Compton Mayor Apologizes

The day after he repeatedly lunged at a political rival outside City Council chambers, the mayor of Compton apologized to citizens for the brawl and pledged to work for peace in the city.

“My frustrations got the best of me,” Mayor Omar Bradley said Wednesday in a statement released through his spokesman, Frank Wheaton. “I trust that the citizens of Compton and the world community will understand that this aberration will not deter my passion and commitment to restore peace to this resilient community.”

Wheaton added that the mayor would like to work out a truce with the man he tried to attack, deputy district attorney and mayoral candidate Eric Perrodin.

As part of the truce, Bradley would drop the police complaint that he had filed accusing Perrodin of threatening him just before the brawl started, as long as Perrodin agreed to drop similar charges he filed against the mayor after the Tuesday night incident, Wheaton said.

But Perrodin said Wednesday that he won’t do that.

“I really think the mayor is capable of violence. I think the man is totally out of control and he needs to be made accountable. He definitely needs some type of counseling or anger management,” Perrodin said. “I bear the man no animosity, but I am not dropping the charges. The city needs to start functioning properly and stop being a laughingstock.”

Perrodin added that he may change his mind if he decides that is in the best interests of the city.

Police officials said they are still investigating the incident and have not determined yet whether to turn either set of complaints over to the district attorney’s office for possible prosecution.

Tuesday’s incident was not the first time the Compton mayor has flown into a public rage. In 1997 Bradley stormed shirtless into a Compton fire station and berated county fire officials in an obscenity-laced tirade because they had rejected a personal check he wrote for his son’s tuition to the fire academy, according to several witnesses. In 1993, shortly after he was declared the winner in his first election to mayor, Bradley had to be restrained by his bodyguards as he tried to attack his rival’s campaign manager. He alleged that Basil Kimbrew, who is now a Compton School Board member, had shot at his house. Kimbrew denied that allegation.

During Tuesday’s fight outside City Council chambers, Bradley screamed profanities and had to be repeatedly restrained by Compton police officers and friends as he lunged at Perrodin. Bradley said he became incensed because Perrodin made a threatening gesture to him as Perrodin left the meeting.

The incident took many in the city by surprise, particularly because just minutes earlier the mayor and City Council members had declared that they were entering a new period of harmony in the city.

In recent months, the city has been racked by a conflict between the mayor and many members of the Police Department. Tensions began when the mayor abruptly fired Police Chief Hourie Taylor and Capt. Percy Perrodin, who is Eric Perrodin’s brother, last summer.

The mayor has also proposed disbanding the department and contracting with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement.

A Roman Catholic priest, Father Stan Bosch, who leads two parishes in the city, has been bringing his flock to the council meetings to demand that the council put the police change proposal before a public vote. The mayor insists that any such switch should be decided by the council.

Bradley had accused the priest of inciting racial conflict in the city and had asked the archdiocese to keep the priest away from City Hall, a request the archdiocese denied.

A new spirit of cooperation seemed to reign at Tuesday’s meeting, however, when Bosch, along with the Rev. Jerome Fisher, pastor of Little Zion Baptist Church in Compton, asked the mayor and City Council members to help them work together for peace. That offer was warmly accepted.

In the statement released by Wheaton, Bradley said he is looking forward to a still unscheduled summit of ministers in the city, and was joyful that he had finally made peace with Father Bosch.