The Political and Personal Tension between Tom Bradley and Daryl Gates

Los Angeles in the early 1990\u27s was a virgining metropolis, boasting of its diversity of a world city posed to be the gateway of the pacific. Los Angeles was home to over a 100 ethnicities from all points of the globe; it was perceived to be the international city that was going to lead America into the 21st century. 1 The city\u27s pictureous landscape of beautiful sky scrapers, however hid dangerous social and racial fault lines. In only a matter of time tensions would boil over, and two key political figures, Los Angeles Police Chief, Daryl Gates and Mayor of Los Angles, Tom Bradley would clash over what was the right thing to do. They had a rocky relationship, and people have often speculated that Gates perceived Bradley as a political show boat that never really supported the police. Others have conjectured that Bradley never liked Gates from the start, that Gates was the last person Bradley wanted as the police chief. Yet no one would have ever predicted the political storm that was about to happen