Garcetti Gives Awards to 8 Citizens for Courageous Deeds

Tuesday, there was praise for the chokehold.

Billy Jackson, a 53-year-old retiree, had nothing but compliments for the controversial hold that was banned by the LAPD 15 years ago after its application caused several deaths.

Not surprisingly, Jackson wasn’t on the receiving end of the hold; he used it to subdue a robber who was trying to steal a woman’s money at a post office.

He and seven others were honored at a luncheon by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti with “courageous citizen” awards, periodic tributes Garcetti pays to those who have exhibited courage in the face of danger.

That Jackson would be honored for using a chokehold was even more ironic because he is an African American. Several controversial deaths that led to the chokehold’s demise involved blacks. In one of his most memorable quotes, then-Police Chief Daryl Gates suggested that blacks were more biologically vulnerable than “normal” people to such holds. The Los Angeles Police Department now allows officers to use a modified “carotid restraint” hold in life-threatening situations.

Jackson, who lives in South-Central Los Angeles, was waiting in line last July at the post office at 83rd Street and Vermont Avenue. He heard a woman scream and turned around to see a man choking her and trying to grab her money.

“That woman could have been my wife,” Jackson said.

He went over to the man, who was in his 30s, told him to stop, and the two started wrestling.

“We were tussling for a long time, knocking over all those ropes and poles in the post office,” said the medium-built Jackson.

Having suffered a mild heart attack two years earlier, Jackson started becoming concerned as his wind ebbed.

Enter the chokehold.

“If it hadn’t been for the chokehold, I might have run out of breath,” he said. “That chokehold really came in handy. It did a good job.”

The man, a repeat offender, was later convicted of robbery and sentenced under the three-strikes law to 35 years to life in prison, authorities said.

As Jackson received his award from Garcetti, Ann Jackson, his wife of 25 years, smiled proudly.

“I was scared when I first heard about it, but, later, I was so proud of him,” she said.

Another South-Central man honored for bravery was Ronald Thompson, who apprehended an armed robber who had just taken cash from a woman on the sidewalk near Thompson’s dry-cleaning business.

Thompson, 47, said he had been having a bad day last October when he heard a woman scream that she had been robbed. Thompson’s car had been stolen two days earlier and he was still angry about it. He said he decided to vent on the robber.

“I took my frustrations out on him,” Thompson said. “After I heard the scream, I went back into my store, got my .38 and tracked him down.”

Thompson held the suspect at gunpoint until the police arrived. A jury trial begins next week.

Other people honored included Michael Stark, who prevented a woman from being robbed in Santa Monica, and Marty Spivak, Joel Samuels, Paul Berry and Anthony Gates, who combined efforts to prevent two men from stealing the purses of two women in Bellflower.

“These are all individuals who put themselves on the line for people they didn’t even know,” Garcetti said. “There are also many others that deserve this award that have never been acknowledged.”

The most spectacular incident involved the eighth hero, former Navy Petty Officer Eric Oliver.

Oliver, 27, was driving south from Thousand Oaks to the Coronado Navy Base along the San Diego Freeway near Imperial Highway early in the morning last March when he saw two cars burst into flames in the northbound lanes.

After running across four lanes of traffic and leaping over the center divider, Oliver reached into the burning car to pull out the driver, who was on fire.

Using his coat, Oliver put out the flames. Though the man had burns on 35% of his body, he survived. Authorities said he would have certainly died without the assistance of Oliver, who has since retired from the Navy and now sells Oldsmobiles.

Oliver echoed a sentiment expressed by most of the honorees who preceded him.

“I ain’t no hero,” he said.