Nation

HE'S LONG KNOWN OF RACISM IN L.A. POLICE, MAYOR SAYS

LOS ANGELES - Mayor Tom Bradley says he has long known about racism and brutality in the Police Department, but it took a videotaped beating of a black man by white officers to generate public support for reform.

"Without something of a dramatic fashion to hit the people squarely between the eyes, there was no way that you could convince the majority of the people in the city that these kinds of (abuses) happen," Bradley said in an interview.

The March 3 assault of motorist Rodney King brought political turmoil, capped this month by the release of a civilian panel's report that found police brutality and racism.

Bradley said he holds little hope that Police Chief Daryl Gates will make the panel's recommended reforms. He said Gates, who plans to retire next April, will have no role in selecting his successor.

CALIF. MAN HELD IN FAMILY KILLINGS

ST. LOUIS - A 26-year-old man whose parents and two younger brothers were found slain Friday was arrested on a murder warrant at his California home yesterday, officials said. Emory Futo Jr. was arrested in Rubidoux, Calif., about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, on a warrant issued in St. Louis, police said.

The bodies of Emory Futo, 53, and Euna Futo, 50, were found late Friday in their ransacked home, where police recovered at least two knives. Their son Joseph, 23, was found in a car parked two blocks away, and son Nick, 24, on a nearby cemetery road, police said.

The sons had been shot to death and the couple had been stabbed and possibly shot in what appeared to be a struggle, police said.

FOLEY FAVORS HOSTAGE-CASE PROBE

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Tom Foley said yesterday he tends toward approving this week a House investigation of an allegation that aides to former President Reagan held up release of U.S. hostages by Iran to aid Reagan's 1980 election. Foley said he would not order an investigation with a preconception that the allegation is true but only because "we need to have the rumors put to rest."

Foley, D-Wash., said he knew of no evidence that any Reagan campaign aides met with Iranians for the specific purpose of having them hold up release of hostages to prevent President Carter's re-election. But he said, "I think there's evidence that conversations took place, and I think we need to go further into the question."

OFFICIALS BACKED MARRED BANK

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department sought to keep the scandal-marred Bank of Credit and Commerce International operating in Florida last year so the department could use accounts for undercover operations, according to congressional documents released Friday.

House Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzalez, D-Texas, said he found it incredible that the department would pressure Florida Comptroller Gerald Lewis "to keep open a crime-infested financial institution." The attempt was unsuccessful. Lewis ordered BCCI to close its Florida operations in 1990 and seized $15 million of its assets after BCCI admitted laundering drug money through its Tampa office.

WILDER HITS BUSH, OTHER DEMOS

Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder yesterday delivered a fiery attack on President Bush and fellow Democrats and laid out the rationale for his likely 1992 presidential campaign.

Speaking in Miami, Wilder took to task not only Bush but also many "fiscal pretenders on the campaign trail" in his own party, including a pointed jab that appeared directed at a potential foe in the 1992 Democratic race - New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.

Wilder criticized "those who travel to Washington to deliver blistering speeches on fiscal responsibility but then return to their home states where they have blistered their own citizens with deficit spending and other fiscal torture."

POLL FAVORS WOMEN IN COMBAT

NEW YORK - Nearly eight of 10 Americans think women should be eligible for combat, according to a poll in Newsweek magazine.

Twenty-six percent of those polled said women should be given combat assignments on the same terms as men, and an additional 53 percent said they should be given combat assignments only if they ask for them. Eighteen percent said women should never be assigned to combat.

In the poll, 52 percent thought women should be assigned to ground combat units where soldiers must learn hand-to-hand fighting skills. Forty-four percent were opposed.