Was Police Investigation an Empty Ritual, or Will It Bring Change? : The Times asked a diverse group of people, most of them Los Angeles residents, to comment on the report of the Christopher Commission. The following commentaries are taken from the interviews. : Right Man, Wrong Job

I think it’s generally conceded that the report is an excellent one and I have nothing to add to that. It does occur to me, however, that Mr. Gates seems to have a kind of lifetime appointment here, and the only other people in America that seem to have lifetime appointments are in the federal judiciary. So I would suggest that Mr. Bush, who is seeing quite a bit of opposition to Clarence Thomas these days, appoint Gates to the Supreme Court and Thomas as police chief. And maybe the city and country would be better off. I’ll think harder about it, too, if anybody else cares to think about it.

I think I take (Gates’ explanation of LAPD racist remarks as being dark humor) as black humor itself. Gates is demonstrating real black humor when he’s suggesting that it’s black humor.

With all the problems we face in this society, why should we be involved in all this? Of course (Gates) should step down. Get out of the way now. You know, he’s standing in a revolving door, and there are a lot of people waiting to come through--like the whole society. Get out of the way.