Gates Urges Troops to Support Williams in Taped Farewell : LAPD: Chief is cheerful in his last video message to officers before retiring Sunday. He says he is leaving with ‘no anger, no bitterness.’

In an upbeat videotaped farewell message to his troops, departing Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates urges the officers he has commanded for the past 14 years to support his successor and says he has high hopes that the change in leadership will help improve morale on the beleaguered force.

“You’re going to have a new administration, and I want you to support Willie Williams,” Gates says, referring to the former Philadelphia police commissioner who will be sworn in as chief Tuesday. “I want you to get behind him, wholeheartedly behind him as you have with me.

“I think it’s going to be a good time,” Gates continues. “I think the media’s going to back off of you to some degree. I think there’s going to be a honeymoon. I think some of the loudmouth activists out there are going to quiet a little bit. . . . And I think we can pull out of this malaise that has been with us this past year.”

Gates retires Sunday after a tumultuous 16 months that began with the police beating of Rodney G. King in March, 1991, and flared anew with the Los Angeles riots. His 15-minute message, which was to be played at police roll calls Thursday afternoon and today, offered a blend of sentiment and advice.

The tape opens with a bit of nostalgia: scenes from each of Gates’ year-end videotapes. As the years roll by, the chief’s hair turns from brown to gray. But nearly every address begins with the same salutation: “Howdy.” In his most recent taped message, Gates, dressed in a beige blazer, white shirt and red-white-and-blue tie, is smiling throughout.

He reminds officers for one last time of their mission to “protect and serve,” and tells them yet again to wear the LAPD badge with dignity and pride. He thanks them for the rousing retirement party they gave him Tuesday at the Police Academy, and pledges that although he will not be seen at police headquarters, he will not fade into the background.

“I’m not retiring at all,” he says, noting that he has speaking engagements lined up. “I have a lot to say and I’d like to say it.”

Noting that many of the attacks on the department have been directed at him personally, Gates says: “I suppose that the politicians probably get a little tired when I tell them, ‘Screw them all.’ Those are comments that I’m sure you will not hear from Chief Williams and that’s good,” he adds, smiling, “because quite frankly that irritates a lot of people out there.”

Despite the criticism that has been heaped on him and his department since the King beating, Gates says that after 43 years with the LAPD, he does not leave an angry man.

“I’ve had people tell me: ‘Boy, chief, you have a right to be angry.’ I keep saying: ‘What right do I have to be angry? Why would I be angry?’ This has been a wonderful, wonderful trip. Forty-three years. I have enjoyed every single moment.

“No anger. No bitterness. Only God knows how much I love you and how much I think of you and how much I will continue to think of you. I will be reading about you in the newspapers and I am confident that I’m going to read all that is good.”

His final words are these: “Serve Willie Williams well. Thank you very much.”