L.A. panel orders inquiry on police chief's remarks

A Los Angeles Police Commission ordered an investigation of allegedly racist remarks by Police Chief Daryl Gates. The commission also voted a ban on police use of the bar-arm control hold and a six-month moratorium on the use of the carotid choke hold except in life-threatening situations.

The furor over Chief Gates, previously criticized for making insensitive remarks, began last week when he told a newspaper some blacks might be more physiologically prone to death from choke holds than ''normal people.''

Choke holds are blamed for the deaths of 16 people -- 12 of them black -- in Los Angeles since 1975.