Daryl F. Gates was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1978 until 1992. Shortcut: WP:CU Marking articles for cleanup This page is undergoing a transition to an easier-to-maintain format. ... This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things easy to read by following a consistent format — it is a style guide. ... LAPD redirects here. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

Early life

Daryl Francis Gates was born to a Mormon mother and a Catholic father in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles on August 30, 1926; the family soon relocated to Glendale, where Gates spent most of his youth. The Great Depression had an impact on his early life: his father became an alcoholic after losing his job, and frequently ended up in the custody of the Glendale police. (Later in life, Gates often remarked on the taunts and harassment he received from schoolmates because of his father's behavior.) His mother had to support the family alone, often on little more than church and government welfare payments. Gates graduated from high school and joined the Navy in time to see action in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Shortly after leaving the Navy, he attended college on the GI Bill and married. At the time, a friend suggested that he join LAPD, which was conducting a recruitment drive among former servicemen. Gates dismissed the entreaty, later remarking that, at the time, he had no intention of becoming a "dumb cop." The Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the most-recognized architectural symbol of Mormonism For other uses, see Mormon (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... Nickname The Jewel City Location Location of Glendale within Los Angeles County and the State of California. ... The Great Depression was an economic downturn which started in 1929 (although its effects were not fully felt until late 1930) and lasted through most of the 1930s. ... King Alcohol and his Prime Minister circa 1820 Alcoholism is the consumption of or preoccupation with alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the alcoholics normal personal, family, social, or work life. ... It has been suggested that Welfare capitalism be merged into this article or section. ... USN redirects here. ... The Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) is the term used in the United States for all military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, in World War II. Pacific War is a more common name, around the world, for the broader conflict between the Allies and Japan... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... The G. I. Bill of Rights or Servicemens Readjustment Act of 1944 provided for college or vocational education for returning World War II veterans as well as one-year of unemployment compensation. ...

LAPD career

Nevertheless, Gates joined the LAPD in 1949. Among his roles as an officer, Daryl Gates was picked to be the chauffeur for Chief William H. Parker. During his lengthy tenure as chief, Parker greatly reformed and streamlined the LAPD, bringing in changes to stamp out corruption and improve efficiency. In general, Parker's reforms had the effect of making LAPD a paramilitary body. To combat low-level corruption, one reform barred officers from having the same patrol area for more than 18 consecutive months. Another such change was to assign police according to the time of day and neighborhood where crimes were committed, a major departure from the operational practices of most departments of the time. (While Parker and his admirers deemed this to be a proactive approach, later critics of Parker's methods--community policing advocates, and most adherents to the "broken windows" hypothesis--saw this as an essentially reactive measure, and a predecessor to the "radio-chasing" that characterized police operations throughout the 1970s and 1980s.) Gates often remarked that he gained many administrative and professional insights from Parker during the hours they spent together each day. A chauffeur is one who drives an automobile as a job. ... William H. Parker (June 21, 1902 – July 16, 1966) was a police chief of the Los Angeles, California Police Department. ... Community policing is a political philosophy in which the police and police department are seen as members of the community, with police officers being part of where they live and work. ... Broken windows in the Pruitt-Igoe housing development Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities by George L. Kelling and Catherine Coles is a criminology book published in 1996, about petty crime and strategies to contain or eliminate it from urban neighbourhoods. ...

Gates worked hard to prepare for his promotional exams, scoring first in the sergeant's exam and in every promotional exam thereafter. On his promotion to lieutenant, he rejoined Chief Parker as Parker's executive officer. He was promoted to captain and became responsible for intelligence, and by the time of the Watts riots in 1965 he was an inspector (overseeing the investigation of, among other crimes, the Manson Family murders and the Hillside Strangler case). Finally, on March 28, 1978, Daryl F. Gates became the 49th Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organisations around the world. ... Lieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service or police officer rank. ... This article concerns the rank and title of Captain. ... The term Watts Riots refers to a large-scale riot which lasted five days in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in August 1965. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... Inspector is a rank in many police forces. ... Charles Milles Manson (born November 12th, 1934) was convicted of murder in what became known as the Tate/La Bianca case. ... The Hillside Strangler is the media epithet for two men, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, cousins who were convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing girls and women ranging in age from twelve to twenty-eight years old during a four-month period from late 1977 to early 1978 in... March 28 is the 87th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (88th in leap years). ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

