Cary Stayner

Cary Stayner

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Cary A. Stayner
Background information
Birth name:	Carl Stayner
Also known as:	The Yosemite Killer
Born:	August 13, 1961 (1961-08-13) (age 49) Merced, California
Conviction:	Murder
Sentence:	Death
Killings
Number of victims:	4
Span of killings:	February 1999–July 1999
Country:	U.S.
State(s):	California
Date apprehended:	1999

Cary A. Stayner (b. August 13, 1961) is an American serial killer currently on death row for the 1999 murders of four women in Mariposa County near Yosemite, California.

Contents [show] 1 Early life 2 Crimes 3 Sentencing 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Stayner was born and raised in Merced, California. His younger brother, Steven, was kidnapped by child molester Kenneth Parnell in 1972 and held captive for more than seven years before escaping and being reunited with his family. Cary Stayner would later say he felt neglected as his parents grieved over the loss of Steven.^[1]
When Steven escaped from Parnell and returned home in 1980, he received massive media attention; a true crime book and TV movie, both titled I Know My First Name is Steven, were made about the ordeal. Steven died in a motorcycle accident in 1989. The following year, Cary Stayner’s uncle, with whom Cary was living at the time, was murdered.
Stayner attempted suicide in 1991 and was arrested in 1997 for possession of marijuana and methamphetamine, although the charges were eventually dropped.

[edit] Crimes

In 1997, Stayner was hired as a handyman at the Cedar Lodge motel in El Portal, just outside the Highway 140 Arch Rock entrance to Yosemite National Park. Between February and July 1999, he murdered four women: Carole Sund, her daughter Julie Sund, their travel companion Argentinian exchange student Silvina Pelosso, and Yosemite National Institute’s (now NatureBridge) employee Joie Armstrong.
He was initially questioned when the first three victims were found, but he was not seriously considered as a suspect due mainly to his relations, and his own attempts to throw off authorities. When the fourth body was found in an inholding in Yosemite National Park in July, however, he was questioned again and arrested by FBI Agents John Boles and Jeff Rinek at Laguna del Sol nudist resort in Wilton. His truck yielded evidence linking him to the victim. He eventually confessed to all four murders^[2].
Stayner claimed after his arrest that he had fantasized about murdering women since the age of seven, long before the abduction of his brother.

[edit] Sentencing

Stayner pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyers claimed that the Stayner family had a history of sexual abuse and mental illness, manifesting itself not only in the murders but also in Stayner’s request for child pornography (in return for his confession^[3]) and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was nevertheless found sane and convicted of four counts of first degree murder by a jury in 2001. In 2002, during the penalty phase of his trial, he was sentenced to death. An appeal is pending. Stayner is housed in the Adjustment Center on death row at San Quentin Penitentiary in California.

[edit] See also

• Psychological trauma

[edit] References

1. ^ True Life Crimes – A collection of crime stories of some of the most famous and fascinating true crimes in history and modern times. Serial killers, murders, kidnappings, crimes of passion and much more
2. ^ CNN – Yosemite suspect confesses to 4 killings – July 27, 1999
3. ^ Crime Library article on Stayner

[edit] External links

• Crime Library article on Stayner
• The Case of a Lifetime – San Francisco Chronicle December 15, 2002

Persondata
Name	Stayner, Cary
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 13, 1961
Place of birth	Merced, California
Date of death
Place of death

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Stayner“

Categories: American serial killers | American rapists | American prisoners sentenced to death | California criminals | 1961 births | Living people | Yosemite National Park | Prisoners sentenced to death by California | People from Merced, California | American people convicted of murder | People convicted of murder by California

Rodney King

Rodney King

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Rodney King
Born	April 2, 1965 (age 45)(1965-04-02) Sacramento, California
Nationality	American
Known for	Victim of police brutality
Height	6 ft 3
Spouse	Engaged – Cynthia Kelley [1]
Children	3
Parents	Ronald King (deceased) Odessa King

Rodney Glen King (born April 2, 1965) is an American who was famously the victim in a police brutality case involving the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on March 3, 1991. A bystander, George Holliday, videotaped much of the incident from a distance.

The footage showed LAPD officers repeatedly striking King with their batons while other officers stand to watch without any action to stop the brutal beating. A portion of this footage was aired by news agencies around the world, causing public outrage that raised tensions between the black community and the LAPD and increased anger over police brutality and social inequalities in Los Angeles.

Four LAPD officers were later tried in a state court for the beating but were acquitted. The announcement of the acquittals sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots. A later federal trial for civil rights violations ended with two of the officers found guilty and sent to prison and the other two officers acquitted.

