NEWS ANALYSIS : Latino Campaign Eludes 2 Camps in Charter Vote

With the election only six weeks away, activists on both sides of the campaign to reform the Los Angeles Police Department are grappling with how to woo the city’s Latino voters, who make up a small but possibly key segment of the electorate.

Although proponents of the June 2 ballot measure have lined up a host of Latino opinion-makers to spread the word in neighborhoods from Boyle Heights to South-Central Los Angeles, the effort has been marked by internal bickering over the best way to persuade Latino voters that Charter Amendment F is a “cosa buena. “

Meanwhile, the faction fighting the reforms, which hopes to have off-duty Latino police officers operate phone banks and walk precincts in East Los Angeles, has yet to hit the streets to enlist Latino business organizations and block clubs in its fund-raising efforts.

At stake is an ethnic group that represents 40% of the city’s population and 11% of its 1.3 million registered voters.

“The Hispanic community is up for grabs because it has mixed feelings about law enforcement,” said Julian Nava, a Cal State Northridge professor of history and former U.S. ambassador to Mexico who is against the reform measure. “Generally, Hispanics . . . rely on law enforcement as indispensable. However, areas of extreme poverty . . . are where police violence against Hispanics has been most common. Therein lies the problem facing both campaigns.”

The June 2 ballot measure--recommended by the Christopher Commission that investigated the LAPD in the wake of the police beating of Rodney G. King--would give City Hall officials greater authority to hire and fire police chiefs, and limit police chiefs to two five-year terms.

Nava’s group, Citizens for Integrity and Viability in the City Charter (CIVIC), contends the measure would politicize the Police Department. On Wednesday, however, Nava faulted his organization for being “slow in the Hispanic community in large part because of ignorance over how to work that community.”

In the other camp, activists charge that Citizens for Law Enforcement and Reform (CLEAR) has yet to open an office in East Los Angeles, produce bilingual literature or develop an effective approach to reaching voters with Spanish surnames.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina publicly chastised CLEAR and its leader, Christopher Commission Chairman Warren Christopher, for “failing to develop a Latino strategy.”

“The campaign forgot the Latino community, which is annoying,” said Molina, who was drafted by CLEAR to recruit Latino leaders for their cause. “I’m personally going to call Warren Christopher to get the resources we need and if they are not there, they’ll be taking their chances in the Latino community.”

The Latino question is not the only wild card in a campaign that must tailor strategies to deal with the city’s ethnic and geographical sensitivities. Campaign operatives on both sides concede that a message that works in South-Central Los Angeles may fall on deaf ears in the San Fernando Valley. And proponents of the charter amendment say that black and Latino voters may not respond to the same message, even though both groups have complained bitterly about police brutality.

With the some of the most vocal support coming from community leaders in South-Central Los Angeles, proponents want to make sure that their cause is not perceived as a “black issue.”

Latino activists’ sensitivity that their community is being left out of the campaign mix comes as Latino and African-American political leaders try to work out a power-sharing strategy for redistricting the Los Angeles City Council. At the same time, black and Latino tensions continue as a growing number of Latino activists charge that Latinos aren’t getting their fair share of government housing, jobs and contracts. And when Willie L. Williams, a black police official from Philadelphia, was picked to become the city’s next police chief, it reinforced a suspicion among some Latinos that the campaign for police reform is aimed at appeasing a black community in the wake of the King beating. In the Charter Amendment F fight, campaign strategists on both sides believe the Latino community is divided between loyalty to police and concerns about excessive force. The Christopher Commission report found that Latinos are more likely than blacks to be victims of police brutality. Still, many Latino residents and business owners in communities plagued by gang shootings and graffiti hold law enforcement officers in high regard.

“Our people want more police, but they also want to know they won’t get beaten up by police,” said Robert Alaniz, Molina’s chief aide. “Granted, our community has suffered from police abuse, but we don’t have a videotape of ‘Juan Sanchez’ being beaten up by cops.”

So far, the CLEAR campaign has produced two pieces of campaign literature, both of which are in English and begin with a computer transmission from the patrol car of two officers involved in the King beating: “I haven’t beaten anyone this bad in a long time.”

Gloria Romero, a member of the Hispanic Advisory Council to the Los Angeles Police Commission, said that kind of anti-police approach will only hurt the campaign in Latino communities, which require a message “worded so that it says the charter amendment will mean better policing.”

On the other side, plans are in the works to have off-duty police officers belonging to La Ley, an organization of 1,000 Latinos in the LAPD, go door-to-door with a message urging voters to turn down the reforms.

La Ley voted last week to join the powerful Police Protective League in opposing the measure.

Hank Sheinkopf, campaign strategist for the police union, said: “I am planning a concerted effort in the Latino community and La Ley will figure prominently in getting the word out.”

La Ley’s initial forays into the Latino community will aim to create a “coalition of influential leaders on the Eastside such as business leaders and professionals,” said La Ley President Detective Rick Barrera.

Today, Barrera plans to meet with leaders of NEWS for America, a coalition of 130 Mexican-American community organizations that has not taken an official position on the reforms. Barrera believes he may be able to gain support from the group, which was dismayed that no Latinos made the list of finalists to succeed Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

Next week, Barrera hopes to meet with the Latino Business Assn., which also has remained neutral on the police reforms issue.

Association official Ruben Jauregui said it was not clear how Barrera’s pitch would go over.

“There is a certain degree of sentiment in our community that rightly or wrongly believes this measure did not evolve as a Latino issue,” Jauregui said. “Meanwhile, redistricting, immigration and many Latino candidates running for a number of offices have become bigger issues.”

Boyle Heights attorney Jose Castorena, whose office overlooks the bustling corner of Brooklyn Avenue and Soto Street, has decided not to wait for the official campaigns to arrive in his neighborhood.

On Monday, Castorena dusted off a file with the names, telephone numbers and addresses of 100 Latino leaders who live and work east of downtown to receive a “special newsletter from me urging that they vote for the police reforms.”

“If we don’t get busy hitting the Latino community on this issue, they’ll stay home or believe the opponents,” he said. “It’s essential that we get the troops out here going door-to-door. The Latino community could be the key vote, but it still needs to be persuaded.”