Priest a Thorn in the Side of Compton Mayor

What began as a community fight over the future of the Compton Police Department has grown into a conflict between church and state in the ethnically shifting city.

The feud has pitted Mayor Omar Bradley, who is African American, against a local Roman Catholic priest who is white and leads two largely Latino parishes. And it increasingly involves an effort by Latinos, who now make up about 70% of Compton’s population, to gain political clout in a city governed by an all-black council.

The situation has gotten so tense that Bradley recently petitioned the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to ask the priest, Father Stan Bosch, to stay away from City Hall. A Bradley spokesman even charged that Bosch’s activities could incite “a race war.”

Archdiocese officials denied Bradley’s request and called the mayor’s petition extremely unusual.

Bosch, pastor of Our Lady of Victory and Sacred Heart churches in Compton, started taking members of his flock to City Council meetings last month to protest the proposed disbanding of the Police Department and transfer of law enforcement responsibilities to the county Sheriff’s Department. The rallies, continuing at almost every council meeting, have become more confrontational in recent weeks.

Bosch and his parishioners say they are outraged, not so much by the proposal, as by the fact that the council plans to vote on the idea without a citywide referendum. In a city that had 49 homicides last year, more than four times the per capita rate for Los Angeles County overall, law enforcement is a hugely important issue and one that should be decided by voters, they say.

Bosch said the police issue convinced him that the time is right for a campaign to give his parishioners a stronger political voice overall in the city of 90,000 residents southeast of downtown Los Angeles. No Latino has ever served on the council in the city where the black population has dropped from 70% in the 1970s to about 30% now.

“The police situation is really a lightning rod and an opportunity for us to stir our people,” Bosch said, adding that he does not favor one law enforcement agency over another.

Msgr. Richard Loomis, vicar for clergy for the archdiocese, which covers Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, said top church leaders fully support Bosch’s actions and believe they are consistent with Catholic doctrine. Loomis, who has been with the archdiocese for 25 years, said he could not recall another situation in which a political leader tried to have a priest’s activities curtailed.

Undeterred, Bradley said he plans to ask black Protestant clergy in the region to lobby the archdiocese to curb Bosch’s political activism. The mayor said he fears that the priest could inflame racial tensions and create a “dangerous situation.”

Bradley, 42, a charismatic and controversial leader who grew up in Compton, has dismissed some of the protesters as malcontents who were part of an unsuccessful effort to recall him last year. He said others are being manipulated by the priest.

The mayor, who is also assistant superintendent of the Lynwood Unified School District, said he considers himself a strong advocate for Latino residents.

“The majority of Latinos love me,” he said. “The older Latino women, I can’t even get through the grocery store for them kissing me.”

Bradley said he speaks fluent Spanish and has supported housing, public works and employment projects that have benefited both African Americans and Latinos.

“It hurts me to hear the Latino community thinking that I am not aware or concerned about their problems. That’s painful, because it’s the furthest thing from the truth,” he said, adding that he has even proposed changing the name of Rosecrans Avenue, a major thoroughfare that crosses the city, to Latino Heritage Street.

But until more Latinos obtain citizenship and start voting in larger numbers for Latino politicians, they must content themselves with representation by African Americans, he said.

Many African Americans in the city feel that they had to fight long and hard to gain power in Compton a generation ago and are not pleased at the idea of surrendering it so quickly to a new majority, Bradley said.

Bosch, 45, said he has received telephoned death threats warning him to stop his protests. But the former high school teacher, bartender and probation officer said he has no intention of backing down.

He became a priest 14 years ago because he felt called by God to help people better their lives, he said, and right now he feels called by God to help Latinos--and African Americans--in Compton gain political clout with a City Council that he says is controlled by a dictatorial mayor and his allies.

During the week, Bosch is a whirlwind of activity, celebrating Mass and holding planning meetings at his two churches. In the afternoons, he and his golden retriever, Maggie, walk the streets, as Bosch talks to drug dealers, gang members and schoolchildren.

“We go after issues, because they are absolutely foundational to the message of Jesus. Where would the civil rights movement have been if it weren’t for African American church groups?” he said.

On protest nights, up to 400 parishioners, some pushing baby strollers, walk half a mile to City Hall from Our Lady of Victory, passing shops and the gated yards of gaping neighbors on Compton Avenue.

Carrying signs that say “Let the People Decide” and “Si, Se Puede” (Yes, We Can), the group fills the small auditorium. Last Tuesday night, Compton police set up barricades around the council chambers and stopped letting people in once all 160 seats had been filled. Led by Bosch, a large crowd stood outside, waving copies of a city law that says all council meetings must be open to anyone.

The protesters have also interrupted council proceedings to demand Spanish translations. City officials have recently begun asking Spanish-speaking employees to translate and have hired a translator.

Among the protesters is Julia de Hernandez, who has lived in Compton since she emigrated from Mexico two decades ago but until last week had never been to a City Council meeting.

“We knew things were wrong in this city for a long time, but no one ever pushed us to do anything before,” said the grandmother. “When Father Stan told us we have the right to live like everybody, we came.”

City spokesman Frank Wheaton, a close Bradley ally, said the priest is “violating the constitutional separation of church and state” and “fomenting a race war.”

“This local clergyman knows that what he is teaching and fostering in the name of religion is wrong. It is evil. It is sinful,” Wheaton said.

Two weeks ago, Bradley petitioned archdiocese officials to make the priest stay away from City Hall.

“We’re not looking to interfere with his church activities,” said Wheaton. “We’re merely trying to discourage him from interfering with government and city functions. The City Council meetings are not the place for him to bring his parishioners, especially if--because of the language barrier--they do not have the complete story.”

Archdiocese officials were taken aback by the request.

“I feel very confident that Father Bosch is working with his people to help them be involved more actively in the political life of their community, and doing it in a way that is consistent with the values and principles of church teaching,” said Father Tom Chabolla, secretariat director for pastoral and community services for the archdiocese.

Some African American residents who watch the protesters parade past their homes are sympathetic.

“Latinos should have a voice,” said Melvin Barber, an African American who has lived down the street from Our Lady of Victory for 20 years. “We went through the same thing when blacks came into the city and it was all white.”

The protesters have other support too. Often they are escorted by officers from the ethnically mixed Police Department. Some officers, furious with the mayor for threatening to disband the department, show agreement with the marchers by honking their patrol car horns.

Many in town, including police union President Eddie Aguirre, have charged that Bradley has proposed turning law enforcement over to the sheriff to punish police union members because they supported a recall campaign against the mayor.

Bradley says he has not yet made up his mind on whether to switch law enforcement agencies. But he says the Sheriff’s Department might be able to bring down the crime rate more than the Compton police have.

Selecting which agency patrols Compton is a decision that should be made by the City Council, which is elected by voters to make those kinds of difficult choices, he said.

Bosch, on the other hand, said the police issue “is just the tip of the iceberg.”

His group also plans to lobby for other proposals, such as affordable housing, cleaner streets and more programs for youth.

“It’s not about police. It’s about changing the political culture,” he said. “It’s a hook for our people to be involved in other things. We are not going away.”