Contents [show] 1 Early and personal life 2 Incident 2.1 High speed chase 2.2 Confrontation 2.3 Use of the Taser 2.4 Beating with batons: events on the Holliday video 3 Post-arrest events 4 Trial of the officers 5 Los Angeles riots and the aftermath 6 Federal trial of officers 7 Cultural impact of the event 8 After the riots 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Early and personal life

King was born in Sacramento, California to Odessa King, a Jehovah’s Witness who has four other children. His father, Ronald, an alcoholic, died age 42. King grew up in Pasadena, California.^[2]

In November 1989, King robbed a store in Monterey Park, California using an iron bar to threaten and hit the store owner. He was convicted and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment.^[2]

King is divorced and has three children.^[2]

On the 9th September 2010 it was confirmed that King is to marry Cynthia Kelly, who was Juror #5 from the case he brought against the City of Los Angeles. It was believed that Kelly would often wink at King during the case according to witnesses. While King claimed that he would often picture her with a halo over her head, as he made awkward gestures towards her, many believe that it was most likely the effects of the drugs he was on at the time. King has assured friends and family that his marriage to Kelly will not slow him down from his work with two local non-profit organizations in South Central Los Angeles.^[3]

[edit] Incident

[edit] High speed chase

On the night of March 2, 1991, King and two passengers, Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, were driving west on Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210) in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. Prior to driving on the Foothill Freeway, the three men had spent the night watching a basketball game and drinking at a friend’s house in Los Angeles.^[4] After being tested 5 hours after the incident, King’s blood-alcohol level was found to be just under the legal limit. This meant that his blood alcohol level was approximately 0.19—nearly two and a half times the legal limit in California—when he was driving.^[5] At 12:30 am, Officers Tim and Melanie Singer, a husband-and-wife team of the California Highway Patrol, spotted King’s car speeding. The Singers pursued King, and the subsequent freeway chase reached a speed of at least 117 miles per hour.^[6][7] According to King’s own statements, he refused to pull the car over because a DUI would violate his parole for a previous robbery conviction.^[8]

King exited the freeway, and the chase continued through residential streets at speeds allegedly ranging from 55 to 80 mph.^[9][10] By this point, several police cars and a helicopter had joined in the pursuit. After approximately eight miles, officers cornered King’s car. The first five LAPD officers to arrive at the scene were Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano.

[edit] Confrontation

Trooper Tim Singer ordered King and his two passengers to exit the vehicle and lie face down on the ground. The two passengers complied and were taken into custody without incident.^[4] King initially remained in the car. When he finally did emerge, he acted bizarrely: giggling; patting the ground; and waving to the police helicopter overhead.^[10] King then grabbed his buttocks. Trooper Melanie Singer momentarily thought he was reaching for a gun.^[11] She drew her gun and pointed it at King, ordering him to lie on the ground. King complied. Singer approached King with her gun drawn, preparing to make the arrest.

At this point, Sergeant Stacey Koon intervened and ordered Trooper Melanie Singer to holster her weapon. LAPD officers are taught not to approach a suspect with a drawn gun, as there is a risk of the suspect gaining control of it if they get too close.^[12] Koon then ordered the four other LAPD officers at the scene—Briseno, Powell, Solano, and Wind—to subdue and handcuff King in a manner called a “swarm,” a technique that involves multiple officers grabbing a suspect with empty hands. As the officers attempted to do so, King physically resisted. King rose up, tossing Officers Powell and Briseno off his back. King then allegedly struck Officer Briseno in the chest.^[13] Seeing this, Koon ordered all of the officers to fall back. The officers later testified that they believed King was under the influence of the dissociative drug phencyclidine (PCP),^[14] although King’s toxicology results tested negative for PCP.^[15]

[edit] Use of the Taser

Sergeant Koon then ordered the officers to “stand clear”. King was standing and was not responding to Koon’s commands. Koon then fired a Taser into King’s back. King groaned; momentarily fell to the ground; then stood back up. Koon fired the Taser again, knocking King to the ground.^[13] Powell’s arrest report states that the Taser “temporarily halt[ed] [Defendant King’s] attack”, and Solano stated that the Taser appeared to affect King at first because “the suspect shook and yelled for almost five seconds”.^[16]

[edit] Beating with batons: events on the Holliday video

Screenshot of footage of King beaten by LAPD officers on March 3, 1991

As George Holliday’s videotape begins, King is on the ground. He rose and moved toward Powell. Solano termed it a “lunge”, and said it was in the direction of Koon.^[16] From the videotape it is impossible to tell whether the movement is intended as an attack or simply an effort to get away. At this time taser wires can be seen coming from King’s body. As King moved forward Officer Powell then struck King with his baton, the blow hit King’s head knocking him to the ground immediately.^[17] Powell hit King several additional times with his baton. The videotape shows Briseno moving in to try and stop Powell from swinging, and Powell then backing up. Koon reportedly yelled “that’s enough”. King then rose to his knees: Powell and Wind continued to hit King with their batons while he was on the ground.^[18]

Koon acknowledged that he ordered the baton blows, directing Powell and Wind to hit King with “power strokes”. According to Koon, Powell and Wind used “bursts of power strokes, then backed off”. Notwithstanding the repeated “power strokes”, the videotape shows King apparently continuing to try to get up. Koon ordered the officers to “hit his joints, hit the wrists, hit his elbows, hit his knees, hit his ankles”.^[18] Finally, after 56 baton blows and six kicks, five or six officers swarmed in and placed King in both handcuffs and cordcuffs restraining his arms and legs. King was dragged on his stomach to the side of the road to await arrival of a rescue ambulance.^[18]

Unseen by those involved, George Holliday, a private citizen, caught the lengthy beating on video from his apartment near the intersection of Foothill Blvd and Osborne St. in Lake View Terrace. He contacted the police about a videotape of the incident but was dismissed. He then went to KTLA with his videotape.^[19] The footage became a media sensation. Portions of it were aired hundreds, if not thousands of times, around the world, and it “turned what would otherwise have been a violent, but soon forgotten, encounter between Los Angeles police and Rodney King into one of the most widely watched and discussed incidents of its kind.”

