Reform Factor: Triumph of Los Angeles : Voters, overwhelmingly rejecting fear, order up a new era in police-city relations

Consider where Los Angeles would be this morning if Charter Amendment F hadn’t passed.

We would be back at square one--with a police system that was, in effect, accountable only to itself.

We would have sent incoming Police Chief Willie L. Williams the message that Los Angeles remained deeply divided on the need for police reform, that the status quo had won the day, that the past would continue to haunt the present.

We would have told the world that this city hadn’t learned a thing from the Rodney King incident, and was still swallowing the line that we can’t allow civilian control of the Police Department because that means allowing “politicians” (i.e., elected representatives) to have some say in the overall direction of the LAPD.

In short, if Charter Amendment F hadn’t passed, the city would be mired in the mistakes of the past and doomed to repeat them.

That didn’t happen. The measure not only passed, it triumphed. More than twice as many voted for it as against it. Just months ago, no political forecaster would have predicted anything close to such a landslide.

Why the overwhelming vote for F? In part because it was the right thing to do. Los Angeles absolutely has to move forward.

In part because more and more people began reacting to the views of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates with diminishing patience. He has had his opportunities, has done some good, has done some bad, and had his full but ultimately unconvincing say against reform.

In part the reform passed because of all the hard work of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department. Under the astute and caring guidance of its chairman, Warren Christopher, this panel, whose members were appointed after all not only by Mayor Tom Bradley but by Gates too, produced a widely hailed report on the department that offered a coherent conceptual framework for reform. In effect, if you bought that report, then you bought Charter Amendment F--it was all part of a logical piece.

And--last but certainly not least--the reform passed because of the utterly disorganized LAPD response to the rioting, at least in the crucial initial stages. After all, the argument of Amendment F foes had been: The department’s not broke, don’t fix it.

But as the smoke of many fires hung heavy in the L.A. sky last month, it was painfully obvious that this was a deeply troubled department. A mindless defense of the status quo just wasn’t persuasive.

The voters have spoken. Los Angeles is on the verge of new possibilities. The day of police reform has dawned. What a fitting welcome for Chief Williams. How lucky the city is to have a chance to redeem itself.