KING CASE AFTERMATH: A CITY IN CRISIS : Celebrities Organize Efforts to End Violence, Clean Up

Grasping a broom, actor Edward James Olmos strode down Western Avenue Friday like a man possessed.

“Pick up everything. Pick up everything,” the actor and director repeated to a volunteer cleanup brigade in South Los Angeles. The group’s numbers seemed to grow larger by the minute.

“I’m here because I felt such a tremendous sense of despair and anxiety about not being able to do anything,” Olmos said of the rioting in Los Angeles.

The actor has been among the most visible entertainment industry figures who have expressed their concerns about the violence that followed the verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case. But he isn’t alone.

From the streets of South Los Angeles to the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, the entertainment community responded Friday to Mayor Tom Bradley’s call for support.

While Olmos led a citizens’ brigade, rocker Tom Petty recorded a song at a Hollywood studio urging calm. His “Peace in L.A” anthem, which was written Thursday night, was to be rushed to local radio stations by Friday night.

TV talk show host Arsenio Hall invited Bradley on his Thursday night program and discussed the situation with him, as well as with Olmos and comedian Sinbad, who were seated in the audience. Hall also visited with children at a Red Cross shelter and took part in a nationally broadcast radio call-in show.

“L.A. Law” actor Blair Underwood went to a peace rally Wednesday at the First AME Church in South Los Angeles. “I’m livid,” Underwood told a reporter. “This tells me black life isn’t worth anything. We need to focus our energies on change.”

Meanwhile, a behind-the-scenes call from the mayor’s office to the giant Creative Artists Agency started a 24-hour mobilization of Hollywood talent that culminated with a hastily assembled star rally Friday on a Warner Bros. sound stage.

Several dozen film and TV personalities, including Debbie Allen, Luke Perry, Anjelica Huston, Wesley Snipes, Jimmy Smits, Sean Penn, Tim Matheson, Mike Farrell, Peter Horton and Eazy E, gathered to air their opinions and tape public service announcements pleading for peace in the streets. Organizers said the announcements would be on the air as soon as possible.

Farrell said Hollywood’s executives should take “a look at the fact that we have lionized and made heroic (themes of) violence . . . racial separation . . . sexism and classism. And we are going to have to eat that until we change the message.”

“Let’s not polarize our community any further,” choreographer Allen said. “We, the members of the entertainment community, decry the crisis that was brought on by the (King) verdict. . . . As chroniclers of our culture, we wish to express our deep frustration at the escalating polarization of our community.”

Snipes told the crowd his feelings of sadness are not the result of the violence. “I’m sad that the writing has been on the walls for the last five years . . . now it’s coming home to roost.”

Asked what impact celebrities can have, producer Norman Lear said, “Everything in life is a pebble in the water. Everything anybody can do and say is a help.”

Petty was initially scheduled to join the rally but was still finishing his song.

“After the verdict was read, I went through a whole range of emotions,” said Petty in a phone interview Friday. “First I went through several hours of being ashamed to be white. I felt an extreme amount of frustration, not being able to do anything about (the violence). But then I realized that this was a bigger thing going on now than just the whole Rodney King incident. “

Helping to organize Friday’s rally were film producers Paula Weinstein and Lynda Obst and record producer Bob Ezrin, and groups such as the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee and People for the American Way, as well as Propaganda Films.

In other efforts, Sinbad, actor Carl Weathers and singer Jody Watley made pleas for calm Friday on black radio station KJLH.

Olmos, known for his portrayal of a Latino police detective on the TV series “Miami Vice” and for the recent film about East L.A. gangs, “American Me,” spoke on a number of local TV stations Thursday. He said he decided to “grab a broom and start cleaning,” after he witnessed some looting on Sunset Boulevard and then saw “a man’s head blown off right in front of my car.”

He started off at daylight at the First AME Church, at 2279 S. Harvard Blvd., only with Daniel Haro, who appeared in “American Me.”

By mid-morning, about 450 people had joined in: men, women and children--black, white and Latino. The volunteers traveled to South Los Angeles from Venice, Alhambra, the San Fernando Valley, Long Beach and Ventura.

“Now we’ve turned into a people’s army,” Haro said. A Highland Park resident, the actor said he participated because “what has happened here in South-Central affects us in all of Los Angeles. We need to come together to heal the city.”

One of the first volunteers to join Olmos’ brigade was a child staying at the church because his family was burned out of their apartment. A contingent of youths from Community Youth Gang Services joined up, then dozens more.

Armed with rakes, shovels, brooms and bags, the group passed a supermarket guarded by National Guard troops wearing helmets and holding guns. For nine hours, Olmos picked up plastic wrappers, plates and cups as the sound of gunfire and police sirens filled the air.

Part of his intention was to be an example, Olmos said. “The images our children have seen in the last 48 hours have been devastating. Now our children should be allowed to experience some form of relief. The best way is to let them be part of the solution. I don’t care if it’s in Long Beach, San Fernando or South-Central, bring the children and let them be part of the solution.”

Jose Hernandez, 13, arrived with his father. The family lives not far away, in a neighborhood ravaged by the riots. “It feels good to help,” he said, tugging a plastic bag of trash behind him.

“This is the beginning of the re-emergence of the new Los Angeles,” said Steve Valdivia, director of the Community Youth Gang Services.

Olmos said he would begin again at dawn today. “This is an ongoing process,” he said. “It’s going to take a long, long time.”