former LAPD Top Cop Daryl F. Gates

photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Times

Love him or hate him, former LAPD Police Chief and Franklin High School alumni, Daryl F. Gates who rose from the ranks as the driver for legendary LAPD Chief William Parker to Top Cop himself in 1978 has passed away. A police "Cinderella" story starting at the absolute bottom and rising to the absolute top in his chosen profession, Chief Gates' passion for law enforcement is well noted in the annals Los Angeles history, despite the controversy that surrounded his 14 years as LAPD Police Chief. Spending 43 years with the LAPD, Chief Gates, who came up with the idea for SWAT which is now an instrumental section of any large metropolitan police force, was brash, effective, refused to be intimated but eventually "lost touch with a changing city". The Rodney King beating in March of 1991 and the subsequent riots a year later eventually led to his ultimate demise as police chief in June 1992. In today’s Los Angeles Times print edition, Chief Gates' obituary made it “above the fold” which is saying something about the legacy of Chief Gates.