[edit] Post-arrest events

King was taken to Pacifica Hospital immediately after his arrest. He suffered a fractured facial bone, and a broken right ankle, and numerous bruises and lacerations.^[20] In a negligence claim filed with the City, King alleged he had suffered “11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones and teeth], kidney damage [and] emotional and physical trauma.”^[21] Blood and urine samples taken from King five hours after his arrest showed that he could be presumed intoxicated under California law. The tests also showed traces of marijuana (26 ng/ml), but no indication of PCP or any other illegal drug.^[21] At Pacifica Hospital, where King was taken for initial treatment, nurses reported that the officers who accompanied King (including Wind) openly joked and bragged about the number of times King had been hit.^[22]

[edit] Trial of the officers

The Los Angeles district attorney charged officers Koon, Powell, Briseno, and Wind with use of excessive force. While Sergeant Koon did not strike King and had only used the Taser, he was the supervisory officer at the scene and was charged for “willfully permitting and failing to take action to stop the unlawful assault.” The initial judge was replaced, and the new judge changed the venue, as well as the jury pool, citing contamination of the jury pool by the media coverage. The new venue was a new courthouse in Simi Valley in neighboring Ventura County. The jury consisted of Ventura County residents—ten white, one Latino and one Asian. The prosecutor, Terry White, was African-American. On April 29, 1992, the jury acquitted three of the officers, but could not agree about one of the charges for Powell.^[4]

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley said, “the jury’s verdict will not blind us to what we saw on that videotape. The men who beat Rodney King do not deserve to wear the uniform of the L.A.P.D.”^[23]

[edit] Los Angeles riots and the aftermath

Main article: 1992 Los Angeles riots

The news of acquittal triggered the Los Angeles riots of 1992. By the time the police, the U.S. Army, the MarinesNational Guard restored order, the casualties included 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damages to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses. Smaller riots occurred in other cities such as Las Vegas in neighboring Nevada and as far east as Atlanta, Georgia. On May 1, 1992, the third day of the L.A. riots, King appeared in public before television news cameras to appeal for peace, asking: and the

“

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?…It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice….Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out.[24]

”

[edit] Federal trial of officers

After the riots, the United States Department of Justice reinstated the investigation and obtained an indictment of violations of federal civil rights against the four officers. The federal trial focused more on the evidence as to the training of officers instead of just relying on the videotape of the incident. On March 9 of the 1993 trial, King took the witness stand and described to the jury the events as he remembered them.^[25] The jury found Officer Laurence Powell and Sergeant Stacey Koon guilty, and they were subsequently sentenced to 30 months in prison, while Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno were acquitted of all charges.

[edit] Cultural impact of the event

The video of the beating is an example of inverse surveillance – that is, of citizens watching police. Several copwatch organizations were subsequently organized nationally to safeguard against police abuse, including an umbrella group, October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality.^[26] The clip to Ministry‘s song “N.W.O.” features a re-enactment of the assault video, substituting a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty for King. Rapper Tupac Shakur mentions King in his song “I Wonder If Heaven Got a Ghetto“. Rapper Lil’ Wayne mentions Rodney King in his hit song “Mrs. Officer“. The events surrounding the Rodney King trial functioned as background for the Kurt Russell movie “Dark Blue“. The riots that followed the Rodney King trials served as the subject of the popular Sublime song April 29, 1992 (Miami) from their eponymous third album. The Rodney King Incident is also mentioned in the song “Cop Killer” by “Body Count“

[edit] After the riots

King was awarded $3.8 million in a civil case and used some of the proceeds to start a hip hop music label, Straight Alta-Pazz Recording Company.^[27]

Like his father, King is an alcoholic. In 1993, he entered an alcohol rehabilitation program and was placed on probation after crashing his vehicle into a block wall in downtown Los Angeles. In July 1995, he was arrested by Alhambra police, who alleged that he hit his wife with his car, knocking her to the ground. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of hit and run.^[28] On August 27, 2003, King was arrested again for speeding and running a red light while under the influence of alcohol. He failed to yield to police officers and slammed his vehicle into a house, breaking his pelvis.^[29] On November 29, 2007, while riding home on his bicycle, King was shot in the face, arms, and back with pellets from a shotgun. He reported that it was done by a man and a woman who demanded his bicycle and shot him when he rode away.^[28] Police described the wounds as looking like they came from birdshot, and said King offered few details about the suspects. In May 2008 King checked into the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California, which was filmed as part of the second season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which premiered in October 2008. Dr. Drew Pinsky, who runs the facility, showed concern for King’s lifestyle and said that King would die unless his addiction was treated.^[30] He also appeared on Sober House, a Celebrity Rehab spin-off focusing on a sober living environment, which aired in early 2009. Both shows filmed King’s quest not only to achieve sobriety, but to reestablish a relationship with his family, which had been severely damaged due to his drinking.^[31]

During his time on Celebrity Rehab and Sober House, King worked not only on his addiction, but on the lingering trauma of the beating. He and Dr. Pinsky retraced his path from the night of his beating, eventually reaching the spot where it happened, the site of the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles.^[32] King was asked to recount some of the details of the event. Among his recall however were several contradictory facts, such as that the officers shouted to him from their car during the chase that they intended to beat and kill him as soon as he stopped; that when he did stop, he immediately lay on the ground and surrendered, begging the approaching officers “You don’t have to do this!” as he lay there motionless; that the shots with the Taser were all while he was already prone and compliant; and that the officers repeatedly taunted him during the beating, such as saying they were going to kill him and he should run away.^[33] However there is no evidence supporting any of these later claims. There is no mention of such events from his companions Allen and Helms (who were arrested without any sort of force from the same officers) nor any testimony provided by him in court consistent with this.

