The Question That Joined the Battle

If Jerry Dunphy didn’t ignite the mano a mano struggle between Mayor Tom Bradley and Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, he certainly helped it along.

March 19 was the date. Bradley was in Hawaii helping persuade the National Football League to play a Super Bowl in the Rose Bowl. Dunphy, KCAL Channel 9’s veteran anchor, was interviewing the mayor via satellite for the 10 p.m. broadcast, live from Kona.

The Rodney G. King case had taken a dramatic turn. Newly released police computer tapes revealed cops engaged in racist chatter. Bradley was under increasing pressure from L.A.’s liberal leadership, including blacks and Latinos, to demand Gates’ resignation. But the mayor so far had declined to do so, saying the decision was Gates’ and Gates’ alone.

Much of journalism is how you ask the question. Everyone had been asking Bradley whether Gates should go. Dunphy put a different spin on it.

If the Police Department’s policy on force is modified, he asked, if King is compensated and the guilty officers punished, “then why should Chief Gates leave?”

Much to Dunphy’s surprise, this time Bradley responded. “We have suffered a grievous harm and I think it will be years before that image is corrected,” he said. “In order for us to start that healing process, it is necessary to have some drastic changes and I think . . . it would help in that healing process if the chief retired.”

“We led him down the path,” Dunphy recalled for me this week, “and led him right into it.”

Down the path and directly into battle.

Knowing they had something, the KCAL news crew worked the story hard. KABC, picking up the KCAL quotes, did the same on its 11 p.m. news show. Seeing the way the story was developing, Bradley’s press secretary, Bill Chandler, called television stations and newspapers assuring them the mayor was not calling for Gates’ resignation.

“They tried to deny it,” said Dunphy. “But we played the tape back.”

The mayor’s words spoke for themselves, and the Bradley position was now clear: It was time for Gates to go. And now, if Gates did not go, it would represent a loss for Bradley. He could take cover no longer behind his limited mayoral powers: His political hide was on the line. The game had changed.

It was a complete reversal of form. A secret of the mayor’s long success had been his ability to avoid the fray. As Ira Reiner once put it, Tom Bradley never steps on the battlefield until it’s time to count the wounded.

In fact, the Bradley assault on Gates had been following the traditional pattern, with the mayor standing far above the bloodshed. No wonder the interview caused consternation for his aides.

Why did he do it?

One reason was the question. Politicians grow accustomed to hearing the same old questions. They give the same old answers, as if their minds were on automatic pilot. The reporter who phrases the question a bit differently sometimes gets the honest answer.

That’s what happened to Dunphy. It’s easy to make fun of Dunphy, who many believe was the inspiration for Ted Baxter, the not-so-smart and all-too-pompous anchor on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. He’s had lots of career setbacks, but Dunphy’s Irish face and thick white hair have been trademarks of L.A. TV news through the medium’s many transformations, and he’s still an anchor. In short, Dunphy is a survivor, and on this night he scored a coup.

But I think there was another reason why Bradley spoke out.

The text of the computer messages must have infuriated him. “Right out of ‘Gorillas in the Mist,’ ” said one officer, describing the scene at a black family’s home.

I can only guess at the impassive mayor’s personal reaction to the messages, just as I could only guess at his reaction to racist personnel reports written about him years ago when he was a black officer in a Los Angeles Police Department full of racism. I’d seen those reports and especially remember one written by a half-literate superior who clumsily invoked racial stereotypes in giving Bradley a bad rating.

Those memories inside the mayor are dynamite, just ready to be exploded. Dunphy struck the match.

In the background was the fact that Bradley was already prepared to escalate the attack, although not in that particular manner. “The reaction to the computer messages convinced the mayor to take another step,” said Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani, a key strategist in the campaign against Gates.

But the game was supposed to proceed carefully, according to the mayor’s timetable. It did, until Bradley heard the familiar voice of Jerry Dunphy, a man who’d interviewed him for more than a quarter-century. A familiar voice, asking the question in an unfamiliar way. The answer sent the mayor down an uncharted road, leading to a political destination as yet unknown.