RIOT AFTERMATH: GETTING BACK TO BUSINESS : Brown Says $30 Billion Needed to Revive Cities

Former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. called on President Bush and Congress Monday to revitalize the nation’s cities with at least $30 billion “to create jobs, stop the layoffs and stimulate the economic recovery.”

Meeting reporters in Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, Brown declared that “unless we wake up to these needs, what happened in Los Angeles will happen again and again in America.”

He said he planned to continue his flagging campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination “to do everything humanly possible to advance the cause of those who have no voice.”

Brown said that on his visit to Los Angeles last week he could see “the cry of despair and anguish even on the faces of those who were looting and burning and inflicting suffering on others.”

There has been “a continued abandonment of our children, our cities and our future,” he said, adding: “It is up to the President and Congress and the leadership of the Democratic Party to take action now.”

Earlier Monday, Brown skipped a planned appearance at a rally outside the Justice Department that was billed as “the People’s Coalition for Justice.” An aide said those who had invited Brown to speak “lost control of the rally,” which featured several speeches by Howard University student leaders urging their predominantly black listeners to abandon the U.S. political and justice systems.

“The rally did not reflect the thrust of this campaign,” a spokesman for Brown said.

Reflecting on the Los Angeles riots, Brown said in Lafeyette Park that “liberty and justice are being denied to millions of persons, and the fact that some are acting in criminal ways is not the point. These kids have not come from stable families in Beverly Hills and other affluent neighborhoods. What we’ve seen is the action of kids who don’t think they belong to America anymore, and that’s tragic.”

Brown added that “there’s an underlying volcano waiting to erupt in dozens of American cities.”

The Bush Administration should put forth a disaster-aid program within 120 days “to help put those burned-out buildings up again,” he said.

“We saw it after the Persian Gulf War and we should see it here,” Brown said. “The Emir’s golden palace in Kuwait was restored with the help of U.S. taxpayers and the Army Corps of Engineers.”

He told reporters that the government should extend loans at 2% interest to Los Angeles store owners to rebuild their properties “in a spirit of can-do.”

Later in the day, Brown held a series of satellite television interviews with stations in Indiana and North Carolina, where primary elections will be held today. He called Democratic front-runner Bill Clinton the captive of “the Democratic Establishment” who is supported by some of “the top 1% of Americans who own more than 90% of all others combined.”

Brown reminded his listeners that he accepts only political donations of $100 or less and urged them “to say no to Mr. Clinton and his control by the Establishment.”

“He’s owned and operated by the very people who got us on the wrong track,” Brown said. “Vote your conscience and be a part of the change. If he (Clinton) gets the nomination, it’s going to be a disaster in November.”