Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing (54 page)

UCLA study . . . fifty thousand people . . . Watts Riots
: “In L.A., Burning All Illusions: Urban America Sees Its Future,”
Nation
, June 1, 1992; Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 98.

Bradley was addressing a throng
: Author’s observations.

Tom Bradley at First AME Church at podium
: Domanick,
To Protect and To Serve
, 3–4; author’s observations.

TV monitors . . . shots of Reginald Denny
: Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 31.

“I was shocked, I was stunned”
: “The Reaction,”
LAT
, April 30, 1992; “Ashes of a Mayor’s Dreams,”
LAT
, May 1, 1992; “Understanding the Riots, Part 1,”
LAT
, May 11, 1992; author’s observations.

“certainly weren’t watching that videotape”
: Author’s observations.

Defeated in his first run for mayor in 1969
: Jesse Brewer interview; Galm,
The Impossible Dream
, 159.

labeled an enemy of the LAPD
: “Bradley Accorded Edge Over Yorty,” AP, May 27, 1973; “Bradley Struggles to Overcome His Anti-LAPD Image.”

1969 Los Angeles mayoral campaign
: ABC, April 2, 1969; CBS, May 6, 1969.

background
: “Yorty’s Eye Is on the Big Apple,”
New York Times Magazine
, September 17, 1967.

1973 Los Angeles mayoral campaign
: CBS, May 29, 1973; NBC, June 31, 1973.

liberal political majority
: “Recalling Sleepy Lagoon,”
LAT
, May 10, 1991; “Tom Bradley Topped Dinkins in White Vote,”
NYT
, September 28, 1989; “Bradley Wins in Los Angeles,”
Chicago Tribune
, May 31, 1973.

American Nazi Party picketing
:
Herald Examiner
Collection, Los Angeles Public Library.

Bill Parker would die in office in 1966
: “Widow of Former Police Chief Parker Eulogized,”
LAT
, February 24, 2000; “The LAPD: Chief Parker,” Los Angeles Police Department website, accessed February 6, 2015,
http://www.lapdonline.org/history_of_the_lapd/content_basic_view/1110
.

ironclad civil service statutes
: Domanick,
To Protect and To Serve
, 151–52.

In six days of rioting (statistics)
: “Watts Riots, 40 Years Later,”
LAT
, August 11, 2005;
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 10.

In 1967 . . . riots had broken out in 150 American cities
: “After the Riots: From Riots of 60’s to Riots of the 90’s, a Frustrating Search to Heal a Nation,”
NYT
, May 8, 1992.

rioting in over a hundred American cities
: “Facts About Martin Luther King Jr.,” Reuters, April 4, 2008; “Shoot to Kill . . . Shoot to Maim,”
Chicago Reader
, April 4, 2002.

lost both his bids for governor in the 1980s
: “Tom Bradley, Mayor in Era of Los Angeles Growth, Dies,”
NYT
, September 30, 1998.

blue ribbon commission
: “Rodney King’s March 2, 1991, Traffic Stop and Beating Turned LA into a Riot Zone; Then Changed It,”
LADN
, March 2, 2011.

“a significant group of officers”
: Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department,
Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department
, 2 and 4.

Findings of the Christopher Commission report
: Ibid., iv, xiv, xix, 98, and 204.

live footage of an LAPD guard shack
: Author’s observations, April 29, 1992.

Finally finished with his weary speech
: Author’s observations.

the riot was spreading . . . protesters screamed and pounded their fists
: Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 108–9.

Charlie Beck, Wednesday, April 29, 1992, Parker Center

“Where are all your patrol units?”
: Charlie Beck interview.

“it would have consumed and squeezed the life out of
[
him
]
”
: Ibid.

charter member . . . CRASH
: Rice,
Power Concedes Nothing
, 255; CNN, November 3, 2009.

his father was a retired LAPD deputy chief
: Connie Rice interview; “Three Generations of Cops LAPD Dynasty,”
People
, February 22, 2010; “Cops Count. Character Counts,”
LADN
, November 3, 2009.

his sister an LAPD officer . . . detective
: CBS, November 17, 2010.

his wife a Los Angeles County sheriff
: CNN, November 3, 2009.

son and daughter would also both join the LAPD
: Connie Rice interview; “Cops Count. Character Counts”; CNN, November 3, 2009.

