KING CASE AFTERMATH: A CITY IN CRISIS : San Francisco Police Halt Demonstration Before It Starts : California: One night after rampage in the city, 200 protesters are arrested for failing to disperse after curfew. Scheduled protest in Berkeley fails to materialize.

Employing a decisive show of force after a night of massive looting and marauding, San Francisco police Friday night squashed a scheduled demonstration by arresting about 200 startled protesters even before they had a chance to organize.

In sharp contrast to initially sluggish law enforcement tactics in Los Angeles, police warned would-be demonstrators gathering at nightfall in the heavily Latino Mission district that they would be arrested unless they dispersed.

Officers then promptly herded the predominantly youthful crowd into a circle, surrounded them and slapped plastic cuffs on their wrists. Ignoring shouted appeals from the demonstrators and pleas for release, police dispatched the youths onto buses and carted them off to jail.

The effort was led by Police Chief Richard Hongisto himself, who turned out in uniform and carried a baton as he directed his officers.

“My troops were here first,” Hongisto said as officers prepared to remove the arrested people. Several disgruntled onlookers threw bottles at the chief, but they missed their mark.

Hongisto said he took the step to prevent a repeat of the violence and looting that engulfed the city until dawn Friday and led to the arrest of more than 1,100.

At San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan’s request, the city’s Board of Supervisors gave police extra powers to break up potentially dangerous gatherings.

“We’re going to make sure we stay right on top of this,” Jordan, a former San Francisco police chief, told reporters. The mayor said he mapped out his hard-line strategy after he saw Los Angeles pay a dear price for some initial hesitation by police.

Sponsors of a Thursday night protest that led to widespread looting and vandalism in some of the city’s toniest neighborhoods had vowed to defy the 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew Friday, reportedly the first imposed citywide in San Francisco since the 1906 earthquake.

But the quick arrests foiled their plans. No protesters and few loiterers remained on the streets after curfew.

In all, police throughout the Bay Area had made almost 2,000 arrests as of dusk Friday, mostly for looting and vandalism. There were fewer than 10 injuries, all of them minor.

Violence had abated by dawn Friday, but isolated protests around the Bay Area disrupted freeway traffic and shut down a shopping mall.

In Marin County, more than 400 students from two high schools marched to the Golden Gate Bridge, intending to block traffic in a protest similar to one that closed down the Bay Bridge for three hours Thursday.

But after a show of strength by the California Highway Patrol, the students changed their minds, agreeing instead to merely march across the rust-colored bridge in orderly groups of 50. They were later bused back to their schools by bridge authorities.

“As long as we got our message out that’s OK,” said Ben Cohen, 16, a student at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. “We’re sick of the racism that has gone on throughout our history. The system is corrupt and not working.”

Across San Francisco Bay, about 100 high school students from the lower-income Pinole and Richmond areas marched onto Interstate 80 and blocked traffic for more than 45 minutes. As cars backed up for miles, a dozen Highway Patrol cars first trailed the students and then escorted them off the freeway. There were no arrests.

Outside of San Francisco, the worst damage in the Bay Area struck Berkeley, a university town accustomed to political protests but shocked by the looting and vandalism that erupted in the wake of the Rodney G. King verdicts.

The city’s leaders were so shaken that they met in special session Friday afternoon to declare a local state of emergency and impose a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Hardest hit in Berkeley was a five-block stretch of Telegraph Avenue near the University of California. Campus and city police made 76 arrests, mostly for burglary, arson and possession of stolen property. Twenty of those were juveniles, most of them residents of Richmond and Oakland, police said.

“My take on it is that it was all a crime of opportunity,” said Berkeley Police Capt. Phil Doran.

Many stores in the normally bustling commercial district were boarded up and closed Friday, and others shut their doors early. More than 25 businesses were vandalized, and half a dozen cars were burned.

Dave McCaulou, manager of the Bancroft Clothing Co., had boarded up his store as a defensive step after closing Thursday night, but hours later watched a group of teen-agers use crowbars to pry the boards off.

Nightfall brought calm to the streets, with Telegraph Avenue virtually deserted except for dozens of sheriff’s deputies and police officers. No one showed up for a scheduled protest at nearby People’s Park.

In Oakland, the streets were calm Friday. Police made 113 arrests Thursday night but losses were limited to broken windows and scattered looting in the downtown sector.

San Jose--the first Bay Area city to experience violence after the verdicts--also was mostly quiet Friday, but police made 26 arrests shortly after 2 a.m. when marching protesters shattered downtown windows and set a police car on fire.

In San Francisco on Friday, jittery residents returned to their jobs and swapped opinions about the looting and vandalism that defaced the city.

For the first time in memory, violence invaded enclaves that normally are immune to social turbulence. Exclusive Nob Hill--home of the ritzy Fairmont Hotel--was attacked, as were some of the city’s chief tourist attractions: Union Square, Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf.

There was another difference--the tough police response ordered by Mayor Jordan. He campaigned last year as a no-nonsense guy who would clear the streets of aggressive panhandlers. This week, he proved his mettle, ordering his officers to “take all steps necessary” to maintain order in the city.

Police did not hesitate to respond. After a group of 4,000 chanting marchers spawned splinter bands of looting youths Thursday night, 600 baton-wielding officers began making mass arrests, loading violators into municipal buses and hauling them to jail.

Police Chief Hongisto said the demonstration began as an outgrowth of a student protest at San Francisco State University. Later it grew to include others who Jordan characterized as “a new element of opportunists.”

At least one mall--the Stonestown Galleria near San Francisco State--was closed after 800 protesters staged a demonstration Friday afternoon. Because of the curfew, the San Francisco Giants baseball game at Candlestick Park was canceled.

Vacationers--many of whom cowered in hotels as the violence unfolded--wandered amid San Francisco’s tattered neighborhoods in bewilderment Friday. Some filmed the aftermath with video cameras.

“This is more excitement than we planned on,” said Margie Brown of Ft. Myers, Fla.

In Southern California, the violence that convulsed Los Angeles was mostly absent in other counties Friday, but random incidents continued to keep residents on edge.

San Diego police officers were fired upon by an unknown sniper early Friday morning, and the Fire Department reported 233 fire incidents Thursday night--more than double the normal number. Losses totaled more than $230,000. Police made 32 arrests, mostly for disorderly conduct and arson-related crimes.

About 500 students from UC San Diego staged a brief sit-in on Interstate 5 in La Jolla, blocking southbound traffic.

Times staff writers Philip Hager, Martha Groves and Richard C. Paddock reported from San Francisco, Jenifer Warren and Maura Dolan from Los Angeles, Patrick McDonnell from Riverside and Jonathan Weber from Berkeley. Correspondent Jennifer Packer also reported from Berkeley.