Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: ‘Official negligence’ tells all of the big L.A. story

Sunday, March 22, 1998 | 9:33 a.m.

MIKE O'CALLAGHAN is executive editor of the Las Vegas SUN.

NEVADANS CAN BE PROUD to point to newsman and author Lou Cannon as a son of the Silver State. Lou's biography of Ronald Reagan was an excellent piece of work, but his most recent book, "Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD," is the work of a master. The 698-page book is the result of almost unbelievable research and is easy and excellent reading. Someday, it will be considered must reading for scholars and, long before then, readers will be clamoring for it on the big screen or, at the very least, a television series.

It will be almost impossible to produce a film having the same clarity and feeling Cannon's words give his readers. To be a very fine social history and also exciting reading is the result of a great reporter seeking and writing the truth. He explained to me, "I didn't go into this to prove a thesis."

What came out of Cannon's work were several important conclusions, including the determination that the police beating of Rodney King was brutal but not a result of racial hatred. Both King and his attorney Steven Lerman agreed that race was not an issue in the confrontation. A large majority of both black and white LAPD officers and Chief Daryl Gates believe he was beaten because of his conduct, his size and their belief he was under the influence of PCP.

The video of the beating, taken by George William Holliday, shocked the police and the entire nation. Cannon tells his readers: "Captain Paul Jefferson, an African American who would play a critical role in the initial stages of the riots in 1992, saw the tape for the first time when it was televised in the coffee room of the Van Nuys Police Station. 'It was unreal,' Jefferson said. 'When the officers saw the tape, there wasn't a word said. They just turned around and walked out with their heads down. Nobody said a word. They were in shock."'

The video the police had seen was exactly what you and I viewed time and again on television. None of us saw the entire 81 seconds of Holliday's work. The first 10 seconds was blurry and KTLA-TV had removed it because of the poor quality. This took out the three-second segment showing King charging Officer Laurence Powell. The Simi Valley jury that heard the case against the officers did see the entire tape. But, as Cannon points out, even with those three seconds, "the videotape depicts a brutal incident."

Every LAPD street cop should read this book because, when all is said and done, they look good. Los Angeles politicians and police administrators don't smell like roses. Actually, the reader sees a mixture of politicians and police officials whose roles and influence are difficult to separate. For example, the community-service style of policing brought into being by Chief Ed Davis was later killed by Chief Daryl Gates. Davis believes Gates did this to please Mayor Tom Bradley, a former police officer, who wanted to please detectives who resented "being under the control of the community officers." A great police department of dedicated officers had become pawns in power struggles between their leaders and city hall. Despite this, the street cops have done and are doing a tough job very well.

Cannon allows everybody to have his say about the beating, trials, riot and the lingering results that to this day affect the entire community. The prosecutors and defense lawyers all have their turn being viewed critically and fairly by the author. Even the powerful Los Angeles Times newspaper has its fingers slapped for inadequately reporting the problems that could result from the makeup of the first King-beating jury.

Cannon gets right into the heads of the people he writes about. The reader comes to know the police chiefs, street cops and other key participants as real live people. Even the people who rioted and were later tried for attacking innocent citizens have their say and become much more than just names.

The role played by the Bush administration after the riots didn't bring glory to the White House. Cannon writes: "The Bush administration at first blamed the riots on the late Lyndon Johnson, using White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater to explain that Great Society anti-poverty programs had failed to give poor people an adequate stake in their communities. When this approach was criticized as a partisan attempt to take advantage of a tragedy, Bush changed course and took the high road. He told reporters that Fitzwater's comments had been 'grossly misinterpreted' and said it was time to heal wounds rather than assign blame."

The role the smell of fear played in the selection and results of juries that followed the riots over the original King jury are most interesting. Cannon, in his meticulous style, also takes the reader into how these happenings affected the O.J. Simpson jury and how some of the same mistakes by the district attorney's office were repeated in different trials.

Every Southern Californian should read this book and, because of the impact the first King verdict had in creating severe street disturbances in Las Vegas, so should Southern Nevadans. "Official Negligence" can't be matched by any past or future accounts of what has happened in Los Angeles during the past decade. The book takes us right up until this year and lays the groundwork for any decisions that should be made for the future of one of the world's great cities.