N.Y. Preacher Al Sharpton Plans L.A. Protest in Attempt to Force Gates to Quit

The Rev. Al Sharpton, the controversial New York City preacher and civil rights advocate, is bringing his flamboyant brand of protest to Los Angeles in an attempt to force Police Chief Daryl F. Gates out of office.

Declaring that Gates is “now a national symbol of police brutality,” Sharpton--who was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles Wednesday night--vowed in a telephone interview to stage a massive, nonviolent demonstration Friday in Los Angeles.

“I’m willing to do everything from tying up the freeways to sitting in police headquarters to having a prayer vigil,” he said. “My thing is that I know how to mobilize masses of people in one direction and that’s what I intend to do. I can guarantee you that Saturday morning, L.A. will know that we protested.”

With his pompadour hairdo, his expansive waistline and a penchant for wearing jogging suits, Sharpton is frequently featured in New York’s racy tabloid press. The Pentecostal preacher (he is not affiliated with any church) once described himself as a “loose cannon” who gets “white folks all riled up.”

Sharpton gained notoriety in 1987 for his role in the sensational case of Tawana Brawley, a 15-year-old black girl who claimed she had been raped by six white men. Sharpton advised Brawley and her family not to cooperate with investigators; a grand jury later concluded the rape never took place.

As news of Sharpton’s visit filtered through Los Angeles, Mayor Tom Bradley and others expressed concern that the colorful minister might further divide a city that is seriously split in the wake of the police beating of Altadena resident Rodney G. King.

“I think that what we need is an effort to heal this community, not something that is going to inflame them,” Bradley said at a morning press conference. “I am not going to prejudge what he may say but I hope that anybody who comes to town will keep this in mind.”

Samuel Paz, a lawyer who specializes in police misconduct cases and has criticized the LAPD in the wake of the King beating, said: “I hope he takes the time to learn the dynamics of our city before he takes a public position. . . . I don’t have any problem with his input or his comments as long as they are constructive and helpful.”

At the Los Angeles Police Department, where Gates on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping, 10-point plan to make the LAPD more responsive to citizens complaints, the reaction to Sharpton was cool.

“Let Mr. Sharpton do what he’s going to do,” said Cmdr. Robert Gil, the department’s top press officer. “We’re trying to get going in a positive way, moving forward and getting the department back to more of standard operating procedure.”

Sharpton was invited to Los Angeles by Elizabeth Munoz, last year’s Peace and Freedom Party candidate for governor, and Lawrence Grigsby, a lawyer and South-Central Los Angeles community activist who ran for Congress last year. Grigsby said he and Munoz believe Sharpton can bring a national perspective to the King beating, and possibly turn out more protesters than local civil rights groups have.

“I hate to criticize them (the local activists) but I certainly am not pleased,” Grigsby said. “If Chief Gates can raise between 3,000 and 4,000 people to say he should stay, how come these people can’t raise 600?”

But a spokesman for the Brotherhood Crusade, an African-American civic group that has been organizing protests against Gates, said the demonstrations have gone well. “I think that there is a very forceful, organized effort here,” said Ralph Sutton, “and I think that the pressure is being felt.”

“We are so involved and focused on what we are doing that we really haven’t been paying any attention to Mr. Sharpton’s visit here,” Sutton said.

In New York, Sharpton has been involved in countless protests in which race has been a factor. After white youths attacked three young blacks in Howard Beach, Queens, he led massive “Days of Outrage” demonstrations that shut down traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge and halted subway service in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In January, Sharpton was stabbed in the chest as he prepared to lead a demonstration through the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, in protest of the death of Yusef Hawkins, a black youth slain by a white mob.

In Los Angeles, however, Sharpton said he does not expect to even meet with King, the black motorist whose brutal beating at the hands of white Los Angeles police officers has touched off a national outcry over police misconduct. “I don’t think King is the issue,” he said. “I think Gates is the issue.”