Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991 TAG: 9103220142
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Bush turned aside a question on whether Daryl Gates should step down, as critics in Los Angeles are demanding. He said Gates, a longtime political supporter, is "entitled to a credible hearing. . . . Nobody's going to prejudge anybody here."
Referring to an amateur cameraman's widely televised videotape of Los Angeles officers kicking and pummeling Rodney King on March 3, Bush said:
"It was sickening to see the beating that was rendered. . . . There's no way in my view to explain that away. It's outrageous."
Bush made the comments at the outset of a meeting with his attorney general, Dick Thornburgh, on the status of the Justice Department's investigation into police brutality.
"What we're going to do is look into violations of the law and prosecute any of the people [who] have violated the federal law, and speak out against police brutality, because what I saw made me sick," Bush said.
Asked whether Gates was responsible for his officers' conduct, Bush said that was "a matter, the way I see it, for the local police department."
"If there's a violation of federal law by anybody then that comes under the heading of our business."
He lauded Gates for "doing things for kids," including an anti-drug program and for closing down houses of crack cocaine.
"In many ways he's been an exemplary police chief," Bush said.
FBI Director William Sessions, meanwhile, said the nation's police chiefs must make it clear to their departments that "we do not tolerate at all police brutality or the giving of summary punishment, because that is not the way we govern ourselves."
A clear signal to police officers must be sent, "else what happens is you have a department that becomes accustomed to these types of things, and you must not have that," Sessions told reporters after testifying on Capitol Hill.
He declined to comment on the Los Angeles case.
by CNB