Lest anyone believe that the recent deplorable incidents of
unarmed civilians dead at the hands of police
are unprecedented (and I know few believe that) here, in his own words is the
late Chief Daryl Gates of the LAPD
speaking in the 1980s. Gates earned notoriety for his controversial rhetoric on
many occasions. Some of the most notable examples of this were:
In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Gates stated that infrequent or casual drug users "ought to be taken out and shot"
because "we're in a war" and even casual drug use is "treason".
His dismissive response to concerns about excessive force by
police employing "choke holds." In 1982, Gates attributed several
deaths of people held in choke holds to the theory that "blacks might be more likely
to die from chokeholds because their arteries do not open as fast as they do on
'normal ' people"
The Christopher Commission report, issued July 10, 1991,
following the beating of Rodney King identified a police culture of excessive
force and poor supervision, and recommended numerous reforms, as well as
Gates's removal. Gates finally announced his intention to resign on July 13,
1991.
It should be noted that, in addition to pioneering the SWAT
team concept, Gates also was the inceptor of PDID: Gates made substantial use
of the LAPD's Public Disorder and Intelligence Division (PDID) squad, even
developing an international spying operation.(Isn't that supposed to be the
CIA's job?) In the lawsuit CAPA v. Gates, with the Coalition Against Police
Abuse (CAPA) as one of two dozen or so plaintiffs, Gates and the LAPD were sued
the on First Amendment grounds that exposed the unlawful harassment,
surveillance, and infiltration of the progressive movement in Los Angeles by
LAPD agents.
The lawsuit against Gates and the LAPD proved successful. The PDID
was ordered to disband, and did so in January 1983. In February 1984, an out-of-court
settlement awarded $1.8 million to the named plaintiffs, individuals, and
organizations who had sued the City of Los Angeles. The lawsuit brought against
Gates and the PDID, settled out of court because the PDID didn't want to have
to disclose any more of its patently illegal activities, which it turns out included
selling much of the collected data on local activists to a right-wing
organization called Western Goals that had links to the John Birch
Society, ultimately cost the City of Los Angeles $1.8 million.
Gates' firing did not end the corruption or violent behavior
of some in the LAPD. The LAPD Rampart scandal revealed widespread corruption in the Community
Resources Against Street Hoodlums (or C*R*A*S*H) anti-gang unit of the Los
Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Rampart Division in the late 1990s.
More than
70 police officers either assigned to or associated with the Rampart CRASH unit
were implicated in some form of misconduct, making it one of the most
widespread cases of documented police misconduct in United States history. The
convicted offenses include unprovoked shootings, unprovoked beatings, planting
of false evidence, framing of suspects, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank
robbery, perjury, and the covering up of evidence of these activities.
So, as we see, Not much new about a few "unfortunate"
deaths. Tragic, really, isn't it?
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