Leaders hope actions will ease racial tensions.
By James Nash, Long Beach Press-Telegram
Hoping to provide a forum for frustrations exposed by videotaped police beatings of black suspects, civic leaders Friday announced a daylong series of community sessions across Los Angeles next Thursday.
The “Citywide Day of Dialogue’ echoes a similar effort in 1995, after reactions to the acquittal of O.J. Simpson reflected racial divisions in Los Angeles.
The upcoming sessions acknowledge city leaders’ concern that the televised beating of car-theft suspect Stanley Miller by LAPD Officer John Hatfield could exacerbate racial tensions, said Assemblym Dialogue advisory board.
Miller, who remains in state prison in Chino pending charges from last Wednesday’s incident, is black. Hatfield, assigned to home duty after news video showed him striking Miller 11 times with a flashlig Latino.
Officials also are investigating another violent arrest on June 19 by officers who were responding to a loud party. A local television station aired videotape of that incident on Wednesday.
Police are expected to participate in the 12 planned dialogues next Thursday that stretch from San Pedro to North Hills.
One session will be in the San Fernando Valley at Community In Schools, 8743 Burnet Ave. although no time had yet been set.
“We view this as the path through which cooperation is reached in a time of crisis,” Ridley-Thomas said. “There is no denying the fact that tension exists in our communities.”
Some critics of the LAPD said dialogues do nothing to solve the underlying problem of police brutality. At a small but raucous gathering in front of the LAPD’s Parker Center headquarters at noon Friday, activists denounced the police department and called for “militant action,” but said they weren’t advocating violence.
“This isn’t just about rhetoric,” said John Parker, who organized the Parker Center protest and serves as a leader of the International Action Center, a coalition of liberal groups.
“The police are responsible for this. We need to come up with various ways to stop police brutality protests, demonstrations, sit-ins. The violence comes from the police. We need to stop the violence.”
Civil rights attorney Constance Rice, who has handled cases against the LAPD, said the police response to the Miller beating has been appropriate.
“I do not see signs of a ‘bluewash’ as I have in the past,” Rice said. “I see signs of a straight up, fair investigation. It’s business as usual.”
Mayor James Hahn, speaking at the Day of Dialogue announcement, said policing often evokes strong reactions in people. Hahn said he was bothered by images of the officer striking Miller.
“I do not accept or tolerate excessive force by any member of the Los Angeles Police Department or any police department for that matter,” Hahn said.
Miller remained in the California Institution for Men in Chino Friday, where he was visited by a neurologist, said Richard Nussbaum, the attorney for Miller.
The neurologist, whom Nussbaum refused to name, diagnosed closed-head trauma, which caused a concussion resulting in symptoms including dizziness, imbalance, vision problems and headaches, Nussbaum said.
Police have declined to comment on Miller’s injuries, saying they have not gotten updates since his initial medical exam.