Police Review Campaign Opens Office

Mayor Tom Bradley, lawyer Warren Christopher and Urban League President John Mack joined other government and civic leaders Saturday to open the South-Central Los Angeles headquarters of the campaign for greater civilian oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The headquarters on Vermont Avenue is to be one of three offices operated by Citizens for Law Enforcement and Reform, a group of lawyers, business executives, civil rights and religious leaders backing a June 2 ballot measure to change the City Charter. Another CLEAR office has opened on West 3rd Street, and a third office is expected to open soon in the San Fernando Valley.

The largely black voting population of South-Central Los Angeles is considered to be key to the campaign that grew out of community reaction to the videotaped police beating of Rodney G. King last year. But the theme of most remarks Saturday was ethnic diversity and the idea that approval of the City Charter change would help make government more accountable to all.

Among those attending were Los Angeles County supervisorial candidates Yvonne Braithwaite Burke and Diane Watson; City Councilwoman Rita Walters; Gloria Romero, a member of the Hispanic Advisory Council to the city Police Commission; Jamaal Wilkes, a realty agent and former Los Angeles Lakers star, and the Rev. Edgar Boyd, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.