Fights Over 2 Brutality Bills Result in a Draw

In a day marked by heated, emotional testimony, police groups and an odd array of opponents battled to a legislative draw over Rodney King-related bills aimed at exposing and punishing police brutality.

During the morning, the Assembly Public Safety Committee approved 4 to 0 a measure by Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita) that would bring harsh sanctions against any officer who fails to report excessive force by a colleague. The measure is aimed at breaking the police “code of silence.”

But in the afternoon, police organizations--dominated by unions representing rank-and-file officers--rallied to score a victory by watering down a bill by Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) that would appoint special prosecutors in each county to investigate police brutality complaints. The amended measure was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a unanimous vote.

Tuesday’s battles were the latest in what one senator dubbed a legislative “tapeworm” over what, if anything, the Legislature should do in response to the Rodney G. King incident and other reports of police brutality.

So far, the politically powerful police groups have been able to stall or kill all of the anti-brutality bills introduced over the last year, arguing that they are an overreaction to the highly publicized King case.

Proponents of the measures--ranging from Davis, a former Los Angeles police chief, to the liberal American Civil Liberties Union--say, however, that the police unions have succeeded in blocking reforms because of raw political clout. Besides their contributions to the lawmakers’ campaigns, the unions’ endorsements are highly valued at election time.

Mixed into that highly charged atmosphere Tuesday was some emotional testimony by brutality victims, including Christene Buck of Long Beach.

Her voice quavering and hands shaking, Buck testified before the Senate committee on behalf of the Torres bill. She recounted how Long Beach Officer Edward Tolly shot her unarmed, 31-year-old son to death in the foyer of her home after a family disturbance on May 6.

Buck said she later learned that Tolly is still under investigation for a previous shooting, when he allegedly wounded an unarmed motorist in 1990.

“Maybe there could have been some kind of law that could have done something about this officer instead of letting him be called out to a family problem and take my son’s life before my very eyes,” she said. “We can’t let this happen to other people and other parents.”

Torres said he hoped Buck’s testimony would win support for his bill, which would create special prosecutors in each county to investigate brutality complaints. Currently, that is the job of district attorneys, who Torres says are likely to have cozy relationships with local police departments.

But the tide on the Torres bill turned suddenly Tuesday when Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) suggested that the idea of special prosecutors be scuttled. Counting votes, a beaten Torres relented but managed to hang onto an important provision requiring the state to keep a centralized index of sustained felony complaints against individual officers.

That way, civilians and the media can check on officers such as Tolly, Torres said. “It helps us to weed out the bad apples who are the problems,” he said later.

The victory by police groups on the Torres bill came just hours after they suffered a defeat on the measure by Davis. They were unable to remove a provision from the Davis bill that would suspend an officer from police work if he stays mum about use of excessive force by a colleague who is later convicted of a felony. The suspended officer could also be charged with a misdemeanor

Although the groups could not strip the job sanctions out of the bill, they were able to soften them somewhat by shortening any period of suspension to two years before the officer is allowed to reapply.

Similar bills were passed last year but were vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson.