Matthew Hunt, a longtime chief within the Los Angeles Police Division recognized for his disarming Irish accent and willingness to confront issues inside the division, together with publicly calling out his boss within the days after the unrest that adopted the acquittals of the officers concerned within the beating of Rodney King, died on Saturday. He was 91.
He died at his daughter’s residence in Rancho Palos Verdes of issues of most cancers, based on his son, Tom Hunt.
“He was forward of his time,” former Metropolis Councilmember and Police Chief Bernard C. Parks mentioned, praising Hunt for his dedication to making a extra numerous and clear division. “He was actually a stickler and spoke up and wasn’t shy about equity. Holding folks accountable, however pretty.”
Throughout his 31 years with the division — a trajectory that started with graduating valedictorian on the academy and led to him in the end being thought-about as a finalist for the division’s high job — Hunt rose to the rank of deputy chief. He spent a few years with the division working in South L.A., the place he extolled the significance of constructing relationships with residents.
“He was into the thought of group policing earlier than it was modern,” mentioned David O’Connell, who met Hunt within the late Eighties, when he was pastor at St. Frances X. Cabrini, a parish in South L.A.
O’Connell, now the regional auxiliary bishop of the San Gabriel Valley, added, “It wasn’t the tradition of the LAPD on the time, I'd say, however he knew it was the one approach ahead.”
Born Matthew Vincent Hunt in 1931, he grew up certainly one of 10 siblings raised in a two-bedroom condominium in Eire’s County Cork, the place his father labored as a policeman. To assist make ends meet, Hunt spent his summers selecting root greens and, at 14, he moved away from residence for an apprenticeship at a division retailer.
His missed his household and infrequently cried himself to sleep at night time, however finally discovered refuge in books. For the remainder of his life, he had an uncanny skill to recite passages of literature from reminiscence, typically rattling off stanzas of Shakespeare on command.
Throughout his time on the apprenticeship, he met Kathleen O’Donnell, whom he would marry a number of years later. After growing old out of the work-study program, he spent a while in London after which New York, the place Kathleen was working as a nanny. He bought a job as a salesman for a bread firm.
In hopes of dashing up the citizenship course of, he joined the Military and was stationed at FortBliss in El Paso, the place he bought his first up-close expertise with American racism. One night time, when he and some buddies went out for a drink, the bartender refused to serve the Black soldier of their group, Hunt later advised his son. Appalled, the buddies grabbed a six-pack and left, downing the beers on the roof of their barracks as an alternative. He by no means forgot the sound of his pal, the Black serviceman, crying as they drove again to the bottom.
He was later stationed at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro for lengthy sufficient to fall in love with Southern California. Within the early Sixties, not lengthy after getting married and turning into a citizen, he joined the Los Angeles Police Division. On the academy, he broke his leg whereas operating and a sergeant started taunting him, utilizing a derogatory time period for Irish folks whereas yelling at him and implying that he’d faked the damage to get out of coaching workout routines.
Later in his profession, Hunt helped oversee efforts to diversify the division, specializing in recruiting extra girls into the ranks, in addition to extra Black, Latino and Asian officers. Within the early Eighties, when Jim McDonnell, who years later turned L.A. County’s sheriff, was a rookie on the police drive, he seemed as much as Hunt as the kind of chief he hoped to be sometime: agency but honest, assured but humble.
“Somebody who would do the appropriate factor even when it wasn’t fashionable,” McDonnell mentioned in an interview.
The Instances wrote a profile of Hunt in 1992, characterizing him as a revered, however demanding chief who had earned help from many in South L.A., however had some detractors inside the division who felt he was too laborious on his officers.
The article detailed an incident from a number of months earlier, during which anofficer who had arrived to work with a Accomplice flag and a noose displayed on his pickup truck had initially averted an official reprimand. However Hunt later stepped in, suspending the officer for 5 days.
He bought a variety of flak from the police union on the time, his son recalled, in addition to a cellphone name from then-Chief Daryl Gates, questioning whether or not the punishment had been too extreme.
On the afternoon of April 29, 1992 — a few month after the profile of Hunt was revealed — 4 Los Angeles policemen on trial for King’s beating have been acquitted. The decision shocked the Southland and crowds packed onto a number of metropolis streets, however the flashpoint was at a single intersection in South L.A., which fell beneath Hunt’s supervision.
“I used to be going out of my thoughts,” he mentioned in an interview days later. “We have been simply not ready to take care of one thing with this magnitude in a really, very quick time.”
In that interview, he revealed that he had beforehand pressed Gates to dedicate extra consideration to making ready forward of the verdicts. However Gates had rebuffed him, he mentioned, in the end leaving the division ill-prepared. (An assistant chief on the time backed up Hunt’s account, saying in an interview, “It bought to the purpose the place it was considerably embarrassing as a result of Hunt saved hammering and the chief saved dismissing.”)
Hunt, who was amongst a number of finalists within the operating to succeed Gates, wasn’t in the end chosen for the highest job and retired not lengthy after in 1993. However for so long as he was on the job, he approached it with a sure cheeriness — “a contented warrior,” as Tom got here to think about his father.
He’d usually hear his dad’s alarm go off round 3 a.m., realizing he was leaving their West Covina residence and heading to work, usually not returning till round 6:30 p.m. Tom mentioned he as soon as requested his father if he minded the lengthy hours.
“I wouldn’t have it some other approach,” he responded. “I really like my job.”
When he was rising up, Tom mentioned, there was by no means an excessive amount of deal with enjoyable, however as an alternative on knowledge and laborious work. He nonetheless vividly remembers the recommendation his father gave him as an adolescent, when he bought his first job flipping burgers at Tastee-Freez: “Assume like an proprietor and also you’ll do the appropriate factor and make the appropriate choices.”
In recent times, Tom mentioned, his father had channeled his attribute man-on-a-mission vitality into his new function as caregiver, serving to take care of his spouse, Kathleen O’Donnell Hunt, who had Alzheimer’s illness and died in 2019.
He's survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Tom and Tammy Hunt; his daughter and son-in-law, Colleen and Michael Cotter; a number of siblings and his grandchildren, Katherine Hunt, Matthew Hunt, Claire Cotter and Tim Cotter.
For details about the memorial service, contact the household at rpvcotter@cox.internet.
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