King won^[34] a celebrity boxing match against ex-Chester City (Delaware County, Pennsylvania) police officer Simon Aouad on Friday, September 11, 2009 at the Ramada Philadelphia Airport in Essington, Pennsylvania.^[35]

In 2009, King and other alumni of Celebrity Rehab appeared as panel speakers to a new group of addicts at the Pasadena Recovery Center, marking 11 months of sobriety for him. His appearance was aired in the third season episode “Triggers”.^[36]

Daryl Gates

Daryl Gates

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Daryl Gates
Los Angeles Police Department
August 30, 1926–April 16, 2010 (aged 83)(1926-08-30)
Place of birth	Glendale, California[1]
Place of death	Dana Point, California[2]
Service branch	United States
Year of service	1949 – 1992
Rank	Sworn in as an Officer – 1949 – Commander – 1965 Chief of Police – 1978
Awards	– Police Meritorious Unit Citation – Police Meritorious Service Medal – 1984 Summer Olympics Ribbon – 1987 Papal Visit Ribbon – 1992 Civil Disturbance Ribbon
Other work	Businessman/entrepreneur, talk-show host, radio commentator

Daryl Gates (born Darrel^[3] Francis Gates, August 30, 1926 – April 16, 2010) was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1978 to 1992.

Contents [show] 1 Early life 2 LAPD career 2.1 SWAT 2.2 PDID 2.3 DARE 2.4 CRASH 2.5 Force enlargement 2.6 Special Order 40 2.7 Administrative style and personality 2.8 Operation Hammer 2.9 Rodney King and the Los Angeles riots 2.10 Controversial rhetoric 3 Post-LAPD career 4 Businessman 5 Autobiography 6 Later years 7 See also 8 References 9 Additional reading 10 External links

[edit] Early life

Gates was born to a Mormon mother and a Catholic father;^[4] he was raised in his mother’s faith.^{[citation needed]} He grew up in Glendale and Highland Park, in the northeastern part of Los Angeles. The Great Depression had an impact on his early life: his father was an alcoholic, and frequently ended up in the custody of the Glendale police.^[1]welfare payments.^{[citation needed]} Gates later wrote that he had a low opinion of the police due to their rough treatment of his father, and at age 16 Gates himself was arrested after punching an officer who gave him a parking ticket (Gates apologized and the charges were dropped).^[1] (Later in life, Gates often remarked on the taunts and harassment he received from schoolmates because of his father’s behavior.) His mother had to support the family alone, often on little more than church and government

Gates graduated from Franklin High School in Highland Park, and joined the Navy in time to see action in the Pacific Theater during World War II. After leaving the Navy, he attended Pasadena City College and married his first wife, Wanda Hawkins. He went on to take pre-law classes at the University of Southern California. After his wife became pregnant, a friend suggested that he join the LAPD, which was conducting a recruitment drive among former servicemen; Gates initially declined, then decided it was a good opportunity. (Gates later finished his degree at USC.)^[1][2]

[edit] LAPD career

He joined the LAPD in 1949. Among his roles as an officer, Gates was picked to be the chauffeur for Chief William H. Parker. Gates often remarked that he gained many administrative and professional insights from Parker during the hours they spent together each day.

Gates worked hard to prepare for his promotional exams, scoring first in the sergeant‘s exam and in every promotional exam thereafter. On his promotion to lieutenant, he rejoined Chief Parker as Parker’s executive officer. He was promoted to captain, responsible for intelligence. By the time of the Watts riots in 1965 he was an inspectorManson Family murders and the Hillside Strangler case). On March 28, 1978, Gates became the 49th Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. (overseeing the investigation of, among other crimes, the

[edit] SWAT

See also: LAPD Metropolitan Division#S.W.A.T. (“D” Platoon) and John Nelson (police officer)

Gates, considered the father of SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics), established the specialized unit in order to deal with hostage rescue and extreme situations involving armed and dangerous suspects. Ordinary street officers, with light armament, limited weapons training and little instruction on group fighting techniques, had shown to be ineffective in dealing with snipers, bank robberies carried out by heavily armed persons, and other high-intensity situations. In 1965, Officer John Nelson came up with the idea to form a specially trained and equipped unit to respond to and manage critical situations while minimizing police casualties.^{[citation needed]}

As an inspector, Gates approved this idea. He formed a small select group of volunteer officers. The first SWAT team, which Gates had originally wanted to name “Special Weapons Attack Team,”^[5] was born LAPD SWAT, D-Platoon of the Metro Division. This first SWAT unit was initially constituted as 15 teams of four men each, for a total staff of 60. These officers were given special status and benefits, but in return they had to attend monthly trainings and serve as security for police facilities during episodes of civil unrest. SWAT was copied almost immediately by most US police departments, and is now used by law enforcement agencies throughout the world.^{[citation needed]}

