Gates spent 43 years with the Los Angeles Police Department. He won praise for his initiatives to improve the force’s effectiveness and the success of the 1984 Olympics burnished Gates’ image. But his combative style alienated many.
On the second day of the rioting , flames overtake a Jon’s supermarket. The building, which was at 3rd Street and Normandie Avenue, had been looted before the blaze was started.
Gates visits a National Guard post at Figueroa Street and Vernon Avenue during the L.A. riots in 1992. Rioting erupted after a jury acquitted four officers in the King beating. The violence left at least 53 dead.
After his retirement, Gates became a talk show host on radio station KFI-AM. He defended the verdicts in the Rodney King beating trial and blasted the federal indictments of four officers.
Gates attends the swearing-in of Bernard C. Parks as police chief in 1997. After retiring, Gates would turn up at smaller LAPD-related events, where he drew extended applause from loyalists. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
