Willie Williams Still Seeks Turf L.a. Is Not Philadelphia. That Makes The Police Chief An Outsider.

LOS ANGELES — Police Chief Willie Williams, weary and unsmiling, stepped to the lectern, offered praise for his officers, made a weak joke about recruitment, and sat back down.

The applause that greeted him at the Wilshire Chamber of Commerce luncheon was brief.

In this city, the cheers may not have ended for the man brought here to be a savior, but they have surely died down.

Continuing tumult over accusations that one of the nation's best-known police officers accepted free hotel rooms in Las Vegas - and then lied about it to the governing Police Commission - has damaged his stature and raised doubts that he will be appointed to a second five-year term.

"It seems pretty obvious he's not going to be around much longer," said attorney Harland Braun, who defended one of the officers accused in the Rodney King beating, which ultimately led the city to seek a new chief. "He's an outsider from Philadelphia. And he's black. So everyone's gunning for him."

When he arrived three years ago, just after the King trial and its subsequent, bloody rioting, people on the street clapped when they saw him, and many wondered if he would run for mayor.

Now, despite his overwhelming popularity among most city residents, they wonder if he can keep his job.

"These thugs out here are after him - West Coast thugs," seethed City Councilman Nate Holden, a Williams ally. "It's the most damaging thing you can do to the city of Los Angeles - say the police chief lied."

The Police Commission - Williams' civilian bosses - officially reprimanded him in May. Mayor Richard Riordan, a millionaire businessman who seems to find it easy to contain his praise of Williams, upheld the discipline.

But the ethnically diverse City Council then voted, 12-1, to overturn the reprimand - without reading the investigative report on which it was based.

Williams, Philadelphia's former police commissioner, said his honor and good name had been restored.

"I will continue to run the LAPD, do the job of chief of police the way the men and women of my organization and my community expect," Williams said during a news conference.