was plagued by attitudes rooted in the past. The ensuing outcry set the stage for Yaroslavsky to prevail in his five-year effort to win passage of a local freedom of information act, which was strongly opposed by police officials who argued that it would be "stupid" to tell a potential "terrorist" whether the department had a file on him. One assistant chief accused the councilman of a "lack of integrity." Although the council majority weakened the final ordinance under pressure from the department, Yaroslavsky and the American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued the LAPD, proclaimed victory nonetheless. "It's not as strong as I wanted it to be," Yaroslavsky said, "but it could have been a lot weaker." The ACLU suit was settled in 1984, with the City of Los Angeles agreeing to pay $1.8 million to 131 plaintiffs and to establish more rigorous controls over future intelligence-gathering activities. As chairman of the council's powerful Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee, Yaroslavsky also was highly critical of the LAPD's use of choke holds, which had been linked to more than a dozen deaths of suspects in Los Angeles police custody during a three-year period in the early 1980s. Yaroslavsky and his committee initially negotiated new guidelines for use of the technique, aimed at subduing suspects by either choking off air supply or blocking the flow of blood to the brain, causing unconsciousness. But by the end of 1982, with controversy continuing, Yaroslavsky argued that a moratorium on chokeholds imposed by the civilian Police Commission should be made permanent. Other RFK assassination, 1975. Yaroslavsky submitted a successful resolution to the council creating an ad hoc investigative group that was to review the police and other official investigations into the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Bakery prices, 1977. He offered a resolution that would have required bakeries to post the prices of their goods. Olympics, 1978. Yaroslavsky and Councilman Bob Ronka were known as the "most active . . . skeptics" in working to protect the city from potentially incurring "massive security costs" that the two believed should be shouldered by the private Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in staging the 1984 Olympic Games. Skokie. As a councilman, Yaroslavsky announced that he would go to Skokie, Illinois, in June 1978 to attend a rally protesting a planned march by American Nazis through the heavily Jewish Chicago suburb. He called