Not too many people in Los Angeles at the time knew why the commission was not only monumental, but also a reflection of the relationship between Mayor Tom Bradley and Chief of Police Darryl Gates. It was 1991, and Bradley was heading through the end of his 5th term as Mayor of Los Angeles, (he was the first African-American Mayor of L.A. at that). By this time he was old and getting unpopular with the trends of the constituents. Chief Gates was a man who had governed over the LAPD with a military approach favoring respect. Credited with the creating of the tactical unit of Police Departments called SWAT in 1968 . In the 1980s he oversaw one of the most widespread developments of SWAT teams and programs such as DARE with the help of federal funds flowing through Southern California for the Drug War.

If anything this points out, it was the personality clash of these two gentlemen. They had a fundamental difference as to how they governed, and if anything Bradley did not want Gates interfering with the attempts to usurp his command. Before the riots occurred,  The Mayor and Chief rarely spoke to each other. They would send aides to carry on information.

Bradley was given great opportunity in 1991 with voter approval, to create a citizen commision to review the practices of the LAPD. Here are their findings in their report:

There is a significant number of officers in the LAPD who repetitively use excessive force against the public and persistently ignore the written guidelines of the department regarding force.12

The failure to control these officers is a management issue that is at the heart of the problem. The documents and data that we have analyzed have all been available to the department; indeed, most of this information came from that source. The LAPD’s failure to analyze and act upon these revealing data evidences a significant breakdown in the management and leadership of the Department. The Police Commission, lacking investigators or other resources, failed in its duty to monitor the Department in this sensitive use of force area. The Department not only failed to deal with the problem group of officers but it often rewarded them with positive evaluations and promotions.

We recommend a new standard of accountability….Ugly incidents will not diminish until ranking officers know they will be held responsible for what happens in their sector, whether or not they personally participate.”

The commission highlighted the problem of “repeat offenders” on the force, finding that of approximately 1,800 officers against whom an allegation of excessive force or improper tactics was made from 1986 to 1990, more than 1,400 had only one or two allegations. But 183 officers had four or more allegations, forty-four had six or more, sixteen had eight or more, and one had sixteen such allegations. Generally, the forty-four officers with six complaints or more had received positive performance evaluations that failed to record “sustained” complaints or to discuss their significance.  

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It was ridiculous the amount of offenses the LAPD made. There was no accountability for the officers, nor any measure of discipline. A police officer was always right in their actions when on duty. Even if it were beating a defenseless man with excessive force for no reason whatsoever. Darryl Gates was if anything a racist and a control freak. If heard several times inferenced is that he was basically leader of the opposition in L.A. Politics towards those darn liberal Democrats in elected office.

While the community was at utter disgust over the beating of Rodney King, and before the riots broke out, the Warren Commission was gave steady opportunity for citizens to take back control of their city – away from the hands of the LAPD. It did not have impact that it could possible until 5 weeks after the beating in June, when constituents voted in favor of normalizing the LAPD from the Chief’s “Civil Service Protection” which basically gave the LAPD unspoken powers and authority to do whatever they pleased. The LAPD was stripped of much of it’s power.

For the past 20 years, who would’ve known what could have happened again with police brutality in Los Angeles. This was a completely different police department than the department which exists now, as imperfect as it is.

Check out the last program on Friday, April 27, 2012 covering “Los Angeles before it erupted.”

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