Radical Group Seeks Permit for Simi Parade : King case: Nationalist Movement wants to show support for the jurors and officers. City officials say the group isn’t welcome.

A radical right-wing group has applied for permission to parade in Simi Valley in support of the Rodney G. King beating trial verdicts, but city officials were not putting out a welcome mat Thursday.

They said the group, the Mississippi-based Nationalist Movement, “espouses white supremacist views” and does not represent the beliefs of most residents.

“We are morally outraged at the religious and racial causes they support,” Mayor Greg Stratton said in a statement, “and were it not for previous court decisions which our attorney tells us we must abide by, (we) would resoundingly refuse to allow them here.”

During a news conference Thursday on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, Mississippi attorney Richard Barrett, leader of the group, announced plans for a June 6 parade outside the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley. It was at that courthouse that a jury recently returned not-guilty verdicts against four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating King. One of the officers will be retried on one charge.

Appearing with two supporters who held a banner reading “No King Over Us,” Barrett denied during the news conference that he is a racist. “I’m an American, a pro-majority specialist and a nationalist,” he said.

Barrett, who has led demonstrations against Martin Luther King Day, said the purpose of the Simi Valley parade is “to support Rodney King jurors and the LAPD’s gallant four.”

The Nationalist Movement has members in 35 states, including California, said Barrett, who declined to give the number of members. “We have more members in California than in any state in the union,” he said.

Simi Valley officials said they probably cannot legally stop the march, although they can keep a close watch. “Nobody likes it,” Police Chief Paul Miller said. “But it’s a free country, and everybody has the right to express their views, no matter how odious.”

The group applied for a parade permit Tuesday but was told that it would take 28 days to process, Assistant City Manager Mike Sedell said. He said that in their application, the Nationalist Movement members referred to the superiority of the white race and the Christian religion.

Sedell said the applicants told city officials that they will march June 6, even if they have not obtained a permit. The application said the group expected to draw 150 people and would attempt to sign up new members. It submitted papers showing that it has no funds to pay for police officers or other city services.

City officials said they were uncertain whether the event would be a walk next to the courthouse or a march through local streets that would interfere with traffic.

“We will have to evaluate legally what the city’s options are, keeping in mind that the courts have been restricting the rights of local governments to do anything that would get in the way of free speech,” Sedell said.

Simi Valley officials have been trying to sever the city’s connection to the trial, pointing out that the beating occurred in the Lake View Terrace section of Los Angeles and that most jurors did not live in Simi Valley.

“We would just as soon have the whole thing go away,” Stratton said. The group’s proposal to march in Simi Valley “ . . . does not help us extract ourselves from the headlines and the associations that have been heaped upon our city.”

“If they want to support the police officers, then go do it at the LAPD headquarters.”

Times staff writer Eric Malnic contributed to this story.