AFTER THE RIOTS: REBUILDING THE COMMUNITY : In Boyle Heights, Brown Learns of Life in Projects : Gang members: The candidate gets an earful from young Latinos and blacks. He chooses 2 to join him on campaign trip.

Democratic presidential candidate Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. met with gang members in Boyle Heights on Sunday, ostensibly to hear their impressions of the Los Angeles riots. He came away with two more passengers for his campaign plane.

The former governor ended his 40-minute discussion with a dozen Latino and black gang members by inviting two of them to accompany him on a campaign trip Sunday night to West Virginia.

After hearing about life in the projects, frequently related in blunt language, Brown asked Father Greg Boyle of the Dolores Mission to help choose the young men, neither of whom had ever been in an airplane.

One of those chosen was Titi Gomez, 20. Like many of the others, Gomez said he had heard Brown’s name before but was unaware that he was running for president.

“I’ve never been in any other state other than Chicago,” Gomez said.

Robert Leon, 22, was also chosen, largely because he is not in school and does not have a job he would have to miss. The pair were to leave Los Angeles at midnight Sunday and return sometime today.

Leon, who prefers to be called by his gang name of Ace, was one of the more outspoken of the afternoon’s speakers. He told of working on a construction job in Beverly Hills and being regularly stopped by police who told him, “ ‘You don’t belong here.’ They (police) treat us like animals and think we aren’t human, just because we are poor. There is no justice. We are not animals.”

Later, addressing a rally in Laguna Beach, Brown compared President Bush and other members of the Bush family to looters in Los Angeles. He suggested that the Bushes and other wealthy businessmen and politicians had served as “role models” for the people who broke into shops during the riots.

“Let’s condemn the looters in L.A., but let’s start right at the top with the President, his sons and his brother,” Brown told an enthusiastic crowd of 600. “Maybe they were the role models. Maybe Neil Bush was a role model for all those looters.”

The informal meeting in Boyle Heights was arranged through Boyle, an Anglo priest who has gained the respect of the local homeboys. Brown sat in the middle of a semicircle of chairs arranged at the mission’s modest altar. Pointing to about 15 reporters and campaign aides gathered in the church to cover a routine campaign stop, Brown told the youths: “When I’m here, they bring their little machines and they listen to me. But maybe they will listen to you.”

The media, and Brown, got an earful.

“It’s too bad that you people only come down here when they burn the whole city down,” said a young man who would only identify himself as Bandit. “It’s sad that it’s the only way to get attention. But don’t say we are like the people in South-Central. There was no burning or looting here. It’s dumb to burn down our community. I’m glad we’re smarter than that.”

A recurring theme was jobs. Brown asked why more of the young men didn’t work. As others smirked, one gang member explained the economics of the street to Brown: “Why work for $4.25 an hour when you can make $600 a night selling drugs?”

The candidate seemed moved listening to the story of Leonard, a 26-year-old who has eight children. Brown asked if Leonard expected life would be better for his children.

“Gotta be better for my kids,” Leonard said. “I gotta make it better. Whatever it takes, I gotta make it better. I want my kids to have an education, to make something of themselves. We got brains. We think. We’re people too.”

At one point Brown asked for a show of hands, asking how many of the gang members were registered to vote. No hands went up.

“Can you vote if you’re a felon?” one man asked.

“I think so; I hope so,” Brown said.

Times staff writer Michael Ross in Laguna Beach contributed to this story.