In Gates’ autobiography, Chief: My Life in the LAPD (Bantam Books, 1992), he explained that he neither developed SWAT tactics nor its distinctive equipment. He wrote that he supported the concept, tried to empower his people to develop the concept, and lent them moral support.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] PDID

Gates made substantial use of the LAPD’s Public Disorder and Intelligence Division (PDID) squad, even developing an international spying operation.^[5] The lawsuit CAPA v. Gates, with the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA) as one of two dozen or so plaintiffs, later sued the LAPD on First Amendment grounds that exposed the unlawful harassment, surveillance, and infiltration of the progressive movement in Los Angeles by LAPD agents. The lawsuit against Gates and the LAPD proved successful. The PDID was ordered to disband (and did so in January 1983^[6]). In February 1984, an out-of-court settlement awarded $1.8 million dollars to the named plaintiffs, individuals, and organizations who had sued the City of L.A.^[7]

[edit] DARE

Main article: Drug Abuse Resistance Education

In joint collaboration with the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, Gates founded DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program designed to educate children about the dangers of drug abuse. DARE is currently used in schools worldwide, although scientific research has found it to be ineffective in reducing alcohol or drug use and there is evidence that it may increase drug use among some groups.^[8]

[edit] CRASH

Main article: Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums

Gates’s appointment as chief roughly coincided with the intensification of the War on Drugs. A drug-related issue that had also come to the forefront at the time was gang violence, which paralyzed many of the neighborhoods (primarily impoverished and black or Hispanic) in which gangs held sway. In response, LAPD set up specialist gang units which gathered intelligence on and ran operations against gangs. These units were called Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, aka CRASH, immortalized in the 1988 film Colors. Gates’ aggressive approach to the gang problem was effective in suppressing gang violence but allegations of false arrest and a general LAPD disdain for young black and Latino men were made. By this time, however, the department had a significant percentage of minority officers.^{[citation needed]}

Gates himself became a byword among some for excessive use of force by anti-gang units, and became a favorite lyrical target for gang-connected urban black rappers notably, Ice Cube. Nevertheless, CRASH’s approach appeared successful and remained in widespread use until the Rampart Division scandal of 1999 drew attention to abuses of the law that threatened to undo hundreds of criminal convictions.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Force enlargement

Gates became LAPD chief of police a little over two months before the enactment of California’s Proposition 13, during a time of tremendous change in California politics. While LAPD traditionally had been a “lean and mean” department compared with other American police forces (a point of pride for Parker), traffic congestion and continually decreasing officer-to-resident ratios (approximately 7,000 police officers for 3,000,000 residents in 1978) diminished the effectiveness of LAPD’s prized mobility. Gates was eager to take more recruits, particularly for CRASH units, when the city made funds available.^{[citation needed]}

Gates later claimed that many officers recruited in the 1980s – a period in which LAPD was subject to a consent decree which set minimum quotas for hiring of women and minorities – were substandard,^{[citation needed]} remarking:

” … [I]f you don’t have all of those quotas, you can’t hire all the people you need. So you’ve got to make all of those quotas. And when that happens, you get somebody who is on the borderline, you’d say “Yes, he’s black, or he’s Hispanic, or it’s a female, but we want to bring in these additional people when we have the opportunity. So we’ll err on the side of, ‘We’ll take them and hope it works out.'” And we made some mistakes. No question about it, we have made some mistakes.”^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Special Order 40

Main article: Special Order 40

In 1979 Gates helped craft and implement Special Order 40, a mandate that prohibits police officers from stopping people for the sole purpose of obtaining immigration status. The mandate was created in an effort to encourage residents to report crimes without the fear of intimidation or deportation.^[9]

[edit] Administrative style and personality

Like his mentor Parker,^{[citation needed]} Gates publicly questioned the effectiveness of community policing, usually electing not to work with community activists and prominent persons in communities in which LAPD was conducting major anti-gang operations.^{[citation needed]} At the time of the Rodney King beating, Gates was at a community policing conference. This tendency, a logical extension of the policies implemented by Parker that discouraged LAPD officers from becoming too enmeshed in the communities in which they served, did not serve him well politically: allegations of arrogance and racism plagued the department throughout his tenure, surfacing most strongly in the Christopher Commission report.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Operation Hammer

Many commentators criticized Gates for Operation Hammer, a policing operation conducted by the LAPD in South Los Angeles. After eight people were gunned down at a birthday party in a drive by shooting in 1987, Gates responded with an extremely aggressive sweep of South Los Angeles that involved 1000 officers at any given time.^{[citation needed]}

The operation lasted several years, with multiple sweeps, and resulted in over 25,000 arrests. (This was not unprecedented: during the run-up to the 1984 Summer Olympics, Mayor Tom Bradley allegedly ordered Gates to take all of the city’s gang members—known and suspected—into custody, where they remained until shortly after the Games’ conclusion.)^{[citation needed]}

As a vast majority of those arrested were never charged, Operation Hammer was roundly criticized by the left as a harassment operation whose chief goal was to intimidate young black and Hispanic men. In a PBS interview, when asked whether the local people in the minority areas expressed thanks to the police for their actions, he responded:^{[citation needed]}

“

Sure. The good people did all the time. But the community activists? No. Absolutely not. We were out there oppressing whatever the community had to be, whether it was blacks, or Hispanics. We were oppressing them. Nonsense. We’re out there trying to save their communities, trying to upgrade the quality of life of people…

