Black Leaders Accuse Gates of Inflaming Racial Tensions

Black civic leaders on Tuesday accused Chief Daryl F. Gates of inflaming racial tensions, saying he has publicly denigrated them and “hasn’t helped people feel more at ease” by setting aside a $1-million contingency fund for police overtime should violence erupt after verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case.

The remarks--which came as jurors wrapped up their sixth day of deliberations in the case--were made at a joint news conference at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in South-Central Los Angeles.

Although City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas did the talking, he was backed by about a dozen ministers, business owners, civil rights leaders and social workers who had been meeting throughout the afternoon to fine-tune their own contingency plans.

The group has proposed mobilizing at least 200 community members in the city’s minority communities in the aftermath of the King verdict. The project, dubbed “Operation Cool Response,” would focus on controlling rumor and potential violence.

Ridley-Thomas, however, said the group was more concerned about the Police Department’s reaction to the verdict than the community’s response.

In particular, he cited reports that Gates has set aside $1 million in a police overtime account to respond to any civil unrest triggered by the verdict. He also alluded to a reference that Gates made to people in the community, “some of them supposedly leaders, who have indicated that if the jury renders a verdict not satisfactory to them . . . some kind of uprising, some kind of violence will erupt because of it.”

Made in a video for his troops, Gates’ statement “caused people to be concerned as to whether the department was arming itself,” Ridley-Thomas said.

“We should not repeat the errors of the past. A massive show of force would be a mistake,” Ridley-Thomas added. “These are very tense times.”

Gates, meanwhile, refused to discuss LAPD contingency plans for any civil unrest, but discounted concerns about a show of force by officers.

“We’re not in the business of enticing any kind of riot,” Gates said. “We’re not going to overreact to anything.

“I don’t have 1,000 officers to send to hot spots. If we have a problem, we’ll be there with enough officers to deal with it, in a proper way,” he added.

At issue is the assault trial of Police Officers Timothy E. Wind, Laurence M. Powell and Theodore J. Briseno and Sgt. Stacey C. Koon. The jury is expected to continue deciding the fates of the four officers--charged in the May 3, 1991, beating of King, a black motorist--when it resumes deliberations this morning.