Leaders Rally Behind Chief Williams

Two dozen religious and community leaders, organized by the Los Angeles Urban League, gathered in front of police headquarters Thursday to praise the job being done by Chief Willie L. Williams and urge the Police Commission to rapidly conclude its investigation into unsubstantiated rumors that he conducted himself improperly.

The group suggested that the rumors about misuse of a city telephone, city cars and drivers and the acceptance of private favors such as free hotel rooms in Las Vegas, were leaked to the news media--before they were investigated--by people intent on torpedoing Williams as an agent of change.

They suggested that those people wanted to smear the chief and derail his attempts to reshape the image and rebuild the morale of a department that was shattered in the wake of 1992’s riots.

“Chief Williams has done an outstanding job of healing wounds and building bridges of cooperation between the Police Department and residents of every race, sex, religion, economic background and geographic area of Los Angeles,” said Urban League President John W. Mack.

He said Williams has made enemies because he is an LAPD outsider brought in from Philadelphia, a black man in a predominantly white organization and a reformer whose mission is to change the style of policing in Los Angeles. Mack added: “These vicious and undocumented rumors (are) calculated to assassinate his character, destroy his reputation and undermine his leadership.”

After the news conference, six members of the Los Angeles City Council said they would hold a news conference today “to announce their support” of Williams.

Mayor Richard Riordan issued a statement bemoaning public discussion of the rumors as unconstructive, saying: “Let me be clear: I want the chief to succeed.”

The rumors were called to the attention of the Police Commission in December by retired LAPD Deputy Chief Stephen Downing, who said that they were widespread within the department and that he wanted them investigated quietly and “put to bed” as true or false.

Downing, who has made no secret of his disdain for Williams as a leader, said he was distressed when his name was leaked to the media last week as the catalyst for a Police Commission probe, along with a distorted version of the information he had provided. To set the record straight, he released to The Times the complete text of his letter to the commission.

That letter contained a skeletal account of admittedly unsubstantiated rumors that Williams had improperly solicited some private favors, misused some public equipment and accepted free hotel rooms in Las Vegas.

The chief has denied any wrongdoing and the Police Commission has found none.

Mack said that the religious and community leaders who gathered Thursday plan to meet today with representatives of the Police Commission to urge that the investigation be conducted quickly.

Commission spokeswoman Elena Stern said the investigation was being conducted “quickly, fairly, thoroughly.”

But as of Thursday afternoon, Downing had not been interviewed.

Stern said the commissioners were conducting the probe and declined to comment on a source’s account that a professional investigator had only been assigned Wednesday.

Supporters of Williams included the National Organization for Women, the Asian Pacific Legal Center, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the NAACP, the rabbi of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple and leaders of recently created police-community councils whose focus is the switch to more community-based policing.

Barry Greenberg, co-chairman of the citywide coalition of police community advisory boards, said: “We are diametrically opposed and angered by the way in which this soap opera concerning Chief Williams has been played out in the media and in the hallways of Parker Center and City Hall. It detracts from the good work being done to create a partnership between the Police Department and the citizens of this community--a partnership which was fostered by Chief Williams.

“I’m now speaking to the same people who choose to disrupt us,” he said. “Community policing is here to stay. Citizen participation in the Los Angeles Police Department is here to stay. . . . This genie will not be put back in the bottle.”

Bishop Charles Blake, pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, said the spreading of rumors against Williams is part of a larger “sinister plot launched against not only Chief Willie Williams but certain other minority department heads in the city” who were appointed by former Mayor Tom Bradley.

Mack, serving as moderator, discouraged Blake from expanding on his point, suggesting that it should be the subject of a different news conference. Afterward, Blake was cautious. But he said there is “a free-floating anxiety” that holdover African American department heads have been targeted for removal.

The Riordan Administration has denied having any such plans and says it is interested solely in quality of performance, not the race or ethnicity of performers.

Blake questioned the mayor’s support of the chief, noting that Riordan did not attend a recent charitable fund-raiser sponsored by his church that honored Williams as “man of the year.”

Instead, Riordan dropped in on a party that same night held to honor a high-ranking police officer whom Williams had recently demoted.

Attendance at the two parties is an indication that Williams is far more popular in the community at large than within the LAPD.

While about 1,000 people jammed the party honoring Williams, only one member of the LAPD brass was among them, said Blake. That was Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker. Kroeker also joined the gathering to honor the man Williams had demoted, Deputy Chief Bernard Parks.