Police Brutality

As a deputy district attorney, I spent six years in a special unit of our office where claims of police brutality are reviewed. I have prosecuted officers who used too much force. I have refused to prosecute officers where the evidence fell short. Amid all the present storm and fury, I offer these observations, based on practical experience:

--The cry of “racism” is raised more often than it should be. In most cases where the officers went too far, it was because they perceived that their authority was being defied. The skin color of the person doing the defying did not matter. Nor did the skin color of the officer himself, who might as likely be black or Latino as white.

--It is wrong to suggest that cases such as the beating of Rodney King “happen all the time.” They do not. With one or two possible exceptions, I have never seen a worse case among all the several hundred I reviewed.

--LAPD did a better job than most in bringing complaints of excess force to our attention. They gave us the names of all civilian witnesses, whether friendly or not to LAPD. They allowed us to attend their own internal affairs hearings at Parker Center. With LAPD, I never had the sense that evidence was being kept from us or presented in misleading fashion. That was not always true with other police departments in this county.

I am no particular fan of Police Chief Daryl Gates, but I don’t like to see him criticized unfairly. Whatever else may be said about him, he does not tolerate cops who beat people. In this context, I know whereof I speak.

RICHARD HEALEY

Huntington Beach