Nonconformist in Blue Raises Red Flags in LAPD

In the middle of the night of Sept. 8, 1991, Los Angeles Police Officer Carl McGill got a call from his sister, Laronda Buford, who was badly frightened.

She said four or five drug dealers had been hanging out in front of her home in Inglewood, where she lived with her 3-year-old daughter. She’d told them to get away. Two of the dealers opened fire on her. Buford, armed with a service revolver her brother had left at her house, fired back. The dealers left.

McGill dressed, put on his bulletproof vest, armed himself with a Beretta pistol and drove to his sister’s house. He stopped in a parking lot across the street and waited, lights out, engine running. He planned to remain there, on guard, until dawn.

About 15 minutes later, two cars stopped in front of the house. Two men got out and pointed to Buford’s house. When they saw McGill, they ran back to their car. The two cars sped away. McGill pulled his gun from its holster, put it on his lap and followed them. He said he wanted to get their license numbers.

One of the men leaned out of the window of his car and began shooting. McGill stopped and fired six shots with his Beretta. Realizing he was outgunned, he spun a U-turn, and--chased by gunfire--sought refuge in the Inglewood police station. His assailants, too dumb to know where they were going, followed him and were arrested by Inglewood police.

You’d think the police would have hailed McGill as a hero. Instead, a police discipline board, calling his tactics “outrageous,” suspended McGill for 44 days.

Listening to McGill tell me his story the other day, I didn’t understand why his punishment was so severe. His sister was in danger. He protected her. How is this any different than if McGill, while off duty, had been in a 7-Eleven when two holdup men walked in? What if he’d drawn his gun, killed one and sent the other running away? He would have been a hero.

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McGill, 33, unfortunately, does not fit the traditional profile of an LAPD hero. He’s an articulate, “Take This Job and Shove It” kind of guy, a patrol officer who doesn’t accept lip from his bosses. This isn’t how to get along in an organization intolerant of nonconformity. In fact, one of the officers on McGill’s discipline board said “he has established throughout his entire career that he is a nonconformist, as noted in his academy evaluation.”

But the world isn’t usually changed by those who march obediently to the boss’s every drumbeat. And McGill, an African-American, wants to change the world where he grew up, amid the gangs of South-Central L.A.

On off-duty hours, he counseled high school students, conducted anti-gang seminars and lectured parents on spotting signs that their children were drifting toward the gang life. He organized neighborhood watches, the citizens groups that help police fight crime.

People noticed. In 1988, he was ABC News’ “Person of the Week.” A year later, Newsweek magazine called McGill a California leader of the future. Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy gave him an award for doing “what is best for California.” He ran for the state Assembly, and lost.

But McGill has had trouble on the job. He’s been disciplined every year since he’s been a police officer. Some were minor infractions--he overlooked a knife while searching a suspect; he forgot to appear in court; he missed a qualification session on the pistol range.

Another was more serious. McGill was suspended for 22 days for insubordination. He’d had an argument with a superior who had searched his car while investigating the legitimacy of McGill’s sick leave absence. The sick leave, it turned out, was legitimate, and the suspicions of his boss were unfounded.

It looked as though the brass had their unfriendly eyes on the high-profile do-gooder from South-Central L.A., waiting for him to do something wrong.

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I imagine attention became even more intense a month after the Rodney G. King beating, when McGill’s nonconformity escalated into rebellion against then Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ regime.

McGill was a leader of the small African-American Peace Officers Assn., which demanded Gates’ resignation. The association stand, announced at a news conference, countered the pro-Gates position of the oldest and largest organization of black cops, the Oscar Joel Bryant Assn. The news conference was an important event in the drive to unseat Gates and I’m sure the brass knew all about it.

Then in September, McGill’s sister was attacked by the drug dealers.

It’s true that McGill acted like Clint Eastwood when he raced off to her defense. He concedes he should be reprimanded for his behavior. But 44 days on the bench?

McGill has sent Chief Willie L. Williams a letter asking that his punishment be eased. Maybe the chief should read the letter and determine whether the punishment fits the offense.