More Questions Than Answers | LA 92

I think it is devastating to the image of this city and especially to our police department.

JOHN MACK: It's very apparent that some-- not all, but some-- of those officers are clearly out of control. And they have to ultimately be willing to take a good, hard look at the leadership of the department.

CROWD: [inaudible] gotta go! [inaudible] gotta go! [inaudible] gotta go! [inaudible] gotta go! [inaudible] gotta go! [inaudible] gotta go! [inaudible] gotta go!

ZEV YAROSLAVSKY: Mr. President, all of us, I think, have been stunned by what has happened. And I can't imagine that the chief or anybody else in the city would condone the kind of conversation that took place-- both electronically and by voice-- in that Foothill division that night. Blacks are not animals. They're not lizards. They're not apes. They're not gorillas any more than any of us are. They're human beings. The first way to open the door to brutalizing people in any place is to cheapen their worth as human beings.

And when I read the transcripts of the conversation, I was appalled. But the ability to freely converse in racist terminology suggests a level of tolerance for that kind of discussion that-- that is unacceptable by any standard of decency. Well, first of all, this is a department that this council has supported over and over again. This is a police department that has supported you-- each of you.

And I just tell you this-- if you don't speak out on behalf of the men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department that have served the people of this city well-- if you don't do that at this crucial moment in our history, then I'm gonna tell you you're gonna have a police department that is not going to be the kind of department that you want, the kind of department the people deserve.

JUDGE: Mr. Woo.

MICHAEL WOO: Thank you. I want to know-- did you mean that as a threat? In other words, that if-- if I or other members of the council are going to be criticizing you or the department, are you saying that you will withhold support of these services to fight crime in our districts?

That is the most insulting thing I have heard on this council floor in all the time I've been here, and I've been here a lot longer than you've been alive. Absolutely not. This is a professional organization. What do you think we are? [inaudible]