Leader Wants Police Union to Join Bradley Recall Move

The president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents the city’s 8,100 police officers, said Thursday he wants the union to throw its political clout and $1.5 million war chest behind a proposed effort to recall Mayor Tom Bradley.

Lt. George Aliano said that Bradley is “a hindrance to the city and to the Police Department” and that Los Angeles Police Department officers have lost confidence in the mayor.

Aliano argues that too much political interference has followed the Rodney G. King beating and threatens to contaminate the department. In particular, Aliano said, officers are outraged at the mayor’s call for Chief Daryl F. Gates to resign, and over Bradley’s appointments to the five-member Police Commission, which last week placed the chief on an involuntary 60-day leave of absence.

Aliano and the league hierarchy traditionally have been at odds with Gates over such issues as discipline and mandatory drug testing of officers. But in this case, Aliano said, the struggle is over the future of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“This is bigger than Gates,” Aliano said. “This is over the future of LAPD and how it serves people.”

Gates was reinstated Monday by a Superior Court judge pending a hearing set for April 25 on legal issues raised by his furlough. But the Police Commission on Thursday went to the state Court of Appeals to challenge the lower court order.

“The paramount issue is whether or not the Police Commission supervises and manages the Police Department,” said commission Vice President Melanie Lomax. “Chief Gates has become a secondary issue.”

But the filing irked City Council President John Ferraro, who Tuesday helped arrange a political cease-fire between the mayor and Gates.

“I’m very disappointed at this action,” Ferraro said. “Apparently, they didn’t hear about this love fest that Tom Bradley and Daryl Gates and I had the other day.”

Aliano’s remarks followed the first of five scheduled private meetings with rank-and-file officers to determine what actions they want to take in response to the political turmoil created by the police beating of King.

There is some question, however, over whether Aliano has the full support of his own board. Two league officials, who asked not to be identified, said there is dissension on the union’s board over the proposed recall effort.

Aliano acknowledged that some of his associates are displeased by the recall effort, but added that he expects to find that most officers support the drive.

He acknowledged that he had difficulty getting some league officials to help him organize this week’s membership meetings and attributed their reluctance to the fact that they have fought Gates for years and do not like coming out so forcefully in his defense.

Aliano said his organization, which represents officers below the rank of captain on salary and other work issues, intends to contribute its “name . . . for endorsements, thousands of volunteers, money and the ability to hire experts” for a recall drive.

The police union expects to join forces with Marvin Feldman, a La Canada activist who helped lead the ultimately successful campaign to oust State Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird in 1986.

“We’re ready to roll,” said Feldman, 50, who on Thursday said he was writing a legal notice of intent to recall Bradley, which he said would be published next week. Filing the notice would be the first step in the months-long process of launching a recall campaign.

The next step would be to gather enough signatures of registered voters to place the issue on the ballot.

“We only need 210,000 signatures to get it on the ballot--and they give us 120 days to do it,” Aliano said.

Feldman said the recall campaign “will focus on the failure of the mayor to exercise professional leadership and statesman-like conduct in the aftermath of the Rodney King incident. It will also focus on his obviously biased appointments to the Los Angeles Police Commission.”

Aliano and others have said Bradley’s recent appointments to the Police Commission make it clear that the mayor wants a commission that will be tougher on Gates. They are also critical of Bradley’s eventual public call for Gates to resign at a time of crisis.

While the police union will be “a very important aspect of the recall effort,” Feldman said he was trying to line up other groups to lend support including “homeowners groups, police booster clubs, women’s groups, chambers of commerce.”

Aliano’s remarks come only two days after Bradley and Gates declared a public truce.

“I’m not part of the truce, and I don’t work for the chief,” Aliano said. “My members explained to me what it is they wanted and that’s what we’ll do.”

Bradley spokesman Bill Chandler said the mayor had no comment on the police recall effort. “The vast majority of the people of this city support the mayor’s position that the chief of police should resign, and the vast majority support the position of the Police Commission,” Chandler said.

Some interpreted talk of recalling Bradley as an attempt to deflect attention from the videotaped beating of King on March 3.

Joseph Duff, president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the NAACP, called the recall threat an effort to “twist the democratic process.”

He added: “Police officers should not be involved in politics, from the chief on down--that’s exactly what the problem is right now.”

Sgt. O’Neil Carter, spokesman for an African-American police officers’ organization representing about 500 of the 1,100 black officers on the force, agreed saying: “Our position stands. We are staying away from the politics involved in this issue.”

Los Angeles Police Detective Bill Whittaker expressed a different sentiment when he left the first of two union meetings held last Thursday at the Los Angeles Convention Center. “The mood here is that we are very concerned about moves on the part of the mayor and the Police Commission,” Whittaker said.

Three additional meetings are scheduled to be held today at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City and at Parker Center.