Large Crowd Urges Reform at Police Hearing

In a demonstration of the continuing anger over the beating of a black motorist by Los Angeles police, an emotional, overflow crowd stood three deep along the walls of an insurance company auditorium and spilled over into a parking lot Wednesday evening as a commission investigating the incident convened in its second public session.

A succession of witnesses told the panel--informally known as the Christopher Commission after its chairman, Warren Christopher--that fundamental reforms are needed in the way the department operates in the wake of the March 3 beating of Rodney G. King.

The King beating more than two months ago remains a powerful catalyst for individuals and organizations to come forward and state their grievances against the department. Speakers at Wednesday’s meeting made it clear that their objections to Los Angeles Police Department practices are not limited to the “gross, excessive abuse” of the King beating.

Public confidence in the police is undermined daily by the lack of basic civility and by discourtesy and unnecessary harsh words used by officers, witnesses said.

Earlier in the day, King, whose videotaped beating sparked the nationwide furor over police brutality and racism, filed a federal civil rights suit seeking unspecified damages against the city of Los Angeles, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and the department, among other defendants.

“The beating of (King) was certainly accomplished by the individual officers present, but was also indicative of grossly inadequate training, constitutionally deficient hiring and disciplinary policies and a custom of racial bias prevalent in the Los Angeles Police Department,” said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court.

The commission meeting Wednesday, at the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building at West Adams Boulevard and Western Avenue, was charged with emotion, as the crowd rose to its feet in sustained applause or jeers nearly every five minutes.

Some speakers offered specific suggestions for departmental changes. NAACP Los Angeles branch President Joseph Duff recommended that police be given “courtesy cards”--business cards that officers would pass out to every civilian they contacted.

Such cards could include a statement declaring that the department “operates on a principle that there is a primacy to the value of human life and human dignity which must be protected and served at all times,” he said.

Others offered specific complaints. E. Jean Gary, president of an organization of black women attorneys, said she was once stopped for speeding and the officer asked her at least five times: “Whose car is this?” The implication, she said, was that she could not possibly own “such a nice car.”

Several witnesses argued that there is no justification for forcing people stopped for a traffic violation to lie spread-eagled on the ground, or for hog-tying suspects who present no threat to officers.

The crowd shouted down one speaker who attempted to defend the department. Ezola Foster, president of a conservative organization called Black Americans for Family Values, denounced politicians and organizations calling for reform of the Police Department, saying that they only want to take control of police themselves for selfish, political reasons.

With that remark, the audience began shouting: “You don’t represent us. . . . Get out of here.” The crowd was so noisy that Christopher suggested Foster return and give her testimony in private. She refused, saying she wanted her 10 minutes.

The crowd began chanting: “Go! Go! Go!” for several minutes until she was forced to abandon the podium.

Other witnesses pointed out that the King incident has reignited smoldering anger in the African-American community. Roland Coleman, an attorney representing a group called the Southern California Civil Rights Coalition said Los Angeles is “on the verge of possibly another hot summer. The streets are already ablaze in Washington, D.C.”

Activist Michael Zinzun, who is suing the department for allegedly releasing damaging intelligence files on him, was wildly applauded when he told the commission: “We are thinking of taking this to the streets. And we ain’t talking about marching.”

A constant theme in Wednesday’s testimony was that citizens are actively discouraged from filing complaints against officers. A man who identified himself only as Marco said he tried to file a complaint only to be told by a supervisor: “Why do you want to ruin this man’s career?”

Marco said he thought, “That young man’s career can ruin someone’s life.”

Originally set for two hours, Wednesday’s hearing was extended to 3 1/2 hours to accommodate testimony from the public and a dozen organizations. Earlier in the day, the commissioners took testimony in private from Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, former New York Police Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy and former Los Angeles Police Chief Tom Reddin.

Formally known as the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, the panel was formed April 1 by Mayor Tom Bradley to conduct a sweeping review of the Police Department.

It later absorbed a committee that had been formed by Gates to do the same thing. The panel is conducting a series of public hearings and private sessions in which it is hearing testimony from current and former police officers and officials, experts from a broad range of fields and ordinary citizens.

Meanwhile, King’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, said his beating “was not an aberration but rather the latest in a long series of excessive use of force incidents involving local law enforcement.” The lawsuit also alleged that King, contrary to police and other witnesses’ reports, “complied with all of the officers’ commands without objection.”

In addition to the city, Gates and the department, the suit names as defendants the Los Angeles Unified School District, Mayor Tom Bradley, 21 police officers, seven CHP officers and two school police officers.

The suit said King, 25, of Altadena, was “brutally attacked by Los Angeles Police Officer Laurence Powell using a police baton, and then in turn by Los Angeles Police Sgt. Stacy Koon using a Taser stun gun, and thereafter by LAPD Officer Ted Briseno and Los Angeles Police Officer David Love.”

The officers “taunted King with racial slurs and obscenities” and “used out-of-policy head strokes with batons, boot stomping, kicking, punching and Taser gun shocks,” the lawsuit said.

Gates fired rookie officer Timothy Wind on Tuesday and suspended Powell, Koon and Briseno without pay pending Board of Rights hearings that could lead to their dismissal.

The three officers and the sergeant also have been ordered to stand trial on criminal charges that include assault with great bodily injury.

In another development Wednesday, Police Cmdr. Rick Dinse said the department has obtained and will analyze a tape of a KCET television special aired Tuesday to determine if a racial slur was used by a police officer during King’s beating.