AFTER THE RIOTS : Police Opposition Delays Action on Misconduct Bills

In its first chance to grapple with the issue of police brutality since the Los Angeles riots, a powerful state Senate committee on Tuesday bowed to objections from law enforcement groups and delayed action on several bills that would strengthen the reporting and prosecution of police misconduct.

The decision by the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold the bills for more study because of opposition from police organizations--primarily labor unions representing rank-and-file street cops--left proponents of the bills frustrated.

“I thought with the riots the bill would have gotten out with a unanimous vote,” Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) said about his measure to create an independent office in Sacramento to prosecute all felony complaints against police deemed worthy by local district attorneys. “But it’s just business as usual, bickering over amendments, bickering over a bill. . . .

“It’s so discouraging that after having walked the streets of L.A., after what happened, I didn’t think we needed anything more to convince them (lawmakers) there’s a problem out there.”

Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), the committee chairman, disagreed with Torres’ complaint, saying both sides were trying to work out a compromise. “I’m working on the details,” he said after the hearing.

Lockyer’s committee took spirited testimony about the Torres bill and another bill by Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles), which would repeal the right of police officers to sue citizens for defamation for filing unfounded complaints.

At one point, Lockyer himself angrily chastised police groups for “stonewalling” by arguing that incidents of officer misconduct were isolated and could be handled by existing procedures.

During testimony by one police representative, the senator said a blind man had been beaten by officers in his Alameda County district and a local Democratic Party official had been jailed just because she didn’t have her driver’s license.

“I represent white rich people and working-class people who are being hassled by cops . . . and I want to do something about it,” Lockyer said. “And to say it isn’t so is bull.”

Yet Lockyer finally assented to police group requests for more time to study the bills and work out a compromise. Police representatives said they objected to provisions in the Torres bill making complaints public record. One representative even said the Los Angeles riots had gotten out of hand because police had become reluctant to use any kind of force after the Rodney King case, which led to measures such as Torres’.

A third measure by Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles), forcing bystander police officers to report excessive force by a colleague, never even came up for a discussion before it was also tabled.

Torres said those delays came, in part, because some of the committee members feared crossing the politically powerful police unions before the June 2 primaries.

Going into the hearing, supporters of the measures tried to underscore what they said was that enormous political clout. Strong police opposition last year helped kill or stall a spate of anti-brutality measures introduced by lawmakers outraged by the videotape of the Rodney G. King beating and the police “code of silence” it exposed.

On Tuesday, California Common Cause released a report showing that police groups have spent $2.2 million for lobbying and given nearly $1.2 million to political campaigns since 1989--about the same as such Sacramento heavyweights as the California Teachers Assn.

Besides the money, Common Cause analyst Kim Alexander said police groups have clout because of their endorsements, which politicians eagerly seek as a way to bolster their law-and-order credentials during election years.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Phillip Wyman (R-Tehachapi), who is running for Congress, and representatives of the Los Angeles Police Protective League held a press conference on the Capitol steps to oppose passage of Los Angeles City Charter Amendment F, which would reorganize the Police Department.

Times staff writer Jerry Gillam contributed to this story.