Call for Gates to Resign

Your editorial asking for Chief Gates to be removed and the usual Conrad “cheap shots” were predictable.

The LAPD under Gates has been and is one of the finest in the world by any yardstick. It is more professional, more integrated and more motivated than any such force I can recall in my 64 years in Los Angeles.

No one condones the excessive force used and the brutal beating given to the felon, lawbreaker King. However, using the words of you and black leaders when their community is criticized, “Don’t condemn all our people for the actions of a few.”

Getting rid of Chief Gates is not going to make the streets any safer in South Los Angeles and it’s not going to improve the crime rate among young blacks. It certainly is going to make the rest of L.A. unhappy and resentful and not as safe.

Get rid of the policemen who abuse their authority and let’s move on. The job is hard enough without all the self-serving rhetoric.

R.P. POMI, Marina del Rey