Leaders Appeal for Calm After King Verdict : Trial: Impassioned pleas are made to stay cool no matter what happens in the case involving four LAPD officers. Church plans a solidarity rally.

The Rev. Cecil L. Murray took out a white handkerchief, wiped the sweat off his brow and thundered at his congregation in a deep baritone befitting of the pastor of Los Angeles’ oldest and perhaps most politically active black church.

“Be cool,” Murray implored. “Even in anger be cool. And if you’re gonna burn something down, don’t burn down the house of the victims, brother! Burn down the Legislature! Burn down the courtroom!

“Burn it down by voting, brother! Burn it down by standing with us at Parker Center, brother! Burn it down by saying to Daryl Gates: ‘This far, and no farther!’ ”

His words were an appeal for calm, an attempt to keep tempers quiet on the night that a verdict is delivered in the case of four white Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of black motorist Rodney G. King. As he spoke, a jury deliberated in a small courthouse 37 miles away from the First African Methodist Episcopal Church where Murray preaches. The jury adjourned Sunday afternoon and will continue deliberating today.

Back in Los Angeles, the pastor’s Sunday sermon was not crafted in a vacuum.

Rather, his remarks were part of a highly organized campaign being waged by city officials and community leaders to ensure that tranquillity will reign in the City of Angels no matter what happens in the Simi Valley courtroom where Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officers Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Theodore J. Briseno have been on trial for the past three months.

“Our goals are quite simple,” said Joseph Duff, president of the Los Angeles National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “We don’t want the community to set itself back like we were set back in 1965 (during the Watts riots). That’s our overall goal. We know that people are going to be concerned and outraged (if there is an acquittal), and we want them to be constructive in their outrage.”

To that end, there will be a rally at the First A.M.E. Church on the night the verdict comes in. It will feature Murray and other Los Angeles ministers, Duff and fellow civil rights leaders, three City Council members, Mayor Tom Bradley and Los Angeles Police Chief-designate Willie L. Williams, who will replace Daryl F. Gates when the chief retires.

“If the verdict is just,” Murray said after the service, “we must ask: ‘Where do we go from here?’ If the verdict is unjust, we must ask: ‘Where do we go from here, and how do we maintain stability? . . . It’s a very explosive issue, and it would only take one or two hotheads and some overreactions by the police powers, and there we go.”

It is not unlike Murray to use his pulpit to talk about such issues. With their spirited atmosphere and joyous, foot-stomping gospel music, Sundays at the church routinely offer a blend of religion and politics. Murray, adorned in his black robe and multicolored African shawl, is wont to talk about education, gang violence, teen-age pregnancy and other matters of importance to his community.

As usual, Sunday’s sermon was laced with these themes. But its most powerful moment came as the pastor tapped into his congregation’s lingering anger over last year’s videotaped beating of King.

“The defense attorneys,” he roared, “are trying to convince us that we didn’t see what we thought we saw on that video. I don’t know what you saw, but I saw a man being brutalized! I saw an unarmed man being brutalized! I saw an unarmed, prostrate man being brutalized!

“And I didn’t just see Rodney King being brutalized. I saw the King of Kings being brutalized! I saw truth being brutalized! I saw decency and justice being brutalized! I saw you and me being brutalized! The same thing could happen--the same thing has happened--to you and me!”

Much of his talk was directed to the young men and women in his audience. The pastor’s words were not lost on them; several said they intend to return for the King verdict rally.

“I’ll come back,” said 18-year-old Dion Evans. “It’s kind of monumental.”

Audran Robinson, 17 said he feels that coming to the verdict rally “will help people to maybe decide to do better, to better themselves instead of going to jail or whatever . . . or being negative toward the police.”

The seeds for the rally were planted during a meeting several weeks ago called by Bradley. Fearing that tempers could flare if the officers are not convicted, the mayor invited Murray and seven other black leaders to City Hall, where he asked them to draft a plan of action.

These leaders are not alone in their fears. Last week, Gates issued a five-minute video greeting to the LAPD’s rank-and-file, warning his troops of the possibility of violence and admonishing them not to display their feelings “in a manner that will evoke any kind of reaction from the public.”

Gates said he has made “contingency plans.” So too have Murray, Duff and the others.

On verdict night, there will be a command post set up at the First A.M.E. Church. Murray says if the officers are acquitted, he and his “troops of peace and arbitration” will take to the streets, travel to potential hot spots in an attempt to quell violence.

“We’ll walk all night long,” he said, “and we’ll cool.”