Anniversary Noted by Vigils, Rallies, Forums

Activists in Los Angeles and around the country marked the first anniversary of the Rodney G. King beating by calling on residents to speed up reforms in law enforcement through grass-roots organizing, political pressure and the ballot box.

The American Civil Liberties Union alone held news conferences in 15 cities and announced the publication of “Fighting Police Abuse,” a manual designed to show community groups “how to demand and get police accountability,” said Ira Glasser, the ACLU’s executive director.

From San Diego to Berkeley and from Dallas to Washington, other organizations held rallies, vigils and community forums to highlight the videotaped images of police officers pummeling King with batons and the storm of controversy that those images sparked.

In Los Angeles, community leaders urged voters to use the charter amendment proposal on the June 2 ballot to increase police accountability.

About 300 people turned out at a town hall meeting at Los Angeles’ Horace Mann Junior High School to hear City Council members and police officials explain community-based policing.

“We as a Police Department have done a terrible job of listening to the community,” said Capt. Paul Jefferson, commander of the 77th Street Division in South-Central Los Angeles.

The King beating “accelerated the process” of developing a workable community-based policing system, Jefferson said, adding that the police “certainly need the community. We will work with you.”

The policing model outlined at Tuesday’s meeting involves electing 10 community representatives to councils in each of the 77th Street Division’s eight patrol areas. The councils would act as advisory boards to division commanders and the Police Commission.

“I know that you want to work with us, and the Police Commission is going to work with you,” said Police Commission member Jesse Brewer, a retired assistant police chief. “We want to make you a partner (so) you can tell us what you want us to do.”

Much of the fury over the King beating has been directed at the Los Angeles Police Department, but agencies in other cities also came under attack.

In Dallas on Tuesday, groups sponsored a community forum, and a rally was staged at City Hall in Minneapolis, where activists on Saturday had held an all-day forum on police practices that featured Don Jackson, the former Hawthorne police officer turned police reformer.

Most of the events were planned last November in Chicago, when scores of community groups, victims of police abuse, clergy and some police officers gathered to form the National Coalition for Police Accountability, said John Crew of the ACLU of Northern California.

Crew said the ACLU created its manual because the King beating “produced a lot of discussion but very little action.”

“Since we haven’t seen action, this (manual) puts reform in the hands of local activists and community organizations,” he said.

The booklet outlines how to gather statistics on police shootings, how to get data on lawsuits against individual officers and how to establish civilian review boards.

“We have a slow system,” the Rev. James Lawson, president of the local Southern Christian Leadership Council chapter, said at a Los Angeles press conference called by representatives from nine African-American, Jewish and Latino organizations. “Nothing has changed in the Police Department, the beatings go on, the killings go on. The K-9 dogs are still being used against blacks and Hispanics.”

He and the others, however, said the first step toward reform will be taken if voters approve a package of measures on the June 2 ballot that were recommended by the Christopher Commission.

Those measures, designed to make the Los Angeles Police Department more accountable to elected officials, would limit the city’s police chief to two five-year terms and grant the mayor and City Council the power to appoint the chief. A civilian panel would have the power to fire him.

“The baton blows delivered to Rodney King by the officers is something that is etched in the minds of every black man, woman and child in the city and country,” said Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade. “Let’s show up (on Election Day) and demonstrate with our batons--those little tools in the voter’s booth--that the police have to truly serve and be accountable to all people.”

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this story.