Action Taken Against Gates Stuns Police, Critics Alike : Furlough: The department’s top Valley administrator begins visits to the stations to reassure demoralized officers.

The Los Angeles Police Commission’s decision Thursday to furlough Chief Daryl Gates shocked police critics and supporters alike in the San Fernando Valley, and the top Valley police administrator personally stepped in to reassure demoralized officers.

“Don’t pout,” Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker told about 65 officers during roll call at the department’s Van Nuys station.

“You’re the finest officers that have ever walked the streets of a big city. Don’t let anyone slur you. Don’t let anyone call you a gang.”

Throughout the station, officers condemned the commission’s decision and vowed to stand behind Gates. Some accused Mayor Tom Bradley, the Police Commission and other groups of using the Rodney G. King beating to their political advantage.

“I’m very upset at some of the things that have been said,” Officer Richard Powers, a 22-year veteran, said. “I have never seen a Police Commission member at a police station except when a negative incident comes up.”

At the Van Nuys station front desk, Officer John Kocan said he had received nearly 20 calls in one hour from people who said they supported Gates.

“What this has done, I think, is to just totally outrage the city of Los Angeles,” the 20-year veteran said.

A Sherman Oaks woman who asked not to be identified called the station and told a reporter that “we feel very upset about what happened. There are a lot of upset people because we feel Gates wasn’t given a chance.”

Kroeker, who was named head of the Valley Bureau after the King beating, said he planned to give similar pep talks to officers at the Valley’s four other stations during the next few days.

“Some of them feel discouraged, demoralized,” Kroeker said. “But I have a deep faith in their ability to go out there and do the job, despite the fact that they feel a deep loss.”

Outside the Police Department, reaction was mixed.

The Rev. James B. Lyles, president of the San Fernando Valley Ministers Fellowship, welcomed the action against Gates as the start of a healing process. The group represents ministers in the northeast Valley, including the Lake View Terrace neighborhood where the King beating took place March 3.

“We have been working to defuse a very explosive situation here and I look upon what has happened to Daryl Gates as a positive move in bringing about the healing we need to restore confidence,” said Lyles, whose group has met with police twice in the past month to improve police-community relations.

Although the group has not formally called for Gates’ resignation, Lyles himself has.

Lyles said he received many comments Thursday from residents of the area, all of them in favor of the action against Gates.

“The sense of the community, as I measure it, is that people look with favor on this,” Lyles said.

Fred Taylor, president of Focus ‘90s, a coalition of homeowner associations in the Pacoima area, called the commission’s decision “shocking.” But he said his group has stayed out of the debate over Gates’ tenure, focusing instead on working with local police representatives to improve relations.

“Whether Gates stays or not, it’s not going to change what we have to do out here,” Taylor said.

Bud Brown, president of the Foothill Advisory Boosters Assn., a group of about 100 business operators in the northeast Valley who contribute money, equipment and services to help police activities, called the commission’s action a mistake.

“We are extremely disappointed,” Brown said. “The department needs strong leadership and that’s what Daryl Gates provided. I worry about the repercussions.”

Brown noted that since the furor erupted over the King incident, the membership of the business group has increased.

“Businesses want to express their support for the Police Department,” Brown said. “The incident was horrible--everybody agrees with that. But it’s an isolated incident. The whole department should not be painted with the same brush.”

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