Bush Arrives in L.A., Calls for Healing

President Bush arrived in riot-scarred Los Angeles late Wednesday, carrying words of reconciliation but little in the way of additional dollars from Washington.

Calling repeatedly for a period of healing, Bush retreated from his Administration’s efforts to blame last week’s riots on what presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater termed the “liberal programs of the ‘60s and ‘70s.”

“We all want to solve the problems,” Bush said Wednesday, a few hours before arriving at Los Angeles International Airport for a hastily arranged two-day visit. “This is not time to play the blame game. It is time for honest talk.”

Bush is scheduled to view the wreckage today. On the eve of his tour, one week after the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case, Los Angeles was continuing its valiant struggle to right itself.

Among the major developments Wednesday:

* Military forces began pulling off the streets but remained inside the city, ready to respond to new outbreaks of violence. By sunset, the number of troops on patrol had dropped to about 3,500, a decrease of almost 1,000 from the day before.

* The Los Angeles Police Department--woefully short of funds to pay its officers more than $10 million already earned in overtime riot duty--ordered all 8,300 uniformed officers to take compensatory time off in the distant future, in lieu of cash now. Department and city officials feared the move could have a devastating effect on staffing in the months to come.

* In funerals from South Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley, the city began honoring its dead. “Please don’t ever take your children for granted,” said the father of 15-year-old Eddie Travens, who was shot five times in his car at a San Fernando intersection. “When they ask questions, you need to answer them. When they need help, you need to help them.”

* Los Angeles police disclosed that most of those arrested by the LAPD between midnight April 30 and Monday morning were Latino. Of 5,438 people arrested, 2,764 were Latino, 2,022 black, 568 white and 84 classified as “other.”

* The death and injury toll remained constant for the second day in a row. According to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, 58 people were killed in the riots, while 2,383 people were injured, 227 of them critically. The arrest tally, however, grew to 15,249, including at least 2,628 felonies. Fire officials reported 5,383 structure fire calls and the damage estimates held firm at $785 million, including Long Beach.

The Presidential Visit

Just before 9 p.m., Bush emerged from Air Force One and addressed reporters and dignitaries who gathered on the Tarmac at LAX. “The aim,” he said, “must not simply be to re-create what we had, but to build something better in its place.”

Shortly after his arrival, Bush met with a special panel of federal officials he dispatched to Los Angeles late last week. The President intends to use the roughly 36-hour visit, originally conceived as a trip that would focus on trade and politics, as an occasion to meet with representatives of the city’s myriad ethnic groups.

Bush plans separate meetings with representatives of the black, Latino and Korean-American communities, as well as with law enforcement officers.

Accompanying Bush on the trip were Republican U.S. Sen. John Seymour, Housing Secretary Jack Kemp and Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan.

In his statement at the airport, the president praised the courage of firefighters, church leaders, volunteers and others who, he said, had “reached out across the barriers of color” and risked their lives to put an end to the violence.

“Thank God for what you did,” Bush said. “You did more than simply save a life. You gave the nation great cause for hope. And you proved, amid the hate and horror, that this is still the city of angels.”

But several hundred of Los Angeles’ discontented residents lined the street across from the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, where the President is staying. The chanting demonstrators, most of them Korean-Americans, demanded compensation for the damage to their community. Police reported several arrests outside the heavily guarded hotel late Wednesday night.

The President’s itinerary is likely to include an early morning tour of a neighborhood damaged by the riot, a church service and a series of community meetings, including a stop in Koreatown.

Congress, meanwhile, began moving toward enactment of a package designed to provide emergency aid for the riot-torn sections of Los Angeles and added money for inner-city neighborhoods in other large cities.

Seeking to seize the initiative from Bush, House Democrats introduced emergency legislation to provide $500 million in small business loans and $300 million for other aid, both for Los Angeles and for Chicago, which has been hurt by floods. The legislation would provide funds already committed--but not budgeted--by the White House.

Closer to home, Gov. Pete Wilson urged the state Legislature to approve a measure that could provide $20 million in job training funds to aid 4,000 of the residents left jobless by last week’s rioting.

Wilson, who said he does not intend to raise taxes to pay for riot relief, said he was optimistic that the federal government will match the state funds.

In a satellite TV speech to a newspapers publishers meeting in New York, Bush said that $600 million the White House said would be available in federal grants and loans for restoration work would include personal grants of up to $11,500 to help those hardest hit to find food, clothing, medicine and temporary housing.

