The Los Angeles Times Smears Memory of Former LAPD Chief Gates
I lived in LA during Chief Gates’ early tenure when the city was under seize from gang and drug crime, the 7700 police officers of the LAPD were about 10% of what was being used in NYC and for a much larger geographical area. Without troops Chief Gates used harsh tactics to try to hold the city together. The sliming from the LA Times often revolved around a single interview statement made by Gates regarding the choke hold, a maneuver used by police to subdue angel-dust psychotics. It was a quote that could be easily Dowderized by leaving off a single word, which was done as recently as this week by CNN. Here is the actual quote:
“some blacks might be more likely to die from chokeholds because their arteries do not open as fast as they do on normal people.”
One can see by shortening the quote and leaving off the word “some” –as CNN just did again–that one can completely change the meaning. One journalist began referring to cop cars as Black & Normals. There was no intent on Chief Gates part to refer to black people as non-normal, but it was the intent of the LA Times to trash Chief Gates whenever possible.
Chief Gates said after the riots that “we should have blown some heads off right away.” Which is correct, but by that time he was under such duress to make nice to the crime infested neighborhoods that they initially withdrew when the riot started.
