John Mack, LA civic leader and a prominent voice on police reform, dies at 81
LOS ANGELES_When John Mack arrived in Los Angeles in 1969 as a rising civil rights figure, he plunged into work on behalf of the city's minorities and working class.
It was a struggle in a city that had just experienced the devastating 1965 Watts riots and where many black residents faced serious mistreatment at the hands of the police.
Over an extraordinary career that spanned decades, Mack helped lead the city past the infamous Rodney King beating and 1992 riots and later transformed himself into what one admirer called the "consummate inside agitator," helping to oversee reform of the Los Angeles Police Department. In his fight for civil rights, he described himself as a "sane militant."
Mack, who rose to become one of L.A.'s most influential black figures during his long tenure running the