”

[edit] Rodney King and the Los Angeles riots

On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was arrested and savagely beaten by LAPD officers after a car chase. A bystander, George Holliday, recorded the beating on videotape. Gates and his department faced strong criticism in the aftermath of the beating; the Christopher Commission report, issued July 10, 1991, identified a police culture of excessive force and poor supervision, and recommended numerous reforms, as well as Gates’s removal. Mayor Tom Bradley also called for Gates to resign, but he refused, leading to an extended stand-off between Gates and the mayor.^[1]

The 1992 Los Angeles riots brought an end to Gates’s police career. Following the April 29, 1992, acquittal of the officers who had been shown beating Rodney King on videotape, rioting broke out in Los Angeles. Within minutes of the announcement of the verdict, white truck driver Reginald Denny was dragged from his vehicle while stopped at the intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues in South Central Los Angeles and severely beaten by several black teenagers as news helicopters hovered above. Blacks, Hispanics, and Koreans clashed for three days throughout South Central and Mid-Wilshire and news cameras beamed images of destruction throughout the world. Both the LAPD and the National Guard failed to contain the riots, and order was not restored until active-duty army and Marine troops were deployed.^{[citation needed]}

On the first evening of the riots, Gates told reporters that the situation would soon be under control, and attended a previously scheduled fundraising dinner.^[10] These actions led to charges that Gates was out of touch. General command-and-control failings in the entire LAPD hierarchy during the riots led to criticisms that he was incapable of managing his force. In the aftermath of the riots, local and national media printed and aired dozens of reports deeply critical of the LAPD under Gates, painting it as an army of racist beat cops accountable only to an arrogant leadership. While evidence of systematic racism among the rank-and-file and by Gates himself was not clear-cut,^{[citation needed]} the paramilitary approach that Gates represented came in for criticism, and calls for the LAPD to shift to a community policing strategy.^[11]

Gates finally resigned on June 28, 1992, and was replaced by Willie L. Williams.^[11] A second commission, the Webster Commission, headed by former FBI and CIA Director William H. Webster, was formed in the wake of the riots. Its report, released on October 21, 1992, was generally considered to be scathingly critical of the department (as well as other government agencies) and was especially critical of Gates’ management of it.^[1][12]

[edit] Controversial rhetoric

Gates earned notoriety for his controversial rhetoric on many occasions. Some of the most notable examples of this were:

• his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee that infrequent or casual drug users “ought to be taken out and shot” because “we’re in a war” and even casual drug use is “treason.”^[13] He later said the testimony was calculated hyperbole.^[14]

• his dismissive response to concerns about excessive force by police employing “choke holds.” Gates attributed several deaths of people held in choke holds to the theory that “blacks might be more likely to die from chokeholds because their arteries do not open as fast as they do on ‘normal people.'”^[15] (In his autobiography, Gates explained that he had been misquoted, saying that black people were more predisposed to vascular conditions and therefore less likely to have normally-functioning arteries.)

[edit] Post-LAPD career

Gates remained active after leaving the LAPD, working with Sierra to create the computer game Police Quest IV: Open Season, an adventure game set in Los Angeles where gamers play the role of a Robbery/Homicide detective trying to solve a series of brutal murders. He appears in the game as Chief of Police, and can be found on one of the top floors of Parker Center. In addition, Gates has been the principal consultant for Sierra’s SWAT series, appearing in them as well. In 1993, Gates was a talk show host on KFI, replacing Tom Leykis. His tenure was short lived but he remained a frequent guest on talk radio, especially in regards to policing issues. Gates also ran an investigation company called CHIEF, and made frequent appearances on television and radio shows.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Businessman

Gates was President/CEO of Global ePoint, a security and homeland defense company dealing primarily in digital surveillance and security technology. He also served on the Advisory Board of PropertyRoom.com, a website for police auctions.

[edit] Autobiography

In 1992 he published Chief: My Life in the LAPD, an autobiography, written with the assistance of Diane K. Shah (Bantam Books). The book has much detail about Gates’s career and high-profile cases, although the book went to press before the L.A. riots.^[16]

[edit] Later years

After Bernard Parks was denied a second term as Chief of Police by Mayor James K. Hahn in 2002, Gates, aged 75, told CNN that he intended to apply for his old job as LAPD chief.^[17] This led Los Angeles media to ridicule Gates’ announcement as a publicity stunt.^{[citation needed]} Hahn ultimately appointed William J. Bratton, a former police commissioner of Boston and New York City, to head the department.