Achievements

SWAT

Gates is considered the father of SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics), which established specialized units dealing with hostage rescue and extreme situations involving armed and dangerous suspects. Ordinary line officers, with light armament, limited weapons training, and no instruction on group fighting techniques, had been shown to be ineffective in combating snipers, bank robberies by heavily armed persons, and other high-intensity situations. In 1965, Officer John Nelson came up with the idea to form a specially trained and equipped unit, intended to respond to and manage critical situations while minimizing police casualties. As an inspector, Gates approved this idea, and he formed a small select group of volunteer officers. The first SWAT team, which Gates had originally wanted to name "Special Weapons Attack Team," was born LAPD SWAT, D-Platoon of the Metro Division. This first SWAT unit was initially constituted as 15 teams of four men each, for a total staff of 60. These officers were given special status and benefits, but in return had to attend monthly training and serve as security for police facilities during episodes of civil unrest. SWAT was copied almost immediately by most US police departments, and is now used by law enforcement agencies throughout the world. Members of the 60th Security Police Squadrons Base Swat Team, Travis Air Force Base, wearing black uniforms stand with M-9 pistols ready behind concealing foliage. ...

In Gates' autobiography, "Chief: My Life in the LAPD" (Bantam Books, 1992), he explained that he neither developed SWAT tactics nor its distinctive equipment. Gates wrote that he supported the concept, tried to empower his people to develop the concept, and lent them moral support.

DARE

Gates is also the founder of DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program designed to educate children about the dangers of substance abuse. DARE is currently used in schools worldwide, but its usefulness in combating drug usage is hotly debated. In particular, DARE's claims about marijuana have come under intense criticism. Logo of D.A.R.E Drug Abuse Resistance Education, better known as DARE or D.A.R.E., is an international education program, for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, which seeks to discourage interest in illegal drugs, gangs, and violence. ... The term gateway drug is used to describe a relatively benign drug that can lead to the use of harder, more dangerous drugs. ...

Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH)

Gates's appointment as chief roughly coincided with the intensification of the war on drugs. A drug-related issue that had also come to the forefront at the time was gang violence, which paralyzed many of the neighborhoods (primarily impoverished and black or Hispanic) in which gangs held sway. In response, LAPD set up specialist gang units which gathered intelligence on and ran operations against gangs. These units were called Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, abbreviated CRASH and immortalized in the 1988 Sean Penn/Robert Duvall film Colors. Gates' aggressive approach to the gang problem was effective in suppressing gang violence, but its indiscriminate nature led to numerous allegations of false arrest and allegations of a general LAPD disdain for young black and Latino men (q.v.). (Ironically, by this time the department had a significant percentage of minority officers.) Gates himself became a byword among some for excessive use of force by anti-gang units, and became a favorite lyrical target for gang-connected urban black rappers. Nevertheless, CRASH's approach was successful and remained in widespread use until the Rampart Division scandal of 1999 drew attention to some of its less savory aspects. Massive mark-ups for drugs, UK Govt report Prevalance of drug use 1991-2002 The War on Drugs is an initiative undertaken by the United States with the assistance of participating countries, which is intended to curb supply and diminish demand for certain psychoactive substances. ... For other uses of the word, see Gang (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor & director. ... Robert Selden Duvall (born January 5, 1931) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor and director. ... Colors movie poster Colors is a 1988 film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall. ... Alphanumeric List 1-9 1200 Techniques 2 Live Crew Fresh Kid Ice Luke Skyywalker Mr. ... The Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department serves the districts to the west and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, including Echo Park, Pico-Union and Westlake. ...

