Gates on Gates : King Beating Fills Media Void, Chief Tells Playboy Magazine

Action would have been taken against the four officers who were videotaped beating motorist Rodney G. King even if the incident had not been recorded by an amateur cameraman, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said.

In an interview to be published in the August issue of Playboy magazine, Gates said that if the beating had not been videotaped, “I can’t believe we would not have had a complaint and, ultimately, an investigation. There were enough witnesses, and King’s injuries were severe enough, to have taken action against the officers.”

Responding to questions from novelist and former Los Angeles Herald Examiner sports columnist Diane K. Shah, Gates discusses the King beating, the bad blood between police headquarters and City Hall, his remarks over the years that have prompted public outrage and his philosophy of crime and punishment.

The magazine will be on newsstands Tuesday.

King’s brother, Paul, contacted the Foothill Division police station after the beating to file a complaint and told Sgt. Steven Flores that a videotape of the beating had been made. But Flores refused to initiate an investigation, and no complaint was lodged until after the video was broadcast by a local TV station.

After the beating, some people said--”shockingly, maybe”--that King probably deserved it, and that they did not see anything wrong with the officers beating him, Gates told Playboy.

“See, there are people on the other side,” the chief said.

Gates defended what Playboy described as his initial vehement defense of the officers involved in the March 3 beating in Lake View Terrace, calling his actions instinctive.

“I do defend my officers until I find out they’re wrong,” he said. “When I find they’re wrong, I discipline them.”

The King beating became a national scandal, Gates said, because the Persian Gulf War had ended and “there was a void in the news. They were looking for something startling, and this came along. And it was perfect for television, because it was visual.”

The chief said he wondered why more media attention was not focused on New York City, where five officers were indicted on charges of murder and others were being investigated on charges of pulling a suspect out of a taxi and pistol-whipping him.

“I really believe everybody jumped on me because I said the incident was an ‘aberration,’ ” Gates said. “That was a bad word. I’ve been meaning to look it up in the dictionary to find out why it’s such a bad word.

“I still believe it’s an aberration. I think the L.A. reputation was, and has been for such a long time, that of an incorruptible department with tremendous honesty and integrity, high principles and values. It just couldn’t happen in Los Angeles--and it did. I think that added to the story. It shocked people. They felt betrayed.”

Asked if pressure from Mayor Bradley’s office for him to resign had anything to do with a police investigation of Bradley, Gates said, “Yes, I think that’s another ‘coincidence,’ if you will.”

He said “some of my people came to me” after a series of articles in The Times on possible improper activity by members of Bradley’s Administration, and said, “These are in violation of the law. What do we do?”

Gates said he told them, “We do what we always do.”

His proudest accomplishment in his 13 years as chief is that he has survived, the 64-year-old Gates said.

“That in itself is a real achievement,” the chief said, adding that he is also proud of having a “very high popularity rating among people within this community” while being a person “who’s been out front, said a lot of controversial things and run a very aggressive Police Department.”

The one thing that would make him resign, he said, is if the majority of his officers told him it was time to leave. He would throw his badge down, as Gary Cooper did in “High Noon.”

“I would even be gracious,” he said. “Hurt, but gracious.

“I would do it . . . for them.”