Police Thank-Yous : Foothill Division Invites 250 of Its Friends to a Neighborhood Barbecue

Fifteen months after Rodney G. King’s videotaped beating turned many people against the Los Angeles Police Department, officers from the beleaguered Foothill Division on Saturday thanked local residents who stuck by them during their troubles, especially during the recent riots.

Grabbing spatulas and spoons, about 30 officers served meals to about 250 people who attended a barbecue at the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center, a short distance from where King was beaten by police on March 3, 1991. Most guests were homeowner association leaders or members of Neighborhood Watch groups, but many were typical residents who had rallied to help police when order fell apart after the jury returned not-guilty verdicts against the officers in the King case.

During the riots, the outside of the Foothill Station provided the setting for what became a troubling and familiar site--a sheriff’s bus parked in front of the lobby’s glass doors to shield desk officers from sniper fire.

But inside the station, a far more friendly atmosphere prevailed.

Residents dropped off boxes of food or gave gift certificates. Some helped out around the station. Or, more often than not, officers said, they just stopped by to say thank-you, which was enough to keep a tired cop on his feet another few hours.

“We don’t have any way to say thanks to these people, but we are taking a shot at it,” Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker said. “The kind of stuff they did, you can’t muster up enough thank-yous.”

But under overcast skies, officers in polo shirts and cowboy boots gave it a try as they joked with residents and served up platefuls of carne asada. Officers had noted the names of their supporters and invited them to Saturday’s party.

The thank-yous went to people such as Lake View Terrace resident Kitti St. John, who calls herself Cupcake Kitti. During the rioting, St. John baked hundreds of cupcakes for Foothill Division officers who were working 12-hour shifts and often had little time to eat.

“It was so depressing to watch the news,” she said. “It seemed like the Police Department was really under the gun and I wanted to do something.”

So she carted four big boxes of homemade goodies to the police station, adding them to piles of donated food: lasagna from a Mission Hills Neighborhood Watch group, party trays of meats and vegetables from the San Fernando Pace Warehouse. In fact, so much food was donated by Foothill-area residents that officers shipped some of it to their colleagues in South Los Angeles.

But more than the food, officers said they appreciated the encouragement they got from residents. “This is going to sound funny,” Detective Gregg Miller said, “but the best thing these people did was to tell us that they appreciated us, what we were doing.”

Kroeker agreed, saying Foothill-area residents helped police prevent violence during the rioting. “They unleashed a police-community effort that was far better than any tactical response by the Police Department alone,” he said.

And once the riots that split the city had subsided, officers and residents realized that the unrest actually had brought at least some officers and civilians closer together.

“We were well taken care of, both in food and in spirit,” Officer Frank Cerny said. “I think we’ve got a closer relationship with the community than at any time in the 12 years I’ve been here.”