KING CASE AFTERMATH: A CITY IN CRISIS : Students Vent Anger, Anguish Over Riots : Forum: At Cal State Fullerton, talking over civil unrest leads to some uncivil words, but event is mostly peaceful.

More than 100 students gathered for an outdoor forum at Cal State Fullerton on Friday to express anguish and disbelief over the rioting in Los Angeles.

The event, sponsored by the university’s human relations panel and its activities center, was designed to give students a chance to air their views about the civil unrest.

For the most part, the event was peaceful, as students from varied ethnic groups discussed their feelings. But a few tempers flared during the hourlong gathering, prompting name-calling and heckling between some black and Asian students.

One group of black students angrily told a Korean woman to “sit down,” and “shut up” when she approached the microphone to denounce the widespread looting and burning of Korean-owned businesses.

“I was intimidated,” said the 20-year-old woman, who hurried away from the quad after her brief speech, afraid to give her name to a reporter.

But most students urged classmates to work together to heal the racial wounds brought on by the violence.

Lisa Sangtong, 24, a graduate student, denounced the unrest. “We’re supposed to get together to solve this, not run around hurting other people,” she said. “We should see each other on the level of human beings, not just our color.”

Steve Till, 26, a graduate student, told the crowd that he is “ashamed of what we have turned out like.”

“My ancestors came to this country and destroyed the Indians who were here,” said Till, who is white. “But you guys can’t use violence. You have got to do something about this.”

But others used the forum as an occasion to denounce the Establishment. “What’s going on is that people are sick and tired of a corrupt and degenerative system that only cares about money and how they can oppress people,” said Marquett Oidu Hawkins, a 25-year-old senior. “It’s about racism and oppression--the kidnaping and slaughter of African-American people,” he said.

Kori Stonestreet, another student, said that she cried when she heard of the acquittals in the Rodney G. King case and that she was terrified by the TV scenes of burning and looting.

“I just can’t believe our whole moral breakdown,” she said. “For me, to see a black man crying because his business was burned down was just really sad.”

Shannon Norwood, 18, another freshman, said people must understand the social conditions that led to riots.

“I think the burning and looting is very sad, but I can understand their anger,” Norwood said. “I think it’s very wrong, but if I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from, I don’t know what I would do.”