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Last month Williams promised a "full biopsy" of Fuhrman's career and said the department had added 100 officers to the infamous "problem" list. After two days in which the L.A.P.D. failed to produce any such names, however, Williams admitted that there was no active list, just "a continuing review from time to time." The admission led some to wonder whether the Fuhrman biopsy will be any more real. If it does uncover hard evidence of beatings by Fuhrman and others, the department will be only too happy to bring charges. "This guy is despicable; we're all in agreement about that," Lieut. John Dunkin told TIME. Fuhrman, who has retired and moved to Idaho, also faces possible perjury prosecution by L.A. District Attorney Gil Garcetti, whose career prospects may be dimmed by the Simpson acquittal. Privately, civil rights leaders say, Garcetti has promised to go after Fuhrman to the fullest extent of the law.
That won't be enough to reassure the city's black community that the L.A.P.D. will ever change. Williams, who has two years left on his contract, needs to show new managerial muscle if he hopes to be back for a second term. The local police union remains an obstacle to reform, keeping rogues on the job and resisting residency requirements--and cash incentives for in-town living--that could foster understanding between cops and community. Minority recruitment has improved, but women make up just 15% of the force. Good ole boys still run the show.
At a police commission meeting at a South Central school in late August, Williams and the rest of the L.A.P.D. brass took turns expressing their shock over the Fuhrman tapes and "zero tolerance" for his ilk. A woman named Rosilyn Clayton rose from the crowd. "How dare you sit up there and be outraged and horrified?" said Clayton, who had filed a formal complaint against Fuhrman in 1994. "How dare you be surprised? You knew what he was doing." Now, of course, the world knows what he was doing--and the L.A.P.D. can never again pretend to be shocked.
--Reported by Jordan Bonfante and Sylvester Monroe/Los Angeles