Police Chief Debate Is No Longer Black-White Issue

Once upon a time, life in Los Angeles was simple: There was the white police chief, Daryl Gates, on one side, the black mayor, Tom Bradley, on the other. Opinions about the two often crossed racial lines--Bradley in particular had substantial white support--but the debate over the Police Department was largely framed in terms of black and white.

A decade later, as another chief and mayor go head to head, race still matters--but with less of its old-fashioned power to polarize the city.

Among blacks in Los Angeles, anger over Mayor James K. Hahn’s decision not to support Chief Bernard C. Parks for a second term is widespread. Among other ethnic and racial groups, Hahn’s decision has opened a more divided debate--if it comes up at all. Race still matters--but in a more nuanced way. In much of the city, Parks tends to be judged not as a black man but on how he has responded to the varying needs of L.A.’s ethnic landscape.

Many Asian American leaders, for example, tend to be on Parks’ side, but for a reason largely unknown to blacks: He has promoted Asians within the department. Among Latinos, many view the Parks-Hahn feud through a prism of frustration, weary that so much of the discussion still is framed in black-white terms. Some whites support Hahn and feel blacks are using race, while others feel Hahn is guilty of betrayal.

“This has created a very odd circumstance and every group in the city has a different perspective now on LAPD,” said Raphael Sonenshein, a political scientist at Cal State Fullerton. “It proves that the city’s politics are much more fragmented than they ever used to be. Now you have very odd alliances and in a strange way that could be called progress.”

Progress, in this scenario, means that as Parks’ race becomes less polarizing, more attention would be paid to specific issues, such as Parks’ accountability for rising crime, for department and community morale, or complying with a federal consent decree that requires stronger oversight of problem officers.

Not all blacks--or even all black leaders--oppose Hahn’s stand. But in recent years, African Americans have tended to be more unified on this and many political questions than other groups, polls show. A Los Angeles Times poll taken in February 2001 for example, found 58% of blacks approved of Parks’ performance as chief, with 22% disapproving. Whites, Latinos and Asians were far more divided, with no group giving the chief more than 34% approval or less than 27% disapproval.

There are several reasons for the intensity of the response to Hahn’s decision, at least among black leaders. One is that the fight over Parks comes at the end of a decade of steady decline in black political power in Los Angeles.

It is also the case, however one judges Parks’ record, that many blacks believe Los Angeles police officers are far more respectful under Parks.

“Now you can walk up to a police officer and ask a question without being afraid you’re going to get knocked down,” said Lauren Bradley of South Los Angeles. “I don’t drive around and see people lying on the sidewalk face down any more. It was inhuman. You would see people thrown to the ground like dogs,” Bradley said.

At a recent community meeting, when a former police official who supports Parks began by saying, “You know that we have many, many sterling officers on the street doing an outstanding job for you,” many people in the all-black crowd nodded in agreement.

Some fear that Hahn’s decision is the first step backward. They remember days when Los Angeles paid more than any other major city, except Detroit, to resolve police misconduct lawsuits. Many remember a night in April 1988 when 1,453 people--mostly blacks and Latinos--were arrested during a sweep against gangs. All but 100 were released without charges being filed.

Many blacks who voted for Hahn last year were drawn to him by the respect his late father, county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, paid to his black constituents.

“We loved his father and we love him,” said Thomas Wright, chief executive of Voices Inc., an African American marketing firm. “His father fought for diversity and we’re hoping he keeps the torch in his hand and not drop it on the ground. But I know what the old regime is like--the Gates regime--and that is what I’m afraid of.”

Some Asian residents feel the same gratitude to Parks that blacks feel toward Hahn’s father.

Asians Promoted Under Chief Parks

Last week, the chief made Capt. Paul Kim, a Korean American, the first Asian American commander in LAPD history. Parks also has promoted three other Asians to captain, something that had never happened in the department’s 150-year history.

“We have no means to measure his performance, but because he promoted Paul Kim ... we have a lot of goodwill toward Chief Parks,” said Charles Kim, executive director of the Korean American Coalition and a longtime political observer. Parks, he said, is the only police chief with whom the Korean American community has had any relationship.

That opinion is hardly universal. Stewart Kwoh, president of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, suggested that Parks’ record is mixed: “In terms of community-based policing and consent decree issues, I haven’t seen forward motion,” he said.

Some Latino residents can, on one hand, sympathize with blacks outraged at Hahn’s decision. Three years ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District board demoted the district’s superintendent, Ruben Zacarias, a figure beloved in many Latino neighborhoods for his decades of experience as a local educator.

On the other hand, a coalition of organized Latino opposition to Parks, called Latinos for a New Police Chief, has been meeting for months. Implicit in its existence is the belief that the time has come for Los Angeles--where 42% in 2000 were Latinos--to have a Latino police chief.

“I’d be remiss if I said people aren’t thinking about it,” said Al Ruvacalba, a retired police officer and member of the coalition. “But who’s out there? I haven’t heard any names. I’d like to say, ‘Yes, we have somebody in mind,’ but no, we don’t.”

The rise in crime is the main issue fueling the coalition, Ruvacalba said. “But we don’t need to tear the chief apart. He’s really a good man; he tried for five years and did his best.”

Some Latinos fault Parks for not moving aggressively enough against officers implicated in the Rampart Division scandal, in which officers victimized and falsely arrested residents in a poor Latino district west of downtown.

“He dragged his feet on Rampart; he didn’t try to expand it,” said Luis Carrillo, a civil rights lawyer who has handled many police misconduct cases, including some arising from Rampart.

Raul Nunez, president of a local chapter of the Mexican American Political Assn. and a member of the new chief coalition, sides with the chief’s foes in the Police Protective League who say that police officers now are required to spend too much of their time responding to complaints.

“I believe most of the people who are complaining are the ones who are committing the criminal acts,” Nunez said. “If law enforcement is tough on them then they shouldn’t be out there committing crimes.”

Weekly meetings in heavily Latino Boyle Heights have provided an outlet for fear of crime. Recently, about 300 people crowded a town hall meeting at the Wabash Library. They grieved at the recent murder of a young man gunned down in front of his wife and 4-year-old son and wondered where the police were. On Tuesday, a group of residents will take a bus to the Police Commission meeting and deliver an evaluation of Parks.

Many whites, meanwhile, appear to be less likely to draw a direct connection between Parks’ performance and a spike in crime, promotions within the department or respectful treatment by officers.

Whites’ Opinions Vary on the Feud

“You know, being white, I’m not sure I have a proper appreciation of why there should be a race card drawn here,” said David Rose, 6O, as he leafed through the Wall Street Journal at a Tarzana carwash.

“If I was living in South-Central L.A., I might have a much different view,” he said.

Barbara Kassel, 72, of Woodland Hills said she was mystified by the angry response to Hahn’s announcement from black leaders.

“I was amazed that they were disappointed,” Kassel said. “I mean, they don’t like the police force any more than anybody else does. And it all goes back to the chain of command,” she said. “The buck stops at the chief’s desk.”

Black people, having voted roughly 80% for Hahn, were simply outmaneuvered by him, said Sandra Soll of Tarzana.

“I definitely understand all the rancor, but that’s too bad,” Soll said. “That’s politics. Any politician is going to say whatever a particular population wants to hear to get elected.”

Frank Bank, also of Tarzana, was furious with the mayor.

“Hahn should be hung,” he said grimly. “He knew what Parks’ record was. I think he betrayed the confidence of the African American community. I really do. I guess it doesn’t affect me quite as much as if I lived in the inner city, but what Hahn did was wrong.”

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Times staff writers Nita Lelyveld and Patrick McDonnell contributed to this story