A Debate Line About Daryl Gates Puts Bass and Raman at Odds

A single sentence about a police chief who left office in 1992 has become a flashpoint in the Los Angeles mayoral runoff.

At an NBC4/Telemundo 52 debate on Tuesday, Oct. 13, City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is challenging Mayor Karen Bass in the Nov. 3 runoff, said: "This city used to be the gold standard in terms of noncooperation with immigration enforcement years ago, under the era of Daryl Gates." Bass has since demanded that Raman retract the remark and apologize. Raman says Bass twisted her words.

The dispute may be widening. A headline from the New York Post, dated Oct. 17, says actress Anne-Marie Johnson demands that Raman apologize. Patriot Daily Wire could not read the article, so what Johnson said, where she said it, and whether she has any tie to the Bass campaign all remain unconfirmed.

Bass Brings in Black Community Leaders

On Thursday, Oct. 15, Bass held a news conference at her campaign headquarters, joined by about two dozen Black community leaders, the Los Angeles Times reported. She called the portrayal of Gates as a gold standard for Latino residents "a lie."

"My opponent is not really familiar with L.A., especially the Black community," Bass said, according to the Times. Westside Current and MyNewsLA, in search listings we saw but did not read in full, indicate she also noted that Raman has lived in Los Angeles 13 years and served almost seven on the City Council.

Bass said she founded the nonprofit Community Coalition in 1990 to push back on what she described as Gates' weekend mass arrests in South Los Angeles. Gates ran the LAPD from 1978 to 1992 and resigned amid criticism over police abuse and the department's slow response to the riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.

Raman Says She Meant Special Order 40

Raman responded with a roughly one-minute video posted to YouTube. MyNewsLA, in a listing we saw only in part, quotes her as saying: "Daryl Gates was an abhorrent and racist police chief." That quote has not been checked against the video itself.

Raman says she was praising a policy, not the man. Special Order 40, issued in 1979 under Gates, bars LAPD officers from stopping people solely to check immigration status. Raman cited a Times report that the LAPD sent booking fingerprints to a national database that ICE can access.

The history is mixed. The Times noted that in 2008, Gates told the City Council that officers should notify immigration authorities if they believe an arrestee is undocumented. "That's in Special Order 40," he said.

The LAPD Says Nothing Has Changed

Whether the LAPD cooperates with ICE is disputed. Raman points to reports of cooperation. An LAPD spokesperson told the Times that Special Order 40 has never been rewritten or rescinded and that officers do not engage in civil immigration enforcement. Dean Gialamas, commanding officer of the LAPD's IT Bureau, said the department has found no evidence its license-plate-reader data went to immigration agencies.

Where the Runoff Stands

Bass is seeking a second term and was forced into a runoff with Raman in the June 2 primary. Raman backed a 2024 law barring city workers from taking part in federal immigration enforcement. An anti-Raman account, @noshownithya, posted on X on Oct. 14 calling her "naive and unprepared."

Bass says Raman romanticized Gates. Raman says she was praising Special Order 40 and has condemned Gates' record. Raman has not retracted the remark or apologized, as far as the notes show. Still to come: Johnson's actual words, any further surrogate attacks, and any additional debates or polling before the Nov. 3 vote.