New Chief Inherits New Problems After Verdict : Police: Williams expresses shock over rioting. He will leave for Los Angeles tonight.

It was only last Sunday that Willie L. Williams, a man about to embark on the career challenge of a lifetime in law enforcement, was a picture of optimism, expressing faith in the human spirit.

“The citizens of (Los Angeles) are trying to put the Rodney King incident behind them,” the Philadelphia police commissioner had confidently assured an ABC network audience. “There’s a renewed sense of hope within this city, and I think if we all work together, there will be little or no trouble or violence.”

But when Los Angeles’ police chief-designate appeared on television again Thursday, his image was interposed between nightmarish video shots of that same city in flames.

“I knew the bubble was going to burst at some point,” he told CNN’s Sonya Friedman. “I certainly did not anticipate the bubble would burst before I got in there.”

And in a remarkable understatement, he added later: “The events of the last 24 hours have been very sobering for me.”

A day that had begun for Williams at 5 a.m. Thursday proved to be a surreal mix of the most routine administrative chores while wrapping up his duties at police headquarters here and a round of appearances in which one interviewer after another demanded to know how he planned to heal the bloody rift in Los Angeles.

Significantly, one thing Williams’ day did not include was any conversation with outgoing Police Chief Daryl F. Gates. The Los Angeles police chief who lost his job as a result of the King beating uproar has made no secret of his belief that bringing in an outsider is a mistake.

Williams, who will be Los Angeles’ first black police chief, brings an impressive record of reform from a city that has known more than its share of racial tension centering on accusations of police brutality. His detractors, however, have said that he looks better on paper than in action.

He sought Thursday to downplay suggestions that his arrival alone could be Los Angeles’ salvation. “Willie Williams is not a miracle worker,” he said. “The work we have to do out there is going to take time.”

And while he was openly critical of the verdict in the King case, he said that it must be accepted. Williams also took pains to distinguish between those who were peacefully demonstrating to express their outrage and the “hooligans and bums” who were rioting, looting and killing.

Tonight, Williams is scheduled to leave for Los Angeles, where he will spend a few days taking care of what his staff described as personal business, including finding a place to live.

A small awards ceremony late Thursday was to have been a farewell celebration, one in which members of the Philadelphia Police District Advisory Council would take an opportunity to thank the police commissioner they credit with bridging some of the barriers that had stood between their communities and the officers sworn to defend them.

Fred Corso, general manager of the hotel where the ceremony took place, worked his way to the front of a crowd of about 60, shook Williams’ hand, and asked: “So you want to go to Hollywood, huh?”

The best Williams could manage in reply was a weak joke of his own: “I’m thinking of renegotiating the deal.”

And as he left, he carried with him a small package of hors d’oeuvres from the reception. He had promised his wife he would be home early.

Healy reported from Philadelphia and Tumulty from Washington.