Beating Report Almost Done

The inspector general of the Los Angeles Police Department vowed Saturday that a thorough investigation will soon be completed of the televised beating of an alleged car thief by officers.

“We have a staff of 28 and we’re working diligently on it and I’m confident that we’ll be able to produce the insight and analysis that the public wants,” said Andre Birotte Jr., the LAPD’s inspector general.

Birotte was speaking to a crowd of about 30 at the weekly Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable in Leimert Park. He is charged with determining whether Officer John J. Hatfield was justified when he repeatedly hit Stanley Miller with a flashlight in Compton on June 23 following a police pursuit.

Birotte declined to offer details of his findings. His report, due by late August, will go to the Los Angeles Police Commission, which can then decide whether the actions of Hatfield and seven other officers were justified.

In turn, a police Board of Rights will mete out any punishment based on the recommendation of the commission and LAPD Chief William J. Bratton.

“Am I disappointed it [the beating] happened? Absolutely,” Birotte added later. “The way we’ll get fundamental change is accountability.”

It was a tough crowd. Some in the audience didn’t see much reason to further investigate the incident since it was captured on videotape. Others wondered aloud why an officer would act so brazenly when there were clearly members of the press watching.

The officers involved have said that they believed Miller was armed, although he was not. Two witnesses told The Times last week that they never heard any of the officers yell to one another that Miller had a weapon.

Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks, who is running for mayor, followed Birotte as a speaker. Parks asked the audience not to draw conclusions about the incident based on partial witness accounts.

Adrienne Clements, 42, said that she remained skeptical that the LAPD will truly change. Her son was shot to death last year by a special unit of the LAPD following an alleged robbery of a beauty store.

“We always hear that they’re going to investigate, but we don’t get a lot of results,” said Clements, who lives in the San Fernando Valley.

Also in the audience was Najee Ali, director of the group Project Islamic Hope. Ali has publicly sparred with LAPD officials in the past over such violent incidents, but on Saturday he said that he was impressed by the quickness with which the department said it would investigate the Miller beating.

“Unless we change the culture of the LAPD, we’ll continue to have these types of cases,” Ali said. “These officers had to be comfortable using excessive force without their fellow officers intervening or coming forward. We have to break this code of silence.”