Los Angeles’ Stealth Leadership Hits Bottom : Politics: Bradley and Gates simply weren’t speaking when the city erupted.

The manner in which city leaders handled the “civil unrest” says a great deal about the sad state of political affairs in Los Angeles. As we sort out what all of this means about the city and race and class and poverty and violence, the manner in which our leaders led should be remembered. Unless our leaders start to lead, there is little reason to be optimistic that we are not destined to relive the events of last week.

First, there is Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. His own officers are saying that the police response was inadequate, and it was inadequate because of actions at the top. Verdicts in the Rodney King beating case were expected, yet two-thirds of the patrol captains were out of town at a conference. The day shift was allowed to leave. Even as a crowd of protesters gathered outside police headquarters, Gates’ next rank of command was heading home. Frustrated patrol officers stood around on the south side waiting for orders as rioting and arson spread around them. And Gates was in Brentwood at a fund-raiser to defeat Proposition F, the police-reform measure on the June ballot. The person in charge of the city’s security was politicking.

And where was Mayor Tom Bradley? He could be called the stealth mayor, but it turns out the stealth bombers can be seen by radar after all. The television news kept repeating on Wednesday night that Bradley would speak or have a statement at a specific time, and then another time, and then another. The appointed time repeatedly came and went. Finally, a brief, prepared statement from the mayor was aired, but it was weak indeed against the live images of looting and arson spreading across vast stretches of the city.

Bradley has since revealed that he and Gates had not spoken to one another for 13 months. The animosity between the two was no secret, and in terms of human nature, perhaps it’s understandable that they would avoid each other in the fallout from the Rodney King case. But on that night when the city obviously was hurtling out of control, the two had not even consulted by phone. Like children, the two most important officials in Los Angeles were not speaking.

The absence of leadership was painfully evident to the community. As Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who is running for the Board of Supervisors, has observed, there was no leader who could walk the streets in the troubled areas, talk to the residents, calm the situation and personally be safe. None had the credibility.