Charlie Beck . . . professional motocross racer
: Charlie Beck interview; “LAPD Chief Charlie Beck’s One-Time Dream Career: Dirt Bike Racing,”
Orange County Register
, April 16, 2014.

“Fuck Tha Police”
: Niggaz Wit Attitudes (N.W.A), “Fuck Tha Police,” recorded 1987–88.

Southeast Division
: Charlie Beck interview.

“They weren’t evil people”
: “An Epiphany, and an Evolving Philosophy of Policing,”
LAT
, November 15, 2009.

“That . . . was the LAPD’s crack-war strategy”
: Charlie Beck interview.

drove his Ford Bronco west, back to Parker Center
: Ibid.

1988 raid on . . . South Central’s Dalton Avenue
: “Police Power: Why No One Can Control the LAPD,”
LA Weekly
, February 16–22, 1990; Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots,
21;
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 31.

Red Cross . . . temporary shelter
: “The Raid That Still Haunts L.A.,”
LAT
, March 14, 2001; “Many Laud Police for Drug Raid on Dalton Ave.,”
LAT
, November 13, 1990.

the city paid $3.8 million
: “The Raid That Still Haunts L.A.”; “Award in Final Dalton Case OKd by Court,”
LAT
, January 23, 1992.

“poorly planned and executed field operation”
: Domanick,
To Protect and To Serve
, 352.

“like having the Marine Corps”
: “Gates Blames Drugs, Gangs for 4% Rise in L.A. Crime,”
LAT
, December 25, 1986; “Major Crimes Increase in L.A.,” AP, December 26, 1986.

eighty LAPD officers
: “City Won’t Have to Pay Dalton Case Legal Fees,”
LAT
, January 1, 1993; “Raid of the Day: The 39th & Dalton Edition,”
Huffington Post
, February 5, 2013.

Daryl Gates, Wednesday, April 29, 1992, LAPD headquarters

“back to business as usual”
: Charlie Beck interview.

$1 million for police overtime
: “King Jury Still Out; Police Chief Has Big ‘Trouble’ Fund,” Times News Services, April 28, 1992; “Where Were L.A. Police When the Rioting Began?”

“There never was a riot contingency plan”
: Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 51.

“The jury was still deliberating in Simi Valley”
: Anthony De Los Reyes interview.

“Nobody believed those officers were going to be acquitted”
: Ann Reiss Lane interview.

“as ready as we ought to be”
: Daryl Gates, City Hall press conference, April 30, 1992.

news release issued by 10 a.m.
: Domanick,
To Protect and To Serve
, 426; Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 51.

one thousand detectives . . . go home
:
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 74; Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 51; “Where Were L.A. Police When the Rioting Began?”

forty miles away, attending a seminar
: Rothmiller and Goldman,
L.A. Secret Police
, 4;
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 135.

Dotson . . . persona non grata
: David Dotson interview; Webster and Williams,
The City in Crisis,
15.

Assistant Chief Robert Vernon . . . pending his retirement
: Author interview with police commissioner, May 2, 1992; “Vernon Reveals Plans to Retire This Month,”
LAT
, April 16, 1992; Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 51.

overseeing of about 85 percent of the department’s cops
: “Vernon Injected Religious Views on Job, Officials Say,”
LAT
, February 5, 1992.

poor relationship with the Police Commission and Mayor Bradley
: Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department,
Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department
, 202 and 204; “As Rioting Mounted, Gates Remained at Political Event,”
NYT
, May 5, 1992;
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 85.

Gates and Bradley not speaking
: “Bradley and Gates Simply Weren’t Speaking When the City Erupted,”
LAT
, May 8, 1992; “Los Angeles Mayor Criticizes Chief for Slow Action on Riot,”
NYT
, May 4, 1992;
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 85.

no coordination with the Los Angeles Fire Department
: “Top LAPD Officer, Fire Chief Cite Flaws in Police Response,”
LAT
, May 8, 1992; “Riots in Los Angeles: The Blue Line; Surprised, Police React Slowly as Violence Spreads,”
NYT
, May 1, 1992.

Six hundred buildings
: “King Case Aftermath: A City in Crisis: Officials Discern No Pattern in 4,000 Arson Fires,”
LAT
, May 2, 1992; “Watts Riots, 40 Years Later.”

“One of the things that overwhelmed us”
: Chief Daryl Gates, City Hall press conference, April 30, 1992.

“not a top priority”
: “Top LAPD Officer, Fire Chief Cite Flaws in Police Response”;
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 135.