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So just how rotten is the Los Angeles Police Department? If leaks of the Mark Fuhrman tapes are accurate, it's a force that revels in heating, shooting, harassing, framing and intimidating suspects, among other finer police tactics. To take just one example, according to a transcript obtained last week by The New York Times, Fuhrman explains: "Most real good policemen understand that they would just love to take certain people and just take them to the alley and just blow their brains out. All gang members for one. All dope dealers for two. Pimps, three."
That's pretty scary stuff, and this week jurors in the O. J. Simpson murder trial may actually get to hear some of it--much to the defense's delight. After listening privately to some 13 hours of tapes--conversations between Fuhrman and screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny--Judge Lance Ito was expected to allow the defense to play portions in court. Depending on how much Ito allowed in, the tapes could totally discredit Fuhrman-who has testified he found a bloody glove at Simpson's mansion--and seriously undermine the state's entire case. Whether Fuhrman will take the stand again may also provoke a clash. His lawyer, Darryl Mounger, has suggested Fuhrman may invoke his Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination. Defense lawyers want Fuhrman to do so in front of the jury, even though California law generally allows witnesses to take the Fifth outside the jury's presence.
Regardless of Ito's ruling, the tapes have placed the Los Angeles Police Department under scrutiny yet again. Is the department as jaundiced as the Fuhrman tapes suggest, or is he simply exaggerating or making it all up? Even critics answered that police conduct isn't as bad as it once was. Four years after the Rodney King beating incident symbolized a police force gone haywire, the LAPD has clearly tempered some of its most egregious abuses, in part by improving training and establishing better relations with minority communities.
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But that hardly means the odious picture painted by Fuhrman has vanished. Segments of the LAPD, say people in and out of the force, remain encrusted with a culture of racism and sexism. Recent lawsuits by black and women cops detail harsh allegations of racial and sexual discrimination and harassment. Facing recalcitrant officers, the department-now headed by Willie Williams, the city's first black police chief-has been slow to fully implement reforms recommended by a commission to curb excessive force and root out bad cops. Most of the 44 "problem officers" singled out by the commission-headed by now Secretary of State Warren Christopher-remain on the force. Joe Domanick, author of an LAPD history called "To Protect and to Serve," puts it this way: "The Mark Fuhrmans are a dying breed. But they are a slowly dying breed. The LAPD is a rusted vessel that's going to take a generation to turn around."
Critics are hoping to use the Simpson trial to accelerate that turnabout. The defense strategy, not coincidentally, has hit all the buttons that have long bothered many citizens and reformers-from abusive treatment of minority suspects to plain incompetence. That was reinforced last week, when defense witness Dr. Henry Lee, a prominent forensic scientist, assailed the department's allegedly sloppy handling of evidence, which the defense contended was ignored, planted and contaminated. Lee found evidence suggesting a possible second footprint, bolstering the defense theory of a second killer.
Here's a look at the LAPD on issues raised by Fuhrman:
Police brutality: The most inflammatory of Fuhrman's supposed leaked exploits involved the alleged beating of Latino suspects in 1978, after a cop shooting. Fuhrman supposedly bragged of beating their faces "to mush." But statistics indicate that LAPD cops are increasingly refraining from such violent behavior. As a result of closer monitoring and better training, the number of complaints against cops has dropped by double-digit percentages each year since 1992, when the King acquittals sparked deadly riots. The number of police beatings and shootings by officers has also dropped significantly. Pepper spray has replaced the baton as the primary weapon to halt suspects: baton beatings dropped from 102 in 1992 to 41 last year. Cops fired their guns only 111 times last year, compared with 162 in 1992.
Community leaders say that while the public's perception of the LAPD has improved, suspicion remains high. In July residents in the East L.A. neighborhood of Lincoln Heights threw rocks and bottles for two days when police officer Michael Falvo shot and killed a 14-year-old alleged gang member--even though he was apparently holding a Tec-9 semiautomatic pistol later found to be fully loaded. The controversy might have ended quickly, but it turned out that Falvo was one of the 33 "problem officers" remaining on the force. The FBI is investigating the shooting for possible civil-rights violations. Chief Williams said Falvo, who was retrained after being suspended twice, had "no significant disciplinary history since 1991."
Racism, inside and out: According to Johnnie Cochran, Simpson's lead lawyer, Fuhrman uses the word "nigger" 40 times on the tapes--a word he had earlier sworn he hadn't used in 10 years. With Williams at the helm, the LAPD has come a long way since the era of former chief Daryl Gates, who once explained the deaths of black suspects by choke hold by citing imagined anatomical differences with "normal" people. The LAPD better reflects the multiethnic city it serves; white male cops are now 45 percent of the force, compared with 53 percent in 1991.
But racism is obviously still a problem. "Officers say, 'Nigger get down' or 'Nigger, I'm going to arrest you'," says Vina Camper, a coordinator at Police Watch, a monitoring group. Contends former assistant LAPD chief David Dotson, "There is still a very active, racist mentality inside the LAPD."
Racial tensions are growing among officers themselves. Two weeks ago the black policemen's association filed a $2 million suit against the main cops' union, claiming it has refused aid to black officers. The union denies the charges. In a separate suit, a black LAPD sergeant and six black civilian jail workers charged that the department has failed to discipline allegedly racist cops, including Capt. Michael E. Melton, who reportedly' said last year: "All you black officers better stop throwing spears at me." Melton has refused to comment.
Doctoring evidence: Cochran says that on the tapes, Fuhrman mentions 17 instances of manufacturing evidence, lying and covering up for fellow officers. The defense badly wants the jury to hear Fuhrman describe this behavior-its case rests in large part on convincing the jury that Fuhrman picked up a glove at the murder scene and planted it at Simpson's estate. How common is this misconduct? "Police perjury, manufacturing evidence and a code of silence occur far too often," charges defense attorney Barry Tarlow. An LAPD officer says: "Do cops get up on the stand and perjure themselves? It happens." Cops deny widespread abuse.
Sexism on the force: Fuhrman also reportedly denigrates women on the tapes, directing disparaging remarks at Judge Ito's wife, Capt. Margaret York, the highest-ranking woman in the LAPD. While the number of female officers has risen to 17 percent from 13 percent in 1991, sexist attitudes seem commonplace in the department. A federal class-action suit filed last year charges the department with systemic sex discrimination. LAPD assistant chief Ronald Banks declined to comment on the suit. Says the ACLU's Carol Sobel, a lawyer who represents the 55 women suing: "If women, minority, gay and lesbian officers are subject to discrimination, harassment and assaults by their fellow officers, how could anyone expect those officers to treat the general public any better?"
This week's court action may be almost anticlimactic for L.A. cops. The tapes' disclosure has already shattered morale. Chief Williams, whose erratic leadership has antagonized some cops and politicians, has defended the force in the Simpson case. But he has also tacitly acknowledged that others may share Fuhrman's purported bias. In a videotaped message, Williams told officers last week: "We must each turn to our fellow employees sitting to our left or right and say, 'If you are part of the problem, stop it'." Easier said than done.
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