Force enlargement

Gates became chief at a time when LAPD had been ravaged by the fiscal damage wreaked by Proposition 13, the department having shrunk to only 7000 officers even as the city's population continued to rise. While LAPD had traditionally been a "lean and mean" department compared with other American police forces (a point of pride for Parker), traffic congestion and increased population density had begun to take a toll on the once-vaunted mobility of the average LAPD patrolman. Gates was thus eager to take more recruits, particularly for CRASH units, when the city made funds available. He later claimed that many officers recruited in the 1980s--a period in which LAPD was subject to a consent decree which set minimum quotas for hiring of women and minorities--were substandard. At the time, Gates remarked: redirect California_Proposition_13_(1978) ... DECREE - The judgment or sentence of a court of equity which corresponds to the judgment of a court of law. ...

...If you don't have all of those quotas, you can't hire all the people you need. So you've got to make all of those quotas. And when that happens, you get somebody who is on the borderline, you'd say "Yes, he's black, or he's Hispanic, or it's a female, but we want to bring in these additional people when we have the opportunity. So we'll err on the side of, 'We'll take them and hope it works out.'" And we made some mistakes. No question about it, we have made some mistakes.

These and similar statements were frequently cited by commentators and activists accusing Gates of racism.

Administrative style and personality

Like his mentor Parker, Gates made every attempt to shield the force from political influences--for good and for ill. He publicly disdained community policing, usually electing not to work with community activists and prominent persons in communities in which LAPD was conducting major anti-gang operations. Coincidentally, at the time of the Rodney King beating, Gates was at a community policing conference. This tendency, a logical extension of the policies implemented by Parker that discouraged LAPD officers from becoming too enmeshed in the communities in which they served, did not serve him well politically: allegations of arrogance and racism plagued the department throughout his tenure, surfacing most strongly in the Christopher Commission report (q.v.) that marked the end of his career. Community policing is a political philosophy in which the police and police department are seen as members of the community, with police officers being part of where they live and work. ... The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, informally known as the Christopher Commission, was formed in July 1991, in the wake of the Rodney King beating, by then-mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley. ...

Operation Hammer

Many commentators criticized Gates for Operation Hammer, a policing operation conducted by the LAPD in South Los Angeles. After eight people were gunned down at a birthday party in a drive by shooting in 1987, Gates responded with an extremely aggressive sweep of South Los Angeles that involved 1000 officers at any given time. The operation lasted several years, with multiple sweeps, and resulted in over 25,000 arrests. (This was not unprecedented: during the run-up to the 1984 Summer Olympics, Mayor Tom Bradley allegedly ordered Gates to take all of the city's gang members--known and suspected--into custody, where they remained until shortly after the Games' conclusion.) As a vast majority of those arrested were never charged, Operation Hammer was roundly criticized by the left as a harassment operation whose chief goal was to intimidate young black and Hispanic men. LAPD soon developed a reputation among some in South Los Angeles as an "occupying force"; an excellent example of this perception can be seen in the video for NWA's "Straight Outta Compton," which depicts a white, mustachioed LAPD officer in mirrored sunglasses, swinging a nightstick from horseback. In an attempt to counter these negative images, Gates began a media blitz. In a PBS interview, when asked whether the local people in the minority areas expressed thanks to the police for their actions, he responded: A Los Angeles Police Department CRASH initiative that began in April 1987, Operation Hammer was a large scale attempt to crack down on gang violence in Los Angeles. ... South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the south and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. ... The Summer Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event held every four years, organised by the International Olympic Committee. ... Mayor Tom Bradley of Los Angeles, 1973-1993 Thomas (Tom) Bradley (December 29, 1917 – September 29, 1998) was the mayor of Los Angeles, California from 1973 to 1993 (five terms) and the first African American mayor of that city. ... This article is about the rap group. ...

