Riot Aftermath : L.A. Groups Carry Protests to Simi Valley : King case: The gathering outside the courthouse is peaceful, but some shouting matches erupt. Members of several black and gay rights organizations take part.

A motor caravan of about 150 demonstrators converged on Simi Valley from Los Angeles on Tuesday to protest emotionally, but nonviolently, outside the courthouse where a jury returned not-guilty verdicts last week in the Rodney G. King beating case.

Speaking over a portable sound system, the leaders of the demonstration denounced racism and called for the rebuilding of riot-torn sections of Los Angeles. As they spoke, several shouting matches erupted between the demonstrators and a few Simi Valley residents.

Some local onlookers defended the verdicts, while others argued that their city has been unfairly blamed for the verdicts and the riots that they ignited.

“We have housewives here who are petrified that you’re going to burn our community down,” Suzanne Heffernan, 32, of Simi Valley told the protesters. “Why don’t you take the issue back to L. A.? It has nothing to do with Simi Valley.”

As she tried to shout down the demonstrators, Heffernan was surrounded by reporters. Her son Cameron clutched her hand and looked fearfully at the television cameras and microphone that were pointed at him and his mother.

“My son’s 3 1/2 years old, and he wants to know what’s going on,” Heffernan said. “Why do you hate us? It wasn’t our choice that this (trial) was here. So why should our community be condemned for it?”

But one of the organizers, Phill Wilson of the Black, Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum, said of the local critics:

“They missed the point. Quite frankly, that’s a challenge that white people often have when people of color talk about the pain we’re experiencing. People of color say, ‘I’m in pain,’ and white people say, ‘I didn’t hit you.’ That doesn’t speak to the issue.

“It’s the same thing here: We came to a courthouse that happens to be in Simi Valley to say that the things that happened in this courthouse last Wednesday were wrong.”

The demonstration, which chiefly involved members of several black and gay rights organizations in Los Angeles, marked the first time since the King case verdicts that protesters have traveled in any large number from Los Angeles to Simi Valley.

It came at a time when city leaders are trying aggressively to change a public perception that Simi Valley is an uncaring, racist community.

“Give us a good name,” resident Patrice Parr pleaded to dozens of reporters waiting for the protesters to arrive at the courthouse. She was delivering a box of clothing to Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard’s office. The clothing is to be given to needy residents in Los Angeles.

“I grew up in Culver City during the Watts riots,” said Parr, who was accompanied by her 6-year-old daughter. “I was 8 years old, and I learned to be afraid. I don’t want my children to be afraid. . . . People need to know it wasn’t Simi Valley.”

But not all onlookers at the courthouse criticized the verdicts.

Bill Claik, 47, of Simi Valley said he watched the entire trial on television and concluded that the four Los Angeles police officers acted appropriately because King was resisting arrest.

“He did get an excessive beating,” Claik said. “But he got what he deserved.”

The protesters, who included members of ACT UP/Los Angeles, Colors United, Queer Nation, the Gay and Lesbian Center in West Hollywood and the Black Men’s Exchange, had demonstrated outside the Federal Building in Westwood on Tuesday morning before driving together to the courthouse.

Organizers told Simi Valley officials about the rally in advance and vowed that it would be nonviolent. Nevertheless, Richard D. Hautzenroeder, 65, of Simi Valley, who was at the adjacent Senior Citizen Center just before the protest began, said, “We were told to lock the doors and be ready for a riot.”

Hautzenroeder said he supported the jury’s verdicts.

“From what I saw on that tape, if I had been one of the cops, I wouldn’t have beaten King,” he said. “I would have blown him away.”

Soon after they arrived, the demonstrators chanted, “No Justice, No Peace” and “Humanity at Home.” One held a sign that stated, “Simi Valley--Death Valley.”

Before the rally, the protesters designated some of their own members as security officers to help maintain order.

Simi Valley police said they also were prepared for any outbreak of violence. Before the rally began, well-armed officers in riot helmets and bulletproof vests took up positions inside the courthouse and on the roof.

But most officers remained out of sight, and no arrests were made. The hourlong demonstration ended peacefully as the participants returned to their cars, flipped on their headlights as a sign of solidarity and drove back to Los Angeles.

After most of them had left, U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) arrived at the courthouse and talked to two black men who had taken part in the protest. The congressman, who was born in Huntington Park, said he grew up in the South Los Angeles area.

Demonstrations such as the one Tuesday can breed more racism, Gallegly said.

“People here in this community that have a great deal of pride are naturally going to become defensive because you’ve come here and blamed them for something that’s unfair,” he told the protesters.

Times correspondent Maia Davis contributed to this story.