The State - News from July 19, 1989

Anti-abortion activists and Republican state legislators who support them accused police in Los Angeles and other California cities of brutality in breaking up their blockades of abortion clinics. They charged that the cities use a policy of “pain compliance,” endorsed by city governments, to arrest demonstrators and demanded an investigation by Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp. “It’s about police brutality,” Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) told a Sacramento news conference. “They have been brutalizing peaceful, passive demonstrators. He (Van de Kamp) is the chief law enforcement officer for the state. He should be interested.” In addition to Los Angeles, Ferguson charged that police used undue force to remove demonstrators blocking entry into abortion and family planning clinics in San Diego, Sacramento, Santa Cruz and Chico.