Firebombs Hit S.D. Store, Office; Police Dismayed by King Verdict

The Rodney King verdict so outraged members of the San Diego Police Department on Wednesday that two African-American officers and one top administrator called a joint press conference to register their displeasure.

Across the city, residents were stunned. There were two separate incidents Tuesday night in which Molotov cocktails were thrown. The first was tossed at a Dow Stereo store at 4404 El Cajon Blvd. at 9:41 p.m. The second was hurled at a police storefront at 29th and Imperial at 9:46 p.m. Both were extinguished immediately, according to the Fire Department.

At 11 p.m., protesters planned to meet outside the downtown Federal Building on Front Street. Earlier in the day, Stamper and his officers held their press conference.

“There’s shock and disbelief,” said Norman Stamper, executive assistant police chief. “I called what I saw on March 3 a brutal and cowardly act on the part of a handful of police officers, and I stand by that statement. I have heard the same thing from police officers of all colors within the San Diego Police Department as well.”

Two San Diego police officers who are also members of the National Black Police Assn. appeared at a press conference with Stamper to vent their rage.

“This is hard to fathom,” said Steve Hutchinson, one of the officers. “I still can’t believe the verdict. I didn’t sit in on the trial and see the whole scenario but, looking at the tape, you can’t justify a beating like that.”

Shirley Black, a police detective, read a prepared statement from the association’s Western region in Oakland, which described the organization as feeling “devastated, appalled and outraged” that the four officers were acquitted.

“We as black law enforcement persons from all respective areas of law enforcement recognize today as being a day of regression, going back to the days when you could do anything if you were white and had a badge,” Black said.

The organization said it had encouraged petitions, letters and other forms of protest to enact laws prohibiting excessive force against criminal suspects.

San Diego police supervisors were not planning any special message to relay to officers but were told to encourage frank discussions about the verdict during roll calls for the next few days.

“It would be ridiculous of us not to process this experience, not to talk about what this experience means to us as a law enforcement agency and to our community,” Stamper said.

Stamper said he would not bolster patrols in the wake of the verdict, saying to do so might be “insulting to segments of the community. Individuals and organizations will draw their own meaning from this verdict. I don’t expect any violence in the city of San Diego.”

Officers would be told to “simply be sensitive to changes” in the community that might occur, he said.

After the beating of Rodney King, San Diego police administrators implemented very few changes in training because they felt sure that “we wouldn’t see a Rodney King incident in San Diego,” Stamper said.

Arthur Ellis, chairman of San Diego’s police review board and professor at San Diego State University, said he couldn’t believe the verdict.

“When they changed the venue on this thing to (Simi Valley), there were people who were concerned about it, but I thought, no matter where you tried it, people would be stunned,” Ellis said. “The way it was adjudicated, however, fits the profile of that town which is beyond conservative, and more reactionary.”

San Diego police, he said, are “a bit more sensitive to the nuances and possibilities” of the minority community. “That could probably not happen here.”