Furor Over Moore’s Remarks Spreads Via Computer Net

The furor over Compton councilwoman and mayoral candidate Patricia A. Moore’s remarks at the funeral of slain Compton Police Officer Kevin Burrell continues to grow with help from an unusual source: a computer bulletin board.

Using a computer network, Al Angele, executive director of the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, issued a plea for law enforcement to band together as they did against rapper Ice T’s controversial “Cop Killer” song. In a bulletin called “Cops need assistance,” Angele urged fellow law enforcement officials to write letters of protest to the Compton Police Officers Assn. to try to force Moore to resign.

Angele, who attended the funeral, told fellow bulletin board subscribers that Moore had “launched into a tirade into good vs. bad cops and about the Rodney King beating . . . white cops beating black citizens . . . alluding to the problems which will be caused by another not guilty verdict in the federal trial of the 4 LAPD officers (facing charges in the King incident).”

Law enforcement officials from as far way as New York and Florida have responded with anger in a flurry of computer messages calling Moore “despicable,” a “power monger” and a “bigot.” Letters from across the country have begun trickling in to the city, Compton POA President Michael Sean Markey said. One woman, who said she attended the funeral, wrote that Moore “figuratively slapped (law enforcement) in the face.”

In fact, at the funeral Moore never referred to white cops beating black citizens or potential problems resulting from the outcome of the federal trial of the four LAPD officers. She did say that if the killers of the two Compton police officers are not brought to justice, “hell hath no fury like the city of Compton will have.”

At a press conference last week, Markey announced that his association as well as the California Organization of Police and Sheriffs and the South Los Angeles Chapter of the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California had endorsed Moore’s rival for the mayoral seat, Councilman Omar Bradley.

Moore, Markey said, has had a vendetta against the Police Department since she was elected in 1989.

“This is not going to go away,” Markey said. “One thing you don’t do to law enforcement officials is chastise one of our own at a funeral for a fallen officer. That is our time.”

Last week, Moore began fighting back with a full-page ad in the local paper containing her photo and a transcript of her remarks. The ad notes that “some portions were drowned out by applause” and urges residents who have questions about what she said to demand a copy of the video from Continental Cable Co. or the Compton Police Department.

TUCKERED OUT: Rep. Walter R. Tucker III (D-Compton), fed up with his former Compton City Council colleagues’ refusal to let him lease an office in a city-owned building, has rented space in a nearby commercial building.

Tucker will pay about $6,400 a month for the office at 145 E. Compton Blvd.--money, his staff points out, that could have been going to the city of Compton rather than a private company.

“He just got tired of waiting,” Tucker press spokeswoman Kris Bailey said. “He didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He didn’t want to deal with it anymore. He just wanted an office.”

Tucker, the former mayor of Compton, had planned to rent space in the city’s new Martin Luther King Jr. Multipurpose Transit Center after he was elected to Congress last November. But three of his former council colleagues--Bradley, Jane D. Robbins and Bernice Woods--had other thoughts and voted no. Tucker accused them of voting against him because they supported his chief rival in the congressional primary and held a political grudge against him. The three council members have denied that politics had anything to do with their decision and said, among other things, that the transit center should house transportation-related businesses--although it now houses a beauty shop.

The spat reached Sacramento, where state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) sponsored a bill now in committee that would prohibit local governments from discriminating against elected officials who want to rent publicly owned office space.

Tucker’s staff had been working temporarily out of a Lynwood industrial park. Bailey said an open house for the new district office will take place from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday.

WHAT ARE THEY UP TO? Rep. Steve Horn (R-Long Beach) is writing a weekly column he distributes to the press. Last week’s topic? Campaign finance reform. Horn called for the abolition of political action committees, a cap on campaign spending and said that 75% of all campaign funds should come from within a candidate’s district. . . . Assemblywoman Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) has introduced a bill that would require businesses allowing customers to rent merchandise with the option of buying it to reveal the final cost of a product, including the total interest charged, on clearly labeled price tags. . . . And Assemblyman Bob Epple (D-Cerritos), vowing to keep juvenile detention camps safe from budget cuts, recently conducted a hearing to discuss the impact of statewide closure of such camps.