In fear of `AmeriKKKan justice' // Violence, a sense of disbelief

Haya El Nasser;Sally Ann Stewart

04/30/1992

USA Today

FINAL

Page 03A

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - A city already jarred by a videotaped beating of a

motorist was shaken again Wednesday by a verdict acquitting the police officers

shown beating him.

``This is a modern-day lynching,'' said Compton City Councilwoman Patricia

Moore, who came to hear the verdict.

The courtroom was silent as the words ``not guilty'' rang out for the four

defendants.

Leanne and Lynne Powell, sisters of defendant Laurence Powell, held hands and

cried. Niles Alvino, a union contract negotiator, walked out after he heard the

first verdict. Others in the courtroom stared at each in obvious disbelief.

Across the nation, black leaders likened the verdict to days of slavery. And some

said it proved equal justice under the law is just a fancy phrase when it comes to

black people.

``I'm reminded of the Dred Scott decision of 1857 which said that black people

had no rights which white people were bound to respect,'' said Joseph Lowery,

president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta. ``And

that's what this jury said.''

Outside the courthouse, 35 miles from Los Angeles, emotional, mostly young

and mostly white crowds hurled insults at some of the defendants as they filed

out through a gauntlet of police guards.

``How can you look at that video and justify that verdict,'' screamed Sandy

Martinez, 28, an accountant from Chino.

``There were five use-of-force experts and even they couldn't agree what to do,''

Kahlil Williams, 19, responded.

Don Jones, 54, a retired Alaskan oil field construction worker, drove from

Gettysburg, Pa., to sit in the courtroom daily.

``I would have gone with the video because I have good eyesight,'' said Jones,

who slept in his truck since the trial began more two months ago. ``Ray Charles

could see that video.''

Others, including Randy Christensen, watched the verdict at home and came

rushing here with signs reading: ``AmeriKKKan Justice.''

``The American government is with the Klan,'' he said.

Word of the stunning verdicts spread through Los Angeles - a city that has been

rocked by charges of racism and bitter political infighting since the March 3,

1991, beating of Rodney King.

In Altadena, where King lives, people were not just angry but afraid.

``There's no justice for the black community,'' said Curtis Felton, 41. ``Now that

they got the license to do it, everybody is scared for their lives.''

Ollie Jones, who is black, said, ``I'm a marked man and I have been since Day

One.''

Linda Johnson Phillips burst into tears as she heard the verdicts and worried how

to tell her 12-year-old son.

``I can't tell my son. I don't know the words. I want him to believe everyone will

treat you equally,'' she said.

``I'm trying to stop crying but I can't,'' said Harriett Mack, the wife of John

Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League, who watched the verdict

alone at home. ``I'm just disgusted. ... It's sick.''

``They should have no right to beat anyone like that - black or white,'' said

Sharlene Gayles, 21, a restaurant manager. ``There's no way you can explain to

me ... they had a right to do what they did.''

But the almost-all-white, six-man, six-woman jury has spoken and ``this city just

became in an instant far more polarized than any of us could ever have dreamed

about,'' says trial commentator Cynthia McClain-Hill.

Local leaders moved quickly to try to soothe raw emotions and suppress violent

rioting.

More than 2,000 people jammed the First African Methodist Episcopal Church -

the city's oldest black church - for a rally planned days ago in anticipation of the

verdict.

Church and civil rights leaders urged parishioners to stay calm and channel their

energies into pushing for police reform and to show their anger at the voting

booth.

A reform proposal, which would give the mayor-appointed Police Commission

more control over the LAPD and limit the term of the police chief, is on the June

2 ballot.

The verdicts reverberated throughout the country.

- ``We will not roll over this time,'' declared Mary Collins, president of the

Rialto/Fontana, Calif., branch of the NAACP. ``Not any more.''

- ``I'm deeply disappointed,'' said Rep. John Conyers, Jr., D-Mich. ``This

decision will cause so many people to lose faith in the judicial system. It says (to

blacks), `Your rights can be trampled on.' ''

- In Chicago, black activist Lu Palmer said he feared the worst. ``This may blow

over, but you can only take so much and then you explode. This may be the

point.''

- And in New York, Mayor David Dinkins said, ``Notwithstanding today's

verdict, what happened on a California highway late one night to Rodney King

ought not to happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.''

Contributing: Jonathan T. Lovitt , Melanie Neff, Mimi Hall, Carol J. Castaneda,

Gary Fields, Bruce Frankel, Kevin Johnson, John Larrabee, Deborah Sharp, Tom

Watson.

CUTLINE:VIDEO SEEN AROUND THE NATION: The March 1991 beating of

Rodney King was captured on video by an amateur cameraman. CUTLINE:AT

POLICE HEADQUARTERS: Demonstrators protest the acquittal of officers in

the beating of motorist Rodney King.

PHOTO;b/w,George Holliday,KTLA-TV via AP;PHOTO;b/w,Bob Riha

Jr.,Gamma Liaison