Dinkins Appeals for Calm After N.Y. Disturbances : Inner city: Police pour into neighborhood to quell violence. Democratic chairman predicts that tensions will ease before convention.

Mayor David N. Dinkins on Tuesday appealed for calm in a drug-infested neighborhood that erupted in widespread disturbances Monday night, less than a week before the Democratic National Convention begins in Madison Square Garden.

After a night during which fires were set, cars were torched, stores were looted and officers and a police helicopter were fired upon, about 3,000 policemen were sent to the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights to control any new eruption of violence. The disturbances were triggered by the police shooting of a 23-year-old man last Friday.

Police sought Tuesday to contain scattered groups of demonstrators, some of whom hurled bottles and ignited small fires. Reinforcements dispersed about 200 protesters who sought to block traffic on the nearby George Washington Bridge, which links New York and New Jersey.

Late Tuesday evening, police still sought to calm the neighborhood. Curb-to-curb contingents of officers wearing riot helmets filled many streets and appeared to be making progress.

More than a dozen car fires were reported along with continuing incidents of bottle-throwing. But their frequency was less than the night before. Police made at least 19 arrests in an effort to break up crowds.

Twenty people, including 10 police officers, suffered minor injuries.

Smoke from smoldering trash and tires hung over the neighborhood Tuesday as sanitation crews worked to clear glass-littered streets and to haul off gutted autos.

“The violence that erupted was absolutely unacceptable,” Dinkins said. “Let me be clear. It must stop--and it will stop. . . . You do not build a better city by destroying it.

“There is much anger in the community about the death of (shooting victim) Jose Garcia and other incidents,” Dinkins said. “But you do not obtain justice by being unjust to others.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ronald H. Brown, here for the party’s convention, which begins Monday, kept tabs on developments. Speaking during a news conference at the convention site, Brown said that he is in touch with Dinkins and he predicted: “Tensions will be calmed by the time of the convention. New Yorkers want to be a good host to this convention.”

The tense neighborhood in northern Manhattan, between the Hudson and Harlem rivers, has become home to large numbers of immigrants from the Dominican Republic in recent years.

Protesters, many waving flags, gathered in front of the funeral home where the body of Garcia, who died in a confrontation with Police Officer Michael O’Keefe, was taken.

Manhattan Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau is investigating the shooting. Police claim that O’Keefe acted properly and that Garcia was carrying a fully-loaded .38-caliber revolver. Neighborhood residents and Garcia’s relatives, however, charged that he was unarmed and was assaulted by O’Keefe without provocation.

In Manhattan, addressing a GOP fund-raising luncheon, Vice President Dan Quayle referred to the disorders. He declared: “Violence came to New York City last night, and once again it must be said: Whatever the possible provocation, violence is never an answer, and its perpetrators must be held accountable.”

For Dinkins and Brown, the political stakes are high.

The last thing the Democratic official wants is pictures of rioters and fires competing with Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s coronation next week as his party’s standard-bearer.

For Dinkins, who will seek reelection next year, a cornerstone of his campaign is expected to be his handling of race relations and the fact that New York was calm after the Los Angeles riots in late April.

Police reported one death, 19 injuries and 28 arrests after anger over Garcia’s slaying boiled over Monday night in Washington Heights. The disturbances represented a major test for New York’s police, who are expected to face large-scale demonstrations during the Democratic convention.

The city’s police have been battered by charges of corruption and lack of discipline. Some police radio transmissions included racial epithets against the protesters Monday night.

And on Tuesday, when the Rev. Al Sharpton, a controversial Brooklyn community activist who is seeking the Democratic Senate nomination in September’s primary, appeared on the streets of Washington Heights, an unauthorized transmission on police frequencies twice urged: “Shoot him.”

Sharpton met with protesters outside the funeral home and urged an end to the violence.

Garcia’s body was to be returned to his native Dominican Republic for burial today.