Officers Steer Clear of ‘Mobsters’ Promotion : Law enforcement: Video-store owner says he wants to honor the police. But they take offense at the movie connection.

Northridge video-store manager Daniel Hobbit said all he and other merchants wanted to do was to show their appreciation to the Los Angeles Police Department. The elaborate tribute scheduled for today, he said, would have “everything.”

Everything, that is, except the LAPD.

Police officials are staying away from Hobbit’s event, calling it a blatant attempt to hype Hobbit’s store and “Mobsters,” a 1991 Universal Studios film just released on videotape.

The main attraction for the tribute, scheduled for 4 p.m. in the Lucky’s market parking lot at Devonshire Street and Reseda Boulevard, is a professional stunt show depicting a mobsters shootout, climaxed by a stuntman falling 125 feet from a platform after being “shot.”

“The whole focus is this ‘Mobsters’ video and the ‘Mobsters’ shootout, not the Police Department,” Sgt. Dennis Zine said Saturday.

Zine said Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, officers from the Devonshire Division and other city officials were planning to attend the event until they learned of the connection to the video.

“This is a sham,” said Zine, spokesman for the Police Department in the San Fernando Valley. “He was trying to embarrass us by linking us to this mobster theme. We don’t need that kind of recognition.”

But Hobbit, who gained some notoriety last year when he filed a $100,000 lawsuit alleging that a Hollywood production company had damaged his videotape of a ghost, insisted that Zine was mistaken.

“We told him we wanted to say thank you to the police, but he refused to listen to us,” Hobbit said. “I’m very, very upset and disappointed. Our intentions are serious and sincere. We have some very nice plaques to present. We have a crippled-children’s choir singing. They’ll be so upset when their heroes don’t show up.”

He added that the stunt show was the perfect vehicle for a salute to the police. “It’s about officers battling 1930s mobsters and modern-day gangsters. We show the good guys shooting the bad guys, and the bad guys get it in the end. Zine said it was just glorifying violence.”

However, Hobbit acknowledged that the event was indeed originally planned as a promotion for “Mobsters.”

Universal Studios gave the store $1,000 to pay for renting antique automobiles from the 1930s and other promotional activities. A flyer that was distributed two weeks ago advertised the giveaway of a “Mobster Night on the Town”--an all-expense-paid, chauffeured ride in an original John Dillinger gangster car. Also included: dinner for two at a fine Italian restaurant, and movie of the winner’s choice.

Five miniature versions of the “Mobsters” poster were also on the flyer. The Police Department was not mentioned.

Zine said that when Hobbit told him about the tribute last week, he never mentioned the tie-in to the film. “He just said the merchants wanted to say thank you to the police. It sounded like a good idea. I told him we would be there.”

A reporter showed Zine the flyer a few days later.

“Chief Kroeker was embarrassed by that flyer,” Zine said. “He said modern-day gang members are like mobsters. We will not be associated with this. This guy just flat-out deceived me.”

But the show will go on, Hobbit insisted, saying he still hoped the officers will show up.

“I hope they don’t disappoint the people who want to thank them so much,” Hobbit said. “I just feel this is all the misunderstanding of one gentleman, and I’m not going to let it ruin our event. We’ll present this plaque to someone, even if we have to flag a patrol car down.”