On April 16, 2010, Gates died at his home in Dana Point, California at the age of 83^[2] after a battle with bladder cancer.^[18]

Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson

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Rock Hudson
An image from the trailer for Giant (1956)
Born	Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. November 17, 1925(1925-11-17) Winnetka, Illinois, U.S.
Died	October 2, 1985 (aged 59)[1] Beverly Hills, California , U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1948–1985
Height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Spouse	Phyllis Gates (1955–1958)

Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. (November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985), known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with his most famous co-star, Doris Day. Hudson was voted “Star of the Year”, “Favorite Leading Man”, and similar titles by numerous movie magazines. The 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) tall actor was unquestionably one of the most popular and well-known movie stars of the time. He completed nearly 70 motion pictures and starred in several television productions during a career that spanned over four decades. Hudson was also one of the first major Hollywood celebrities to die from an AIDS-related illness.^[2]

Contents [hide] 1 Life and career 1.1 Early life 1.2 Early career 1.3 Later career 1.4 Personal life 1.5 AIDS and death 2 Filmography 3 Awards 4 See also 5 Bibliography 6 References 7 External links

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[edit] Life and career

[edit] Early life

Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., in Winnetka, Illinois, the only child of Katherine Wood (of English and Irish descent), a telephone operator, and Roy Harold Scherer, Sr., (of German and SwissGreat Depression. His mother remarried and his stepfather Wallace “Wally” Fitzgerald adopted him, changing his last name to Fitzgerald. Hudson’s years at New Trier High School were unremarkable. He sang in the school’s glee club and was remembered as a shy boy who delivered newspapers, ran errands and worked as a golf caddy. descent) an auto mechanic who abandoned the family during the depths of the

After graduating from high school, he served in the Philippines as an aircraft mechanic for the United States Navy during World War II. In 1946, Hudson moved to the Los Angeles area to pursue an acting career and applied to the University of Southern California‘s dramatics program, but he was rejected owing to poor grades. Hudson worked for a time as a truck driver, longing to be an actor but with no success in breaking into the movies. A fortunate meeting with Hollywood talent scout Henry Willson in 1948 got Hudson his start in the business.

[edit] Early career

Hudson made his debut with a small part in the 1948 Warner Bros.‘ Fighter Squadron. Hudson needed no fewer than 38 takes before successfully delivering his only line^{[clarification needed]} in the film.^[3]

Hudson was further coached in acting, singing, dancing, fencing, and horseback riding, and he began to feature in film magazines where he was promoted, possibly on the basis of his good looks. Success and recognition came in 1954 with Magnificent Obsession in which Hudson plays a bad boy who is redeemed opposite the popular star Jane Wyman. The film received rave reviews, with Modern Screen Magazine citing Hudson as the most popular actor of the year. Hudson’s popularity soared with George Stevens‘s Giant, based on Edna Ferber‘s novel and co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. Hudson and Dean both were nominated for Oscars in the Best Actor category.

Following Richard Brooks‘ notable Something of Value (1957) was a moving performance in Charles Vidor‘s box office failure A Farewell to Arms, based on Ernest Hemingway‘s novel. In order to make A Farewell to Arms, he had reportedly turned down Marlon Brando‘s role in Sayonara, William Holden‘s role in The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Charlton Heston‘s role in Ben-Hur. Those films went on to become hugely successful and critically acclaimed, while A Farewell to Arms proved to be one of the biggest flops in cinema history.

Hudson sailed through the 1960s on a wave of romantic comedies. He portrayed humorous characters in Pillow Talk, the first of several profitable co-starring performances with Doris Day. This was followed by Lover Come Back, Come September, Send Me No Flowers, Man’s Favorite Sport?, The Spiral Road, and Strange Bedfellows, and along with Cary Grant was regarded as one of the best-dressed male stars in Hollywood, and received “Top 10 Stars of the Year” a record eight times from 1957 to 1964. He worked outside his usual range on the science-fiction thriller Seconds (1966). The film flopped but it later gained cult status, and Hudson’s performance is often regarded as one of his best.^[4][5] He also tried his hand in the action genre with Tobruk (1967), the lead in 1968’s spy thriller Ice Station Zebra, a role which he had actively sought and remained his personal favorite, and westerns with The Undefeated (1969) opposite John Wayne.

[edit] Later career

Hudson’s popularity on the big screen diminished after the 1960s. He starred in a number of made-for-TV movies. His most successful series was McMillan & Wife opposite Susan Saint James from 1971 to 1977. In it, Hudson played police commissioner Stewart “Mac” McMillan with Saint James as his wife Sally. Their on-screen chemistry helped make the show a hit.

In the early 1980s, following years of heavy drinking and smoking, Hudson began having health problems. Emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery in November 1981 sidelined Hudson and his new TV show The Devlin Connection for a year; the show was canceled not long after it returned to the air in December 1982. Hudson recovered from the surgery but continued to smoke. He was ill while filming The Ambassador in 1983 with Robert Mitchum. The two stars reportedly did not like each other, Mitchum himself having a serious drinking problem.^[6] A couple of years later, Hudson’s health grew worse, prompting different rumors.

From 1984 to 1985, Hudson landed a recurring role on the ABC prime time soap opera Dynasty as Daniel Reece, a love interest for Krystle Carrington (played by Linda Evans) and biological father of the character Sammy Jo Carrington (Heather Locklear). While he had long been known to have difficulty memorizing lines which resulted in his use of cue cards, on Dynasty it was Hudson’s speech itself that began to deteriorate. Hudson was originally slated to appear for the duration of the show’s 5th season, however, due to his progressing illness, his character was abruptly written out of the show and died offscreen.

[edit] Personal life

Hudson never publicly revealed any specifics regarding his sexuality. While Hudson’s career was blooming as he epitomized wholesome manliness, he and his agent Henry Willson kept his personal life out of the headlines. In 1955, Confidential magazine threatened to publish an exposé about Hudson’s secret homosexual life; Willson covered this by disclosing information about two of his other clients, in the form of Rory Calhoun‘s years in prison and the arrest of Tab Hunter at a gay party in 1950.

