Supremacists at Rally Put in Protective Custody : Simi Valley: Violence blocks a march by members of the Nationalist Movement after 300 counterdemonstrators show up.

Confronted by an agitated crowd of about 300 people, seven white supremacists were taken into protective custody Saturday as they attempted to march in Simi Valley in support of the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case.

Simi Valley police and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies escorted the members of the Mississippi-based Nationalist Movement away from the City Hall and East County Courthouse area, where the march was to begin over the objection of city leaders.

Before the white supremacists were loaded into police vans, a demonstrator struck one Nationalist Movement member with a stick. Police quickly formed riot lines in the parking lot to isolate the white supremacists from counterdemonstrators shouting obscenities.

Members of the crowd then turned their wrath on the police, striking one officer in the ear with a stick and a second in the shoulder with a rock.

One counterdemonstrator hurled a full can of soda into a group of police and media members, striking a free-lance photographer in the back of the head and sending him buckling to the ground.

Police arrested five adults and one juvenile involved in the scuffle outside City Hall.

After being taken into custody, Nationalist Movement leader Richard Barrett vowed to return to Simi Valley to complete the march. Police who halted it said they were concerned for public safety. Barrett did not return Saturday, and police said he left town about 3:45 p.m.

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, who was at the site, said if the white supremacists were to stage another march that endangered the public safety, they would again be taken into protective custody.

When one Simi Valley man accused Bradbury of being too protective of the white supremacists, Bradbury said police had acted properly.

“There would have been a blood bath,” Bradbury said.

Those who showed up to protest the march said they came from Los Angeles and from as far away as the San Francisco Bay Area.

“We wanted to come down here to smash the Nazis,” said Scott Reed, a San Francisco man who said he belongs to the National Women’s Rights Organizing Coalition and the Revolutionary Workers League. “We wanted to get at them and hurt them and possibly kill them.”

About 100 law enforcement officers, some on horseback and others clad in riot gear, formed lines in the Civic Center parking lot to separate the white supremacists from the crowd.

The white supremacists and the counterprotesters began assembling late Saturday morning to prepare for a 1 p.m. march, but by 12:45 p.m. police declared the gathering unlawful and ordered protesters to disperse or be arrested.

“Once violence started and missiles were thrown, it became unlawful,” said Simi Valley Police Capt. Richard Wright.

Barrett and his handful of supporters were encircled by deputies in a small area at the north end of the parking lot. Epithets and angry slogans were shouted at the white supremacists, who carried an American flag and a red flag bearing a yellow cross.

James Jones of Los Angeles, one of Barrett’s supporters, said he came to march because “nobody’s really supporting the police in the matter. I say we need law and order in America, and that’s what I’m here for. Looters should go to jail.”

Also among the people who came to march with Barrett was a 19-year-old man who said it would not be safe to give his name.

“I’m here in support of my movement,” he said. “It’s a racist movement. We have no intention of provoking violence. Anything we say is (protected by guarantees of) freedom of speech.”

As the level of activity became more frenetic across the parking lot and others crowded near the white supremacists, police escorted Barrett and his group to a white van and drove them to police headquarters. They were held for an hour and released.

Two Simi Valley residents, Shelle Hogan and her stepmother, Tracey Hogan, shouted at the group as they got into the police van.

“You have no right to wear that flag, Mr. Barrett!” Tracey Hogan yelled.

Several Simi Valley residents in the crowd said they resented their city being chosen for the white supremacists’ rally in the aftermath of the King case verdicts.

“We’ve been trashed so much because of this,” Shelle Hogan said.

After police declared the assembly in front of City Hall unlawful, the protesters joined others in front of the courthouse.

Wright said the demonstration outside the courthouse was legal because there was no immediate threat of violence. But officers stood by on the ground, along the rooftop of the Simi Valley courthouse and circling in a helicopter.

Nancy Kato, who called herself a “radical women’s organizer,” was one of dozens who took the microphone to decry racism and call for an end to the white supremacist movement before it can grow.

“We want to get to them when they’re small,” Kato told the group.

She also objected to the strong police presence.

“They don’t need to be here,” she said.

Just north of the Civic Center, a number of residents sat in patio chairs in their driveways, watching the activities at City Hall.

On neighbor, cinematographer Joe Grasso, 31, said he was pleased to see a strong turnout of people demonstrating against racism.

“It was like a catharsis,” he said. “We’ve had no forum to express our dissatisfaction over the verdict and the negative light that’s been shed on the community as a result.”

Another resident, Kari Acosta, 31, a Moorpark College student, said: “I was going to spit on them. Anyone who believes any race is superior doesn’t have the right to march.”

Acosta went to the parking lot with her daughter, Antoinette, 4, who held a sign saying, “Go away, KKK.”

Arrested in connection with the disturbances were: a 15-year-old Los Angeles boy, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon; Joseph Wagner, 20, of Los Angeles, on suspicion of battery; Joseph Ortez, 38, of Los Angeles, on suspicion of possessing a weapon; Steve Moss, 23, of Santa Monica, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

The only Ventura County residents arrested were Juan Rosborough, 37, and Jeffrey Snitzer, 32, both of Simi Valley. They were being held on suspicion of remaining after dispersal of an unlawful assembly and resisting arrest.

The suspects were booked into Ventura County Jail Saturday evening, a Simi Valley Police spokesman said.

Times correspondent Peggy Y. Lee contributed to this story.