the way he is handling his job.

Half the respondents said that Bradley is doing what he should to address the King beating, down slightly from 55% two weeks ago.

More people now disapprove of the way Gates is handling his job: 61% as compared to 55% two weeks ago. More think the chief has been too lenient on the officers involved: 55% as opposed to 38% two weeks ago.

Gates’ negative ratings are strongest among African-Americans. According to the poll, four out of five blacks disapprove of the way the chief is handling his job.

However, a majority of Anglos--52%--also disapprove of the way the chief is handling his job.

A majority of the respondents believe that Gates deserves “a good amount” of the blame for the King beating, while 18% think the chief bears no blame at all. In addition, half of those polled said Gates is not doing everything he can to get to the bottom of the King incident.

With regard to the police force as a whole, three out of five disapproved of the way the LAPD is handling its job. Two weeks ago the response was nearly split, with 46% saying they approved and 47% saying they disapproved.

The poll showed that the percentage of residents who believe police brutality is common among Los Angeles police officers is now up slightly, from 63% to 68%. Among African-Americans, 87% of those surveyed this week said brutality among LAPD officers is common. Among Latinos, it was 80%. Among Anglos, it was 58%.

Asked how they feel when they see a Los Angeles police officer or a police vehicle these days, 23% of all respondents said they felt reassured, while 25% said they felt uneasy. Half said they feel neutral when they see an officer.

Yet public confidence in the LAPD’s ability to fight crime has remained both steady and high. In both polls the Times has conducted on the King incident, three-quarters of those surveyed said they had at least “some confidence” that the police would protect them from crime, while about a fifth of the respondents said they had a lot of confidence in the Police Department.

Despite the public furor surrounding the King case, this week’s poll also showed that crime is clearly the No. 1 concern on the minds of Los Angeles residents. Asked to name “the most important problem facing the city of Los Angeles today,” crime ranked the highest among blacks, Latinos and Anglos, with 28% of all residents naming it as the city’s biggest woe.

Next highest was the drought, with 13%. Police brutality ranked third, with 8% of all respondents naming it as the city’s biggest problem, but an additional 5% specifically mentioned the Rodney King affair or Gates.

Assistant Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus contributed to this report.

HOW THE POLL WAS CONDUCTED

The Los Angeles Times Poll interviewed a total of 909 adult Los Angeles city residents by telephone on Wednesday and Thursday. The sample includes 556 Anglos, 143 Latinos and 117 blacks. Results are weighted to reflect the proper proportions of the city’s population subgroups, utilizing census data on race and national origin, sex and labor force characteristics. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points. For the Anglo subgroup, the error margin is plus or minus four points, for Latinos it is plus or minus eight points and for blacks plus or minus nine points.

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THE LOS ANGELES TIMES POLL

How Angelenos View the Police

The following are results from a Los Angeles Times Poll of 910 adult Los Angeles city residents contacted by telephone March 20 and 21. How common do you think racist feelings are among Los Angeles city police officers?

All City Residents Anglos Blacks Latinos Very common 28% 19% 37% 38% Fairly common 37% 38% 37% 38% Fairly uncommon 19% 22% 15% 15% Very uncommon 5% 5% 5% 4% Don’t know 11% 16% 6% 5%

Generally speaking, do you think the problems of misconduct on the part of the LAPD are due more to the policies of those who run the department or more to the beliefs and personalities of the average police officer?

All City Residents Anglos Blacks Latinos Dept. leadership 29% 23% 35% 36% Officers’ beliefs and personalities 58% 65% 49% 51% Don’t know 13% 12% 16% 13%

If Police Chief Daryl Gates were to resign or be removed from office, would that have a positive effect on the way LAPD does its job, a negative effect, or would it not have much effect one way or the other?

All City Residents Anglos Blacks Latinos Positive 38% 31% 51% 41% Not much effect 33% 39% 32% 30% Negative 20% 24% 9% 19% Don’t know 9% 6% 8% 10%

Do you think Police Chief Daryl Gates is a racist, or is he not a racist?

All City Residents Anglos Blacks Latinos Racist 36% 22% 49% 50% Not a racist 39% 50% 21% 31% Don’t know 25% 28% 30% 19%

The following compares responses from a Times Poll conducted March 7 and 8 to responses from the March 20-21 poll. Police Chief Daryl Gates should: Resign immediately over the King incident

All City Residents Anglos Blacks Latinos Now 31% 25% 40% 37% March 7-8 13% 9% 18% 17%

Police Chief Daryl Gates should: Resign if investigation proves police wrongdoing

All City Residents Anglos Blacks Latinos Now 31% 27% 30% 37% March 7-8 27% 24% 32% 32%

Police Chief Daryl Gates should: Should not resign over the incident

All City Residents Anglos Blacks Latinos Now 32% 45% 21% 20% March 7-8 48% 59% 43% 35%

Police Chief Daryl Gates should: Don’t know

All City Residents Anglos Blacks Latinos Now 6% 3% 9% 6% March 7-8 12% 8% 7% 16%