Time, but No Money

Yet another blow to the LAPD’s sagging morale came with the announcement that officers may receive time off, not money, for their extended labors.

As officers continued to work 12-hour shifts as part of the peace-keeping effort, Stanley K. Sheinbaum, the president of the Police Commission, called the situation “dire.”

“It just comes down to dollars,” he said, “and the dollars just aren’t there.”

Capt. Charles Labrow, commanding officer of the North Hollywood station, said officers were stunned by the news.

“After spending all of this time trying to protect the city, it did have a jarring effect (on officers) when they said they would not compensate us in cash,” he said. “It had an immediate downer effect.”

At the same time, the long-range impact of having a large number of officers off work for extended periods was causing concern among some Police Department officials and city leaders. Although substituting compensatory time for overtime is deemed necessary to stem the flow of red ink, they fear the move could have a devastating effect on staffing in the future.

Mayor Tom Bradley is trying to arrange federal funds to reimburse the city for its extraordinary expenditures in the riot, and some of that money could be targeted for police overtime, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

But City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said it is not yet clear whether the city will get a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Administration to cover police expenditures.

The LAPD’s costs of maintaining its state of emergency are mounting at about $2 million a day--with about $1.25 million of that in overtime costs.

A Walk Through Rubble

Bradley took his first walking tour of the devastation Wednesday. At the Boys Market in the Martin Luther King Shopping Center--built on East 103rd Street at the site where the Watts riot began 27 years ago--Bradley recalled how hard it had been to persuade a supermarket chain to locate a store there.

“Every other supermarket in the western United States turned me down,” Bradley said as he stood near the market’s looted aisles. “To have (this) destroyed by vandals and hoods pains me deeply.”

Joe Arcinega, whose tax preparation office was badly damaged, was one of several shopkeepers and developers who reassured Bradley, telling him they had no plans to relocate and would try to reopen soon.

“We’re part of the community,” said Arcinega, 70. “I haven’t long to go, so I might as well finish it out here.”

In Koreatown, Bradley embraced Richard Park, owner of Park’s Wilshire Jewelers, which was ransacked by armed intruders who also shot and wounded Park’s brother and his brother’s sister-in-law. Walking gingerly across a floor strewn with debris and broken glass, Bradley shook his head.

“We’re going to do everything we can to provide support in rebuilding,” he said, lamenting what he called the LAPD’s “lack of responsiveness” that left people “to fend for themselves.”

Bradley rejected suggestions that his own soured relationship with Police Chief Daryl F. Gates might be partly to blame for last week’s chaos. And the majority of those he encountered on the street seemed not to blame the mayor either, saying they thought he’d done all he could.

Michael Lawrence Dickerson, however, called Bradley’s tour “bogus.”

“He’s not down here because he loves us,” said Dickerson, who lived near the shopping center. “As far as the mayor is concerned, it’s just a show. Mayor Tom specializes in going to all the meetings. Bottom line is for the last 20 years things have been degenerating, and he hasn’t done anything to stop it.”

At the Korean Chamber of Commerce, a group of Korean-American business leaders said the LAPD had let Koreatown down.

“Why did it take so long to get the police out here?” said David Kim, chamber vice president. “In some cases it took them more than two hours to respond. It seems pretty obvious that there were quicker responses to businesses in other areas.”

In South Los Angeles, meanwhile, the Rev. Cecil Murray of the First AME Church met with a fact-finding political delegation from South Korea. Dubbed “Operation Bridge,” the prayerful meeting was part of an effort to ease tensions between blacks and Korean-Americans.

Seated near the altar, Dong Gil Kim, one of South Korea’s presidential candidates, asked Murray to suggest how his country could help ease tensions.

“We are not a helpless people,” Murray replied. “Enhance your understanding of us. . . . If you can make sound investments in the African-American community, come do that. But the owners of those business are going to be black. . . .”

Life Goes On

Bit by bit, the city continued the slow process of healing.

The first day of a city-sponsored shuttle service for shoppers ran spottily. Despite City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter’s hopes for the program, few residents seemed aware that they could catch a free ride to shops outside their Crenshaw district. But the bus came just in time for 92-year-old Ben Avery, who had been waiting since morning for the afternoon shopping shuttle to arrive. He said all the 20 businesses near him, including his barbershop, had been torched.

