Police Chiefs Must Denounce Gates ---- By Joseph D. McNamara
A police chief plays an essential role in setting the climate in which his department operates. Through the years Mr. Gates has made public statements clearly at odds with the new concept of community policing, in which officers work with citizens to improve neighborhoods and prevent crime. A few years ago Chief Gates referred to gang members as "dirty little cowards," and warned them that "there is resounding applause to every fall of the hammer." The exchange sounded more like one gang challenging another than a police chief seeking to reduce conflict in the community. Indeed the Rambo-like challenge did not lower violence, and may have increased it. Hundreds of gang homicides occur every year in Los Angeles despite sweeps by the city's police. Mr. Gates would have been better advised to seek community programs for jobs, education, elimination of prejudice and improvement of neighborhoods. But this kind of reasoning is foreign to a man who publicly claimed that his SWAT team could free the Iranian hostages. Similarly, Mr. Gates vehemently opposed the Police Corps Program backed by other police chiefs. The Police Corps would send idealistic young people, including minorities, to serve a three -- or four -- year tour of duty after college graduation in return for federal funding of their educations. Mr. Gates opposed the Police Corps because its members would not be professionals. Yet the presence of such "non-professionals" would discourage the racism and brutality exposed by the Rodney King beating. Such attitudes survive only in a closed police culture. The presence of even one police corps officer witness would have deterred the criminal cops. Many chiefs openly disagreed with Mr. Gates when he opposed the Police Corps Bill in Congress. We should be as openly critical of his other statements. For example, Mr. Gates once said that blacks were more susceptible than "normal people" to chokeholds. More recently, he described the killer of a policewoman as an "El Salvadoran, who shouldn't have been here." The nationality of the murderer was irrelevant. Mr. Gates's statement did nothing to lessen the tragedy of the fallen officer, but like his statement about blacks, it gave comfort to bigots within and outside the department. And it hardly reduced conflict in a city where the majority of the population is made up of minorities who need and deserve police protection, whether or not they are citizens. Two years ago, on a national television documentary, Mr. Gates defended a special unit that had shot many criminals during stakeouts. The unit had advance knowledge that crimes were about to occur, but often stayed outside and let robberies occur, even though innocent retailers and customers were put at risk. The chief said that arresting the criminals before the robberies wasn't a good idea because the courts were so lenient. The unit has been allowed to continue to operate despite its high shooting rate -- or, worse still, because of the shootings. Last year Los Angeles paid $3 million to 52 residents of an apartment complex ransacked by police. Mr. Gates reluctantly admitted that the officers who did the ransacking were wrong, but said he could understand their frustration in trying to fight drugs. Even more recently, Mr. Gates told the Senate that "casual drug users should be taken out and shot." He assured the senators that he was not being facetious. And his initial reaction on television to the Rodney King brutality tapes was defensive. Mayor Tom Bradley told the media that such conduct wouldn't be tolerated, and that the wrongdoers would be sought out for punishment. Mr. Gates said that while he was shocked, he wasn't drawing conclusions and would look into the "background," of the incident. Presumably, the chief has now received wiser council. He has called for prosecution of three of the officers, and has produced a videotape for his troops condemning the beating. But condemnation of misconduct and excessive force should have been a constant message from the command staff before the brutality, and not an afterthought. Yet, it's hard to imagine commanders preaching restraint in light of the chief's constant belligerent pronouncements. Even Mr. Gates's apology to Mr. King sent the wrong message. He said that he hoped the incident might help Mr. King to straighten out his life. It is hard to imagine someone unlawfully beaten by uniformed officers as others looked on being inspired to respect law and order. Or was the chief suggesting that the beating was a warning against further run-ins with the police? Clearly, Daryl Gates's words and actions create doubt about his claim that the Rodney King incident was an aberration. Public opinion polls in Los Angeles show the majority of people believe police brutality is common, and they disapprove of the way Mr. Gates has done his job. When he characterizes such opposition as cop-haters, he embitters his department and to some extent all police. Mr. Gates's military style of policing is at odds with that in the rest of the country, and it's about time police leaders publicly repudiated it. It is hard to see how the Los Angeles Police Department can regain credibility unless Daryl Gates's leave becomes permanent. But the videotape of the LAPD brutality affects the credibility of all police officers. It has cast a cloud over policing that won't be lifted until police chiefs drop their own code of silence and speak out against one of their own's peculiar philosophy of policing. --- Mr. McNamara is the police chief in San Jose. He comes from a family of policemen and has been one for 35 years.
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