Sure. The good people did all the time. But the community activists? No. Absolutely not. We were out there oppressing whatever the community had to be, whether it was blacks, or Hispanics. We were oppressing them. Nonsense. We're out there trying to save their communities, trying to upgrade the quality of life of people...

A contemporary quote reflected his attitude toward the liberal consensus on civil liberties:

You know, we talk about civil rights violations. No one seems to talk about the civil rights violations of the good people out there . . . that are caused by gangs. Those gangs are so oppressive to those individuals who live within that community. All we talk about is have we violated the civil rights of these idiot gang members...

In general, Gates was neither politically adept nor media-savvy. While he prided himself on his "shoot from the hip" rhetoric, which endeared him to many of the rank-and-file officers, this attitude cost him dearly in terms of political support. LAPD began to experience severe personnel turnover in Gates' later years as officers grew weary of patrolling neighborhoods that viewed the department as "the biggest gang of them all," a major contributing factor to the administrative collapse that occurred during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Los Angeles riots

The 1992 Los Angeles riots brought an end to Gates's police career. Following the acquittal of the officers shown beating Rodney King on videotape, rioting broke out in Los Angeles. Within minutes of the announcement of the verdict, white truck driver Reginald Denny was dragged from his vehicle while stopped at the intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues in South Los Angeles and severely beaten by several black teenagers as news helicopters hovered above. In a replay of the Watts riots 27 years earlier, the violence and looting were largely spontaneous. Blacks, Hispanics, and Koreans clashed for three days throughout South Los Angeles and Mid-Wilshire as news cameras beamed images of destruction to a world that still thought of Los Angeles as the safe, orderly, prosperous city that had hosted the 1984 Summer Games. Both LAPD and the National Guard failed to contain the riots, and order was not restored until active-duty Army troops (including the 7th Infantry Division) were deployed. The 1992 Los Angeles riots, also known as the Rodney King uprising or the Rodney King riots, were sparked on April 29, 1992 when a mostly white jury acquitted four police officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King, after he fled from police. ... Rodney King Rodney Glenn King (born April 2, 1965 in Sacramento, California) is a U.S. citizen, who became famous after his violent arrest by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was videotaped by a bystander, George Holliday. ... Damian Williams dances over Denny Reginald Oliver Denny (born April 21, 1953 in San Pedro, California) is a white construction truck driver who was dragged from his truck and nearly beaten to death by black rioters during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. ... Mid-Wilshire is a region in west-central Los Angeles, California. ... Seal of the National Guard Bureau Seal of the Army National Guard Seal of the Air National Guard Seal of the National Guard Missile Defense The United States National Guard is a component of the United States Army (the Army National Guard) and the United States Air Force (the Air... Shoulder sleeve patch of the United States Army 7th Infantry Division (Light). ...

On the first evening of the riots, Gates told reporters that the situation would soon be under control, and attended a previously scheduled fundraising dinner. These actions led to charges that Gates was out of touch. General command-and-control failings in the entire LAPD hierarchy during the riots led to criticisms that he was incapable of managing his force. In the aftermath of the riots, local and national media printed and aired dozens of reports deeply critical of the LAPD under Gates, painting it as an army of racist beat cops accountable only to an arrogant leadership. While evidence of systematic racism among the rank-and-file and by Gates himself was not clear-cut, it was undeniable that the paramilitary approach he espoused was seriously lacking in certain areas. The Christopher Commission formed in the wake of the riots issued a report that was generally considered to be scathingly critical of the department, and to a lesser extent of Gates' management of it. Late in 1992, Gates finally resigned. The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, informally known as the Christopher Commission, was formed in July 1991, in the wake of the Rodney King beating, by then-mayor of Los Angeles Tom Bradley. ...

