Fuhrman Tapes Revive Brutality Issue Descriptions Of Police Beating Minorities, Even If Fictional, Give Department A Black Eye

The 1978 police brutality case had been open and shut, and it was only a vague recollection for most of the Latino immigrants in the gritty Boyle Heights housing project.

Until last week, people recalled only that two officers were shot trying to break up a fight. Then four suspects were beaten severely by police. An investigation eventually cleared 16 officers of charges they had used excessive force.

Now, however, the barrio beatings are drawing attention no one could have imagined 17 years ago. And the details could have a profound impact on the Los Angeles Police Department and how justice and order are maintained in this racially divided city.

Former Detective Mark Fuhrman’s bigoted boasting into a screenwriter’s tape recorder about an incident strikingly similar to the housing project beating is threatening to blow open the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial.

The gory tale and other inflammatory rhetoric by Fuhrman, who is now retired and living in Sandpoint, have become a public relations disaster for Los Angeles officials trying to convince the public that the city’s police force is ridding itself of racism and brutality.

On the tapes, which were leaked to reporters, Fuhrman says officers “basically tortured” the Hispanic suspects until their faces were “mush” and blood spattered the walls. Then the officers lied to cover up their actions, he said.

The Simpson jury soon may get to decide for itself whether Fuhrman’s remarks are merely bluff and bluster, as his lawyer claims. But people are asking how someone with such a mindset could remain on the force and be assigned to the highest-profile murder case in the city’s history.

“It’s appalling, the things that came out of that guy’s mouth,” said Frank Villalobos, a Boyle Heights activist. “If that’s what he’s thinking, he shouldn’t be on the force. They’ve got to do something about their bad people.”

Police Chief Willie Williams, whose No. 1 priority has been reforming the department’s beleaguered image, launched an effort at damage control last week.

With news conferences and national TV appearances, he condemned Fuhrman’s remarks as “reprehensible.” He ordered a re-examination of the Boyle Heights case and he attended precinct briefing sessions to hammer home the message that such attitudes will not be tolerated.

“We are not racist,” the chief said Wednesday in a taped message to his officers. “We do not condone (discrimination). We do not accept it. We will not tolerate it. We must stand up and say enough of this nonsense.”

Judge Lance Ito is scheduled to rule this week whether the jury will hear 60 tape excerpts, which Simpson attorneys say will show Fuhrman to be a corrupt bigot and liar capable of planting evidence to frame Simpson.

Fuhrman is the detective who found the bloody glove at Simpson’s estate.

The Fuhrman tapes surfaced when public confidence in the city’s police department has improved somewhat, although suspicions and resentments still smolder in black and Hispanic communities over a long history of alleged police abuse.

Officials have tried to diversify and retrain the force since the notorious Rodney King beating in 1991. There are more female and minority officers, tougher discipline and peer pressure has reduced discrimination, and complaints about misconduct are down in some respects, such as the excessive use of police dogs.

Yet the force still is criticized for the slow pace of reform. A group of black officers recently sued the department, condemning what they called an overtly racist atmosphere in one division.

And now the Fuhrman tapes may give the community a firsthand account of whether the racist attitudes that once pervaded the department still persist. Longtime critics say they were hardly shocked.

“The only surprising thing about the Fuhrman tapes is the arrogance of the guy putting it on tape,” said Robert Mann, an attorney with Police Watch, which monitors police misconduct. “Racism is not going to go away overnight, least of all in the Los Angeles Police Department. “