Chief Gates Speaks About His Legacy In 2009 Interview

Former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates talks about the Rodney King incident, the consent decree, police-chief politics, his decision to eliminate hats in the department's uniform policy, and his comment to a reporter about the carotid restraint that caused controversy during a May 2009 interview with Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison.

In the interview, Gates calls the Christopher Commission that recommended reforms following the King incident and riots that followed "perhaps the biggest fraud that's ever been perpetrated on this city" that were designed to "get rid of me."

Gates also explains that the newspaper didn't accurately quote him about using the carotid restraint on blacks. After criticism about the restraint causing injury or sometimes death, Gates was quoted as saying, "We may be finding in some blacks that when it is applied, the veins or arteries do not open up as fast as on normal people."

Read the full interview.