Controversial and inflammatory rhetoric

Gates gained great notoriety for his controversial and inflammatory rhetoric on many occasions. Some of the most notable examples of this were his remarks before a Congressional committee that "casual drug users should be taken out and shot," which he later explained as "hyperbole," [1], and Gates's dismissive response to concerns about excessive force by police employing "choke holds." 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.'" ("Urban League in Los Angeles Asks Police Chief Suspension", New York Times, May 12, 1982 [2])

Post-LAPD career

Gates remained active after leaving the LAPD, working with Sierra to create the computer game Police Quest 4: Open Season, an adventure game set in Los Angeles where gamers play the role of a Robbery/Homicide detective trying to solve a series of brutal murders. He appears in the game as Chief of Police, and can be found on one of the top floors of Parker Center. In addition, Gates has been the principal consultant for Sierra's SWAT series, appearing in them as well. In 1993, Gates was a talk show host on KFI, replacing Tom Leykis. His tenure was short lived but he remains a frequent guest on talk radio, especially in regards to policing issues. Gates also runs an investigation company called CHIEF, and has made frequent appearances on television and radio shows. In addition, Gates serves as on the board of directors of Global ePoint, a security and homeland defense company dealing primarily in digital surveillance and security technology. Police Quest is a series of computer games produced and published by Sierra On-Line between 1987 and 1993. ... Parker Center Parker Center is the headquarters for the Los Angeles Police Department, and is located in Downtown LA. It is named for former LAPD chief William H. Parker. ... The SWAT Series are the followup of Sierras classic adventure game series Police Quest. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... KFI is an AM radio station that began operating on March 31, 1922 as one of the United States first high-powered, clear channel stations. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

After Bernard Parks was denied a second term as Chief of Police by Mayor James K. Hahn in 2002, Gates – then 75 – told CNN that he was intending on applying for his old job as LAPD chief. As Hahn is the son of longtime Gates adversary Kenneth Hahn, the likelihood of a Gates appointment was effectively zero. This led Los Angeles media to ridicule Gates' announcement as a publicity stunt. Hahn eventually appointed William J. Bratton to head the department. Bernard Parks, currently a member of the Los Angeles City Council, is the former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. ... James Hahn James Kenneth Hahn (born July 3, 1950) is an American politician from the Democratic Party. ... The Cable News Network, commonly known as CNN, is a major cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. ... Kenneth Ken Hahn was a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for forty years from 1952 to 1992. ... The media itself often stages stunts for movies and television shows. ... William J. Bratton is the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. ...

Robert F. Rock was an interim LAPD chief of police in 1978 between the administrations of Edward M. Davis and Daryl F. Gates ... The Los Angeles Police Department (usually known as the LAPD) is the police department of the City of Los Angeles, California. ... Willie L. Williams served as LAPD police chief 1992-1997. ...

Songs referencing Gates

• Ice Cube - "The Wrong Nigga to Fuck With"
• Ice Cube - "When Will They Shoot?"
• Ice Cube - "Wicked"
• Ice T / Body Count - "Cop Killer"
• KAM - "Peace Treaty"
• Korn - "Wicked" (Cover of Ice Cube's song "Wicked")
• OFTB - "I Ain't From Compton"
• The Sandals - "Venice Groove" begins with a 'news report' "For over 300 years, residents in Los Angeles have been trying to get rid of one of the biggest menaces in the galaxy - police chief Daryl Gates".
• The Game - "One Blood Remix" (Rick Ross's verse).

References

• Cannon, Lou (1998). Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD. Crown. ISBN 0-8129-2190-9.
• Corwin, Miles (1998). The Killing Season : A Summer Inside an LAPD Homicide Division. Fawcett. ISBN 0-449-00291-8.
• Domanick, Joe (1994). To Protect and to Serve: The LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams. New York: Pocket Books.
• Gates, Daryl F. (1992). Chief: My Life in the LAPD. New York: Bantam. ISBN 0-553-56205-3.
• Starr, Kevin (2004). Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003. New York: Knopf.
• Koon, Stacy (1992). Presumed Guilty : The Tragedy of the Rodney King Affair. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 0-89526-507-9.

External links

• IMDB Filmography and TV appearances: Daryl Gates
• Daryl Gates speech on drugs at the LAPD Medal of Valor Ceremony, 1990