LAPD Accused of Inaction on Racism, Sexism : Law enforcement: The department has failed to carry out its policies against discrimination, City Council panel is told.

The Police Department has not done enough to fill a void between its written policies on racism and sexism and actual law enforcement on Los Angeles streets, according to testimony before a special City Council committee on Thursday.

Instead, police officials from Chief Daryl F. Gates on down continue to minimize reports of racial and sexual discrimination, while emphasizing strides in recruiting minorities and women to the force, lawyers and community leaders told the Ad Hoc Committee on the Christopher Commission Report.

“We have not seen steps beyond written guidelines and procedures, which the commission felt was so important,” said John Speigel, general counsel for the Christopher Commission, which has been monitoring the department. “I want the LAPD to translate that rhetoric into a reality in the field.”

Police Cmdr. James Chambers, in charge of personnel and training, defended the department’s policies.

“I don’t agree with everything said up to this time,” Chambers said. “I do agree that we do not accept racism, sexism, discourtesy and harassment--and that is stated in our policy.”

Two committee members, council members Mark Ridley-Thomas and Joy Picus, urged that police officials go beyond restating existing policy and adopt techniques that can break management and training patterns that foster discrimination.

The Christopher Commission report--compiled in the aftermath of the March 3 beating of Rodney G. King--found that recruits are frequently told by their field training officers to “forget everything you learned in the Police Academy.”

These training officers teach police techniques and strategies often imbued with personal biases reflected in the stream of racist and sexist comments revealed in an audit of LAPD computer and radio messages, the report said.

The result, according to the report, is a police culture that tolerates racial and sexist slurs among officers, and discourteous and sometimes unnecessarily violent confrontations with minorities and women.

At one point during the five-hour hearing, Ridley-Thomas and Picus scolded four police officials for failing to even acknowledge that racial and sexual discrimination are serious problems in the 8,300-member department.

“There is a gap between what is said and what happens,” Picus said. “I want to hear specifics of changes you’ve made in policy.”

Added Ridley-Thomas: “The problems are far more substantial than what you’ve been prepared to concede.”

Police Lt. Richard Gonzales, who works in personnel and training, said that in his view “a small percentage of the organization” was responsible for reported incidents of racial and sexual discrimination in the department.

Nonetheless, Police Commissioner Jesse Brewer, a former assistant police chief, testified about alleged discrimination against minority officers during his 35 years on the force.

When he joined the department in 1952, Brewer said, “racism was overt” and black officers were not even allowed work with white officers.

“That put us in a certain category that was substandard to white officers who wore the LAPD badge,” Brewer said. “I didn’t grin and bear it because it created anger in me.”

Instead, he said he fought back by “studying hard” for exams needed to earn promotions to the highest administrative levels in the department.

Councilman Marvin Braude, chairman of the five-member committee, suggested that Brewer’s success will remain an aberration until senior police officials are held accountable for their attitudes and the culture they spawn.

“These attitudinal changes are critical to the delivery of effective police service and fighting crime,” Braude said in an interview. “All of the knowledgeable observers we’ve spoken to say that is going to be a long hard task.”

The committee is scheduled to meet again on Oct. 17 when it will deal with issues including the use of force and whistle-blowing.