Police Union Official Attacks LAPD Brass : Riots: Legal director writes that inaction directly contributed to deaths and property loss.

A police union official has angrily called the management of the Los Angeles Police Department “cowards” and “incompetents” for failing to act swiftly to quell the violence that followed the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating.

Contending that the top brass was ill-prepared and did not promptly deploy officers when the civil unrest erupted, Cliff Ruff, legal director of the Police Protective League, wrote in this month’s union newspaper:

“Plain and simple, the staff failed to execute the duties they claim to be experts in: emergency preparedness and emergency response. Their inaction and failure to prepare directly contributed to the deaths of over 50 people and the destruction of $700 million in property.

“These alleged leaders are guilty of misconduct and they are definitely subject to negligent retention because they would do the same thing again.”

Ruff, in an interview Tuesday, said that while the column expressed his personal views, none of the union’s nine board directors sought to censor his harsh words about the police management. The paper is distributed to almost all of the LAPD’s 7,900 sworn officers.

“Nothing goes in the paper without everyone reviewing it,” Ruff said. “They could pull a column. But it’s just that a lot of people tend to be less blunt than myself.”

Department supervisors, many of whom had not yet seen the new issue of the league’s Thin Blue Line newspaper, declined to comment on Ruff’s column. But they noted that Ruff is known for his sharp-tongued views. They cite another acerbic column he wrote last year in which he warned rank-and-file officers to be less aggressive on the street lest they be disciplined by management.

“Usually it’s an awful lot of rhetoric and very little substance,” Cmdr. Bob Gil, a chief LAPD spokesman, said of Ruff’s columns. “In dealing with him one on one, he’s a very personable guy and seems to have his head on right. And then you read something he writes and you wonder if it’s the same guy.”

In his column, Ruff was particularly upset with the leadership of Deputy Chief Matthew Hunt, who oversees police operations in the department’s South Bureau, where much of the unrest occurred. He blamed Hunt for giving more attention to the appearance of the officers inside the mobile command trailers than to immediately deploying them to the riots’ hot spots.

“Hundreds of officers stood around while citizens were being murdered and the city burned,” Ruff wrote. “Total, inexcusable ineptness was displayed by the staff leadership. . . .

“They sure looked pretty in those trailers with all of their stars and bars, but they failed to discharge their duties. It appears Matthew Hunt didn’t care if the city burned down, but he made sure the narcotics detectives got shaves and haircuts so they wouldn’t embarrass the department.”

Hunt declined to comment about Ruff’s characterization of him, saying: “I wouldn’t dignify it with a response.”

Ruff said he decided to write the column after many officers complained to him about the department’s inaction during the riots. An independent panel headed by former FBI Director William Webster is evaluating the LAPD’s response to the riots, including concerns that LAPD administrators bent to political pressure not to display a big show of force for fear it would inflame angry citizens.

Ruff said that officers in the department “have been blamed for not doing their job and that they are being blamed for being held back. They felt the staff was doing what was politically correct rather than what was proper.”

Ruff closed his column by warning officers to “be careful out there.”

“The only one you can count on are your partners,” he wrote. “The brass won’t back you up unless it’s politically correct at the time.”