Chief Refuses to Step Down, Defends Police

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates defiantly refused Tuesday to step down from the office he has held for the last 13 years and defended his department, which the Christopher Commission said is tarnished by racism, excessive force and mismanagement.

With an anti-Gates chorus resounding all around him, the city’s top law enforcement officer--on a day many of his critics hoped he would capitulate--appeared all the more in command and control of his beleaguered Police Department.

In a press appearance Tuesday afternoon, his hold over the Police Department seemed to crystallize as more than 100 department employees applauded with cheers of “Chief! Chief!” and turned an event some thought would be a farewell speech into a Gates pep rally.

Taking the podium, he chose his words carefully and refused to take any questions from reporters--a sharp departure from his well-honed style of being caustic in his public comments and his love of sparring with the press.

His voice was firm and clear, and he seemed unfazed by the severity of the allegations leveled at the Police Department and his leadership. For the most part, he declined to react to the scathing deficiencies detailed in the Christopher report, instead appealing directly to the public for support.

The Christopher Commission called for a police department that is more sensitive and community-oriented; but Gates recommitted his troops to battling a heavy crime rate.

“This Police Department is aggressive,” he said, sounding more like a crime fighter than a police chief fighting for his job. “Last weekend, we had 17 homicides in the city of Los Angeles.

“And I want to assure all the people of this city that we’re going to respond as quickly as we can. We’re going to ferret out crime wherever we can find it. We’re going to use all the means at our disposal that we can to bring down the crime and violence.”

In vowing not to step aside in favor of the commission’s recommendation for a five-year term on police chiefs, Gates indicated that he would leave under such a situation only if the voters approved a change in the City Charter.

“My feeling is that one day I do want to retire. There’s no question about that,” the chief said. “After 13 years of being battered and pushed and otherwise tormented, that is a long, long time.”

But his critics recalled that Gates earlier this year pledged to leave if the Christopher Commission found that he set a tone that made it comfortable for officers to behave like their colleagues did in the March 3 beating of Rodney G. King.

Gates had previously called the King beating an “aberration.” But when the Christopher Commission announced Tuesday that racism and brutality often went unchecked in the Police Department, Gates was silent.

His public comments in the Parker Center auditorium were as much remarkable for what he left unspoken as for what he said.

He thanked the commission for its work, and noted that the panel’s staff had thoroughly reviewed the Police Department. But his praise was faint, and much of his speech was devoted to pointing out that the panel did not find fault with the vast majority of the 8,300 police officers.

He wondered why the commission did not strongly commend these officers, even though the 228-page report noted in its opening pages that many officers “perform their arduous duties in exemplary fashion.”

He did not, however, say which of the panel’s recommendations he favored. He did not discuss the extent of racism and excessive force in the Police Department, except to indicate that it was confined to a small group of officers. He was silent on the subject of management problems.

His new posture had been carefully coached.

Huddled for four hours in his office Tuesday morning, taking counsel from his private attorney and top command staff, Gates elected to hold only the brief press appearance.

Sources involved in the discussions in the chief’s office said Gates and his confidants decided it was best for the chief to speak in positive terms about the department, and to downplay the commission’s findings that a number of officers were engaged in misconduct and racism.

“We decided to go out there, stand tough and be like Gen. (Douglas) MacArthur,” one source said. “Inside, he has a lot of anger and you wouldn’t want to come across to the general public as angry. So he did what he had to do. He went out and made a quick positive statement.”

He first walked on the stage and jokingly pretended to toss the report on the floor and step on it, a reference to an earlier Police Department audit in which he actually stomped on the document.

His parting shot hinted that he would leave only if the voters approved a City Charter change enacting a set term for police chiefs.

“If the people of Los Angeles believe as the (Christopher) Commission believes that a chief should be restricted to two, five-year terms, then the people will have spoken and that will say volumes to me,” he said.

His defiant stance did not go unnoticed.

“Chief Gates is certainly in a position to retire, if that’s his decision,” said Warren Christopher, who chaired the panel. “Our fundamental point is that . . . we believe it is time for the transition in the department to commence.”

John A. Arguelles, vice chairman of the panel, said “it would be inconsistent with our recommendations if the present chief of police were to stay on indefinitely.”

“I really expect him to cooperate with the commission,” Arguelles added.

Others, such as Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, suggested that Gates’ refusal to go was indicative of what many now call a bunker mentality at the Police Department, where morale is an all-time low.

“He has resisted every change in the Police Department,” Ripston said of Gates. “When it came to abolishing the chokehold, he resisted it. When it came to promoting Latino officers he resisted it. Why should anyone believe that he will not resist the reforms and recommendations in the Christopher report?”

Police Commissioner Stanley Sheinbaum suggested that the chief should realize that the commission’s report, scathing in its description of Police Department management, was a signal to Gates that his time is up. “He knows as well as I do what the tea leaves read,” Sheinbaum said.

Even Eric Rose, a reserve police officer who has worked behind the scenes as a public relations strategist for Gates, conceded that the pressure has never been this intense for a Gates resignation.

“This is D-Day for the LAPD,” he said. “It’s one of the darkest chapters in the LAPD history.”

But like many Gates devotees, Rose expects Gates to weather the still-gathering storm that broke with the King beating.

“He’s been boxed into a corner, yes, but I don’t think Daryl Gates wants to have his legacy as a Los Angeles police officer end because of one incident,” Rose said. You can’t leave office as an innovator with your head hanging low.”