“I went to the Boys Market yesterday, but I didn’t get nearly enough,” Avery said. “I need butter, milk, bread, muffins and any other little thing I can get.”

Lurline Baber, 69, said she had not been able to shop since the riot. She needed staples, she said--”just enough to get by.”

“I’m all alone,” she said. “The daughter who I live with is out of town, so there’s been no one around to help me. I’m very happy for this.”

For the first time in a week, all South Los Angeles neighborhoods started the day with electrical power. As of late Tuesday, Department of Water and Power workers had completed the preliminary repairs necessary to restore service to 35,000 customers who had lost power, said Lucia Alvelais, a DWP spokeswoman.

Local hospitals resumed normal operations Wednesday, having treated more than 2,300 riot-related injuries. At most hospitals, many of the most seriously injured patients were sufficiently improved to be discharged.

Dr. Bayliss Yarnell, director of emergency medicine at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, where seven riot victims remained hospitalized on Wednesday, summed up the suffering he had seen:

“There were victims of assault and vandalism, pedestrians hit by cars, and a store owner who picked up an explosive device that blew off his hand. “There were a lot of people with guns and knives, and they used them. . . . The victims had a feeling of puzzlement about it all.”

The Southern California Hospital Council polled 20 hospitals that treated 1,826 patients in their emergency rooms and reported that 268 injuries were caused by assaults, 198 by guns and 57 by stabbings. A total of 16 burns were also reported.

Of the hospitals’ total, 272 patients were hospitalized for critical injuries, including 63 people with gunshot wounds, 26 assault victims, 17 stabbing victims and five burn victims.

The Red Cross shelter located in the Dorsey High School gymnasium remained crowded with homeless families. A week after fires routed them from their apartments, many of the 125 victims appeared dazed and lonely.

Some of them had been there for days, eating school cafeteria food and worrying about their future. Other more recent arrivals were still carving out temporary quarters on the gymnasium floor, surrounding their cots with trash bags filled with the few belongings they’d managed to pull from their homes.

“I didn’t have time to get anything--no clothes, no appliances, no pictures,” lamented Ramon Martinez, a father of three children whose apartment building in the 1900 block of West Adams Boulevard was destroyed. “My children were even barefoot when we ran out. . . . Now I’ve got to start from scratch.”

In the Mid-Wilshire area, Samy’s Camera, once the biggest photo supply house on the West Coast, was back in business--sort of. Ruined by fire, the windowless store near the corner of Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue set up a tent in a nearby parking lot. Photographers came by to drop off rented equipment.

In Hollywood, meanwhile, Johnny Grant, the honorary mayor, pledged that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce would help lure tourists back to the Hollywood Walk of Fame by rededicating Marilyn Monroe’s star.

“We’re going to show everybody that business is as usual on Hollywood Boulevard and the tourists will come back,” he said.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Communist Party sought to distance the group from the looting. Carl Dix said Sheriff Sherman Block’s assertions that party members were involved in looting and arson were false. He said members went to several riot scenes to “deliver a message of rebellion” by distributing flyers and raising red flags.

A Lesser Show of Force

With tensions easing on Los Angeles streets, military forces began pulling back into staging areas Wednesday.

By sunset, the number of troops on patrol had dropped to about 3,500, a decrease of almost 1,000 from the day before. A total of more than 12,000 troops--which include the Marines, Army and National Guard--still were posted around the riot areas.

Nevertheless, military and civilian authorities said they expect that the armed forces will remain in the city at least through this weekend. Local officials are wary of being unprepared if further rioting erupts. Moreover, authorities said they want the troops on hand to insure that there are no flare-ups during the President’s visit.

National Guard members, some who patrolled in the rain Wednesday, reported that many local residents were making their stay more comfortable--one neighborhood dropped off baked goods for the troops. Other residents offered to make runs to the grocery store.

Grateful for such gestures, field commanders for the military units still warned their troops against letting down their guard.

“This is a war zone, and the snakes are out there watching us,” Col. Richard Koziol told a hushed group of National Guard soldiers Wednesday. “We have to hang tough.”

How long they must hang tough is still undecided. Bush said Wednesday that Army troops and Marines assigned to peace-keeping duties in Los Angeles would not be deployed “much longer.”

