"I would amend Rodney King's lament to say we must all get along and we must get a move on healing a judicial system crippled by racism and sexism," said Ireland. "We need a sure cure for both the Mark Fuhrmans of this world and for the nameless, faceless law enforcement officials who fail to respond effectively to wife beating.

"Affirmative action to put more African Americans and women in the LAPD would begin to end these problems," she said. "The Christopher Commission recommended more women, the city council mandated it and it's what has to happen."

NOW has launched a telephone campaign designed to lobby congressional conferees to restore funding cut from the new Violence Against Women Act. The cuts would reduce programs to train police and judges and reduce funding for shelters where frightened and injured women turn for help. NOW is also launching a public pressure campaign to force the L.A. City Council to curb both the racism and sexism evident in the LAPD.

NOW has been deluged with phone calls based on highly publicized comments by the president of one of NOW's largest chapters. National NOW leaders want to reaffirm the organization's strong commitment to ending violence and slurs based on both race and gender.

"L.A. NOW President Tammy Bruce is expressing the anger many people feel over any attempt to lionize a celebrity who admitted to and was convicted of wife beating," she said. "Nationally, our organization is equally outraged at Mark Fuhrman's slurs and the larger legacy of LAPD's racism and sexism. This is the same department involved in the brutal attack on Rodney King. And it is a department under an order to hire more women as a means to reduce police violence.

"Women have little faith that the system will protect us," Ireland said. "And people of color have no confidence that the system will treat them fairly either. It's time for us to unite in calling for radical change in our criminal justice system.

"We need to be alert to the fact that our enemies are eager to use the Simpson case as a wedge that will divide and conquer us," said Ireland. She cited supporters of an anti-affirmative action initiative in California who encouraged people who disagreed with the verdict to sign their petitions and vote against affirmative action. Ireland said, "That sort of race-baiting is not only deplorable -- it is immoral. As feminists, we must stand against it."

Ireland is in California this week and next as part of NOW's efforts to defeat that affirmative action ballot initiative.