Protesters Confront Quayle in Visit to Housing Project : Politics: They accuse the vice president of using them for a publicity stunt and say he insulted single mothers.

Any notion that Vice President Dan Quayle’s visit to Los Angeles’ struggling Pueblo del Rio housing project would be a typical political stop--in with a handshake and out with a wave--dissolved quickly Tuesday.

As Quayle arrived in his 15-car motorcade, he could see the signs held high in silent protest by a smattering of the South-Central area residents: “We Want Jobs.” Shortly thereafter he was engaged in a heated discussion over his intentions, with residents openly accusing Quayle of using them as political props.

“It’s a publicity stunt; you know it is,” one man told Quayle in a dispute that escalated into yelling, at least on the man’s part.

“Is there anything wrong with talking to people?” the vice president responded, trying in vain to explain the rationale for his visit. “I want to talk to people.”

Another resident who castigated the vice president to his face--a confrontation that occurred after Quayle approached the protesters--said later that she took his well-publicized criticisms of the television character Murphy Brown as an insult to single mothers like her.

“If the good Lord wanted everybody to have a husband, he would have gave them one,” said Diane Freeman, a 37-year-old mother of four. “How can he get on the TV and say everybody needs a husband, just because he was a fortunate white boy growing up?”

There were some indications that the protest was politically motivated--one area resident said that it had been engineered by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who is a key adviser to probable Democratic nominee Bill Clinton. But spokesmen in Waters’ Los Angeles and Washington offices denied the assertion.

Whatever its origins, the confrontation seemed to open a window into the emotions of a community tired of being embraced during election years and ignored otherwise. It was all the more heartfelt because of recent speeches by Quayle that criticized broken families, the welfare system and rap artist Ice-T--issues that resonate in the neighborhood.

Quayle, for his part, said he truly does want to help improve conditions in the inner city--and some residents said they believed him.

“I’m vice president of the United States and I’m here,” he said when asked why residents should believe that his visit would portend better conditions. “We have a different attitude on trying to empower people; we’re trying to change things.”

The Bush Administration has taken pains, particularly since the Los Angeles riots, to be seen as assertively dealing with America’s urban problems. As Quayle noted to reporters Tuesday, the President on Monday signed a $1.1-billion urban aid bill that is expected to deliver about 13,500 summer jobs to Los Angeles youths.

But in dealing with the riots on a political level, Quayle has managed to offend many in the inner city with his lifestyle criticisms and his hard-line defense of law enforcement officials.

Speaking to hundreds of sheriffs in San Diego on Monday, for example, Quayle suggested with sarcasm that “some have even suggested the L.A. riots were caused by police brutality.” Nowhere in his remarks did he mention the police beating of motorist Rodney G. King or minority residents’ longtime concerns about police abuse.

The stated purpose of Quayle’s Tuesday visit was to tout an Administration program to turn over housing projects to tenants, allowing them to purchase their homes with government assistance. Seven Los Angeles housing projects have recently won federal grants to plan such a conversion, with Pueblo del Rio awarded $200,000.

Despite his intentions, the focus quickly turned elsewhere.

The vice president first spent time in the apartment of Donald and Aquanette Thompson, then shook hands with residents gathered outside and walked across a street swollen with police officers and Secret Service agents to approach a handful of demonstrators.

Freeman and a man who later identified himself only as “Joe” shook hands with Quayle and proceeded to accuse him of being overly critical of the minority community.

“You have to be here to see what’s going on,” a blunt Freeman told Quayle.

“I’m here to listen,” Quayle responded.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen you visit. But I know your type and I know your kind,” Joe said.

Quayle later told the protesters that he came with “an open heart” and “an open mind.” And some residents appeared willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, despite their long experience with transient politicians.

Loma White, president of the Residents’ Advisory Committee, said she was particularly thankful that the project has been awarded the tenant ownership planning grant.

“I trust in the man and I believe that he is going to do more for us, to make it better,” said White, who has lived in the projects for 33 years and who organized the grant application.

After the heated discussion with his opponents, the vice president toured the facility’s day care center and held a round-table discussion with other residents, all of whom emphasized the need for jobs in the area.

“It’s not only homeownership, it’s also jobs, and I don’t mean jobs that are temporary,” Dori Pye, chairwoman of Los Angeles’ Housing Authority Commission, told Quayle in an apparent reference to the urban aid bill.

Later, Quayle said he and Bush “are doing our level best to make sure we can create those jobs.”

The vice president left Los Angeles for Sacramento, where he attended a fund-raising lunch. Then he traveled to Las Vegas, where he is to deliver a speech today to bowling alley operators.

Quayle has visited California nearly two dozen times during his vice presidency, and with the state assuming a major role in the 1992 election the pace of visits is scheduled to increase.