Since their arrival, National Guard units have shot two men, wounding one and killing the other. Marines also fired 53 rounds at a man Sunday after he shot and wounded a pair of police officers. Earlier, Guard troops fired at a man involved in a hit-and-run accident, but no one was hurt.

Among the four incidents, troops have fired 74 shots since entering Los Angeles.

In all four cases, police and military officials say preliminary inquiries indicate that the troops appear to have acted correctly, but the fear of re-igniting the street violence has led military officials to take extraordinary precautions.

The troops carry M-16 rifles--which can be used as either semiautomatic or automatic weapons--and most have full magazines. But soldiers who are caught tampering with a lock that prevents them from using their guns as an automatic weapon will be limited to a single bullet.

“You thought you were going to be Joe Cool,” Col. Koziol warned any of his soldiers who might be considering tampering with their weapons. “Well, you’re just getting one bullet.”

Ground Zero, a Week Later

Much like any other street corner in the urban sprawl of the inner city, traffic zoomed past the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues Wednesday afternoon. One week before, the first rocks had been thrown, the first windows broken and the first men and women savagely beaten--the start of 30 hours of violence that enveloped the city.

Now, it was time for reflection.

Jamore Knox, 18, a student at Manual Arts High School, dished up chili at an unscathed cinder block hot dog stand, reflecting on the incredible scene one week ago.

“I was trying to calm people down because innocent people were getting hurt,” Knox said. “Our people were in the wrong . . . The community is mad because now can’t go to the liquor store. We can’t go around the corner to get gas.”

For some passersby at the intersection Wednesday, anger about the verdicts had been replaced by depression.

“We are stuck here, a lot of us,” said Marvin McIntyre, 45, who stood near a burnt-out van, waiting for a bus. A construction worker, McIntyre said he was unemployed--and it looked as if he might stay that way. “Now small businesses are going to be afraid to come in.” Goldie Bell, 65, owner of beauty shop at the intersection, said the violence that had engulfed it had made her sob for hours. On Wednesday, she tried to find hopeful signs among the debris.

“You’ve got to think something will come out of it or you will go crazy,” Bell said. “I see hope in the cleanup effort.”

For others, the restoration of utilities, the opening of a store, has lifted their spirits.

“I’m in a very good mood,” said Wayne Thomas, 49, a laid off school custodian, as he walked through the intersection, puffing on a cigarette stub. “I got my lights back on, my telephone back on. We’ve got a few stores open down the street.”

Thirty-seven miles away, in the East County Courthouse where the jury had delivered its inflammatory verdicts, Simi Valley high school student Rosanna De Soto tried the door of Courtroom 3.

The courtroom where the King case was heard was locked.

“I used to see all the cameras in front,” said De Soto, 15, who is a frequent visitor to the Simi Valley courthouse, where her mother works as a clerk. “But now, it’s back to normal. It’s usually pretty quiet like this.”

In the empty hallway, Brian Norris, 26, walked slowly toward a nearly deserted court clerk’s office to pay a traffic ticket.

“I came here today,” he said, “because I knew everybody would be gone.”

This story was written by Times staff writer Amy Wallace.

Also contributing to today’s coverage were Leslie Berger, Greg Braxton, Stephanie Chavez, David Ferrell, Mathis Chazanov, Frank Clifford, Paul Dean, Kenneth J. Garcia, James Gerstenzang, Nieson Himmel, Victor Merina, Psyche Pascual, Art Pine, Jim Newton, John Schwada, Ron Russell, David Savage, Richard Simon, Kenneth Reich, Claire Spiegel and Eric Young.

The Toll

As of 6 p.m. Wednesday authorities reported the following: Deaths: 58. Injuries: 2,383, including 227 critical. Fires: 5,383 structure fire calls. Arrests: 15,249 including 2,628 felonies. Damage estimate: $785 million, including Long Beach.

Dispatched to Duty

Here is a look at some of the law enforcement personnel and troops who have been deployed or await deployment as of 3 p.m. Wednesday: LAPD: 5,000 (1,700 to 2,100 deployed at any one time) CHP: 500 (200 to 250 officers deployed at any one time) Sheriff’s Dept.: 850 National Guard: 9,844

2,602 deployed on street

2,460 support staff

4,782 in staging areas Federal troops: 3,313 Army: Ft. Ord, 1,769 678 deployed on street Marines: Camp Pendleton, 1,544 / 436 deployed on street

Compiled by Times researcher Michael Meyers