Block Defends Force Shown in Tape of 1986 Jail Riot

Sheriff Sherman Block said Friday that three deputies used “unnecessary force” on some inmates after quelling a disturbance at Los Angeles County’s Central Jail five years ago, but he defended the department’s handling of the videotaped incident and insisted it should not be compared to the police beating of Rodney G. King.

Block called a news conference to release a three-hour videotape of the disturbance and its aftermath the day after segments were broadcast on a local television station. KNBC-TV aired several minutes of the tape, which had been leaked to the station by a former sheriff’s deputy, in news reports Thursday night and Friday morning.

The videotape includes scenes of three riot-clad deputies striking an indeterminable number of inmates with batons after prisoners were ordered to creep along a narrow cellblock corridor after the disturbance ended. It also showed deputies firing rubber bullets at the inmates, whom sheriff’s officials described as “hard-core gang members.” Several inmates are shown receiving medical treatment for head, arm and chest injuries.

The recording was made by the department from a protected hallway above the cellblock. Portions of the tape--excluding the beatings--have been used in training classes for deputies, department officials said.

“The blows that were struck with the baton were not for any valid reason,” Block said. “I don’t disagree with that. But I think there is a real attempt on the part of some to somehow equate this with the Rodney King incident. . . . This was not a Rodney King incident. This was an incident that involved a highly dangerous situation.”

The tape was leaked by Doug Sparks, a former sheriff’s sergeant who is suing the department for what he calls a forced retirement last year.

“It was an extremely excessive use of force,” said Sparks, who appears in the videotape. “I saw the aftermath, the injuries, the head injuries. There were broken bones, dog bites . . . I don’t know what Block’s definition of excessive is, but I would say this falls within it.”

The beatings also were condemned Friday by some civil rights leaders, who called for an investigation.

“We believe it is probably as reflective of what went on last week in the jail as what happened five years ago,” said Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade.

None of the deputies involved in the beatings were punished, Block said. He added that all 50 deputies from the department’s Special Enforcement Bureau, which had been used to quell the disturbance, were reprimanded and given a “stern butt chewing” by their captain.

Block defended the response as appropriate.

“I didn’t in any way mean to imply that the action is excusable, but I think that when you utilize personnel in a riot situation, subject them to the highly emotional stress, to the physical danger, to all that was involved, and then immediately use those people to deal with the same individuals who just constituted a threat, there is a possibility of that kind of overreaction,” he said.

Block also said he believes the deputies did not use excessive force during the April 23, 1986, incident.

“I don’t think there was any force used that was intended to inflict serious injury or were real acts of brutality, which is how I would describe excessive force,” he said. “They did use unnecessary force.”

The beatings led the department to change its procedures for dealing with jail disturbances. Since then, Block said, deputies who suppress a disturbance must be relieved by other officers less likely to react emotionally to the inmates. But no such riots have taken place since the uprising, Block said.

In addition, he said, the department developed an eight-hour course on interpersonal relations designed to reduce tensions between inmates and deputies.

The disturbance was triggered by a struggle between an inmate and a deputy in a section of the jail that housed about 90 gang members from South-Central Los Angeles. Authorities said several dozen inmates responded by barricading themselves outside their cells.

The videotape shows the inmates arming themselves with heavy drain grates, wrapping their fists with sheets and towels, and tearing bed mattresses into protective vests. Over a two-hour period, deputies tried to persuade the inmates to return to their cells. At one point, a deputy is heard announcing: “We do not want to hurt anybody and nobody will be hurt if you return to your cells immediately.”

Block accused KNBC-Channel 4 of broadcasting the beatings out of context. He said the violence lasted seconds before supervisory personnel ordered it stopped.

“We are talking about a riot that lasted more than two hours,” Block said. “We are talking about force that was used and brought under control literally in seconds. I think the command personnel who were present carried out their responsibility very well.”

Moments after the beatings began, Assistant Sheriff Robert Edmonds, the ranking official at the scene who is now the department’s undersheriff, can be heard on the audio portion of the tape saying, “Get that under control.”

KNBC News Director Nancy Valenta defended the station’s broadcast of the tape. “We handled this story very fairly,” she said.

Sparks said he was given the tape within the past month by a sheriff’s employee who knew he was suing the department.

“I felt there was a definite need for the information to be put out,” Sparks said. “The Sheriff’s Department basically hit between 40 and 50 inmates, and swept it under the rug.”