Soon afterward, Hudson married Willson’s secretary Phyllis Gates. In Gates’ 1987 autobiography My Husband, Rock Hudson, the book she wrote with veteran Hollywood chronicler Bob Thomas, Gates states that she dated Hudson for several months and lived with him for two months before his surprise marriage proposal. She claims to have married Hudson out of love and not, as it was later purported, to stave off a major exposure of Hudson’s sexual orientation. The news of the wedding was made known by all the major gossip magazines. One story, headlined “When Day Is Done, Heaven Is Waiting,” quoted Hudson as saying, “When I count my blessings, my marriage tops the list.” The union lasted three years; Gates filed for divorce in April 1958, charging mental cruelty. Hudson did not contest the divorce, and Gates received an alimony of US$250 a week for 10 years.^[7] After her death from lung cancer in January 2006, some informants reportedly stated that she was actually a lesbian who married Hudson for his money, knowing from the beginning of their relationship that he was gay.^[8] She never remarried.

According to the 1986 biography, Rock Hudson: His Story, by Hudson and Sara Davidson, Rock was good friends with American novelist Armistead Maupin and a few of Hudson’s lovers were: Jack Coates (born 1944); Hollywood publicist Tom Clark (1933–1995), who also later published a memoir about Hudson, Rock Hudson: Friend of Mine; and Marc Christian, who later won a suit against the Hudson estate. In Maupin’s Further Tales of the City, Michael Tolliver links up with a closeted macho icon referred to as Blank Blank, which has been interpreted as a thinly disguised caricature of Hudson.

The book, The Thin Thirty, by Shannon Ragland, chronicles Hudson’s involvement in a 1962 sex scandal at the University of Kentucky involving the football team. Ragland writes that Jim Barnett, a wrestling promoter, engaged in prostitution with members of the team, and that Hudson was one of Barnett’s customers.^[9]

A popular urban legend states that Hudson married Jim Nabors in the 1970s. The two, however, never had anything beyond a friendship; the legend originated with a group of “middle-aged homosexuals who live in Huntington Beach“, as Hudson put it, who would send out joke invitations for their annual get-together. One year, the group invited its members to witness “the marriage of Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors”; the punchline of the joke was that Hudson would take the name of Nabors’s most famous character, Gomer Pyle, and would henceforth be named “Rock Pyle“. Despite the obvious impossibility of such an event, the joke was lost on many, and the Hudson-Nabors marriage was, in a few circles, taken seriously. As a result of the false rumor, Nabors and Hudson never spoke to each other again.^[10]

[edit] AIDS and death

Hudson (left) with President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan at a White House state dinner, May 1984

In July 1985, Hudson joined his old friend Doris Day for the launch of her new TV cable show, Doris Day’s Best Friends. His gaunt appearance, and his nearly incoherent speech, were so shocking it was broadcast again all over the national news shows that night and for weeks to come. Day herself stared at him throughout their appearance.

Hudson had been diagnosed with HIV on June 5, 1984, but when the signs of illness became apparent, his publicity staff and doctors told the public he had inoperable liver cancer. It was not until July 25, 1985, while in Paris for treatment, that Hudson issued a press release announcing that he was dying of AIDS. In a later press release, Hudson speculated he might have contracted HIV through transfused blood from an infected donor during the multiple blood transfusions he received as part of his heart bypass procedure in 1981. Hudson flew back to Los Angeles on July 31, where he was so physically weak he was taken off by stretcher from an Air France Boeing 747, which he chartered and upon which he was the sole passenger, along with his medical attendants.^[11] He was flown by helicopter to Cedars Sinai Hospital, where he spent nearly a month undergoing further treatment. When the doctors told him there was no hope of saving his life, since the disease had progressed into the advanced stages, Hudson returned to his house, ‘The Castle’, in Beverly Hills, where he remained in seclusion until his death on October 2, 1985 at 08:37 PST.

After Hudson’s death, Doris Day, widely thought to be a close off-screen friend, said she never knew of Hudson engaging in any homosexual behaviour. Carol Burnett, who often worked on television and in live theatre with Hudson, was a staunch defender of her friend, telling an interviewer that she knew about his sexuality and did not care. As Morgan Fairchild said, “Rock Hudson’s death gave AIDS a face”.^[12]

Hudson was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea. Following his funeral, Marc Christian sued Hudson’s estate on grounds of “intentional infliction of emotional distress”.^[13] Christian tested negative for HIV but claimed Hudson continued having sex with him until February 1985, more than eight months after Hudson knew he had HIV. Hudson biographer Sara Davidson later stated that, by the time she had met Hudson, Christian was living in the guest house, and Tom Clark, who had allegedly been Hudson’s partner for many years before, was living in the house.^[14]

Following his death, Elizabeth Taylor, his co-star in the film Giant, purchased a bronze plaque for Hudson on the West Hollywood Memorial Walk.^[15]

Hudson was the subject of a play, Rock, by Tim Fountain starring Michael Xavier as Rock and Bette Bourne as his agent Henry Willson. It was staged at London’s Oval House Theatre in 2008.

Hudson was the subject of a play, “For Roy”, by Nambi E. Kelley starring Richard Henzel as Roy and Hannah Gomez as Caregiver. It was staged at American Theatre Company in Chicago in 2010.