Chief Says He’s Not ‘Going to Just Run Away’

A proud and defiant Police Chief Daryl F. Gates refused Tuesday to step down from the office he has held for 13 years--instead, rallying his troops around him as an independent commission released new findings of racism, excessive force and mismanagement in the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Chief! Chief! Chief!” his supporters chanted at Parker Center police headquarters when Gates emerged from his office after spending four hours reading the 228-page report of the Christopher Commission--a report his critics say is an stinging indictment of his leadership.

But instead of fighting back, a trait the 64-year-old chief has often displayed when under attack, Gates tried to downplay the report’s conclusions and emphasized that the vast majority of his 8,300 officers are dedicated public servants.

“This Police Department is aggressive,” Gates told a news conference attended by reporters and more than 100 members of his staff.

Sounding more like a crime fighter than a police chief fighting for his job, he added:

“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.”

Then, as Mayor Tom Bradley and other city officials thought the chief would finally announce his departure, Gates vowed not to leave.

“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 the support that I have within this organization and the community has been outstanding, and I’m not going to just run away.”

Since the March 3 police beating of Rodney G. King, Gates had repeatedly refused to leave office, but he did say that if the Christopher Commission found that his leadership created a climate of unacceptable behavior in the Police Department, he would change his mind.

The report, while not condemning Gates by name, found deep-rooted failures in the Police Department’s management and said immediate reforms must be undertaken to restore the public’s confidence.

But in what many saw as Gates’ darkest hour, he seemed unshaken. With the announcement that he was not leaving office, his staff cheered and applauded.

Gates turned and left the podium, leaving reporters shouting questions that went unanswered in the din.

Outside police headquarters, however, the chorus of anti-Gates voices was growing, many of them outraged that in defying the Christopher Commission’s suggestion that he leave, Gates was now insulting the city’s business establishment and civic community.

Warren Christopher, who chaired the panel studying police problems in the wake of the King beating, said the commission is calling for an immediate transition to a new chief. His report recommended that police chiefs serve for, at the most, only two consecutive five-year terms.

“Chief Gates is certainly in a position to retire, if that’s his decision,” Christopher said. “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 at 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 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.”

Gates had barely made it to his sixth-floor office on Tuesday morning when Christopher greeted him with copies of the report. In typical Gates fashion, the chief joked as he was handed copies of the lengthy report, quipping about its size and saying that with so many lawyers involved in the project, he thought it would be even longer.

But as the morning wore on, Gates remained behind closed doors, meeting with his private attorney and conferring with some of his top command staff.

According to Assistant Chief Robert Vernon, Gates was scrutinizing the report closely, “reading it line by line,” and even shortly before the news conference, Gates and his top staff were still poring over the document.

The news was not good. The commission found that bias and prejudice exists among many officers and that a group of officers has engaged in an unchecked series of brutality. Further, some of his most trusted aides, men who counted themselves in his inner circle of advisers over the years, had acknowledged to the commission staff that in some instances, management has failed to properly lead the department.

Against this backdrop, Gates and his advisers decided to hold only a brief news conference and to entertain no questions. Sources who participated in the discussions in the chief’s office said Gates and his confidants decided it was best for Gates to make a positive statement about the good work of the Police Department, and to emphasize that only a handful of rogue officers are engaged in misconduct.

“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.”

Addressing the question of a five-year term for chiefs, Gates said:

“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.”