Police End Alert as Tensions Ease : Protection: LAPD returns to normal level of coverage in South-Central. Four of the 55 people arrested are arraigned.

Citing a reduced threat of violence, the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday lifted the tactical alert that officers in an area of South-Central Los Angeles had been under since Monday’s disturbance at the corner of Florence and Normandie avenues.

“We have assessed the threat in the community for continued violence and feel it is such that the (tactical) alert is no longer warranted,” said LAPD spokesman Lt. John Dunkin.

During such an alert, officers handle only high-priority calls and must receive permission to leave duty at the end of their shifts. Police citywide had been placed on tactical alert following a rock- and bottle-throwing clash with supporters of the four men accused of beating truck driver Reginald O. Denny at the same intersection.

The citywide alert was lifted Tuesday afternoon, and the four divisions in the LAPD’s South Bureau remained on alert until about 3 a.m. Wednesday.

77th Street Division, which patrols the Florence-Normandie intersection, was taken off alert at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Dunkin.

At the height of the disturbance Monday, more than 300 officers were deployed in the area, a flash point of last spring’s civil unrest.

Monday’s incident began after a peaceful demonstration by members of the Free the L.A. 4+ Defense Committee, which has protested what it calls excessive charges and high bails imposed on the four men accused of beating Denny.

The defense committee has disputed police versions of what triggered the clash, which resulted in several minor injuries and 55 arrests.

Four people accused of felonies were arraigned Wednesday, including one charged with assault on a police officer. A fifth person was expected to be arraigned today on charges that he burglarized a business.

Cerman A. Cunningham, 29, was charged with throwing a 10-inch length of metal pipe at a Los Angeles police officer as the officer, who was not hit, attempted to cordon off an area. Cunningham could face a five-year prison term if convicted.

In another case, three men were charged in connection with breaking into the L.A. Food Market near the intersection and stealing cigarettes and diapers.

Deputy City Atty. Alice Hand said about a dozen people have been charged with misdemeanors, including interfering with a police officer and refusing to disperse.

Four of those people were arraigned Wednesday and three pleaded guilty, she said.

One of those defendants, Edward Carter, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years probation after pleading guilty to assault with a deadly weapon for throwing a bottle at a police officer and spraying him with glass.

Jerry Sadler, also accused of throwing a bottle at an officer, was sentenced to 10 days in jail and three years probation.

Clarence Powell was sentenced to five days in jail and three years probation for battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.

A fourth defendant, identified as Paul Parker, pleaded not guilty to a charge of battery against a police officer and resisting arrest.

Several of those arrested complained that they were rounded up in police sweeps conducted several hours after the initial incident.

Nat Williams, 30, a defense committee member who had participated in the earlier demonstration, said he was among a group of people standing on a sidewalk on 71st Street near Raymond Avenue about 6:30 p.m. when he was arrested.

“We were talking to people in the community about what had happened earlier when a police truck drove up and about 10 to 15 police jumped out and just started arresting people--people who were in their yards and on their front porches--for no reason,” Williams told reporters Wednesday at a press conference outside Parker Center.

Other members of the defense committee accused Police Chief Willie L. Williams of being insensitive to the community anger created by the clash.

Williams has been widely praised by local officials for his handling of the incident.

But the Free the L.A. 4+ group chided the new chief for being “already” out of touch with the community and for continuing the use of controversial tactics employed by former Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“It seems to be business as usual,” said attorney B. Kwaku Duren, one of the group’s organizers. He said the community would not stand for a “black Daryl Gates.”

Meanwhile, Georgina Williams on Wednesday extended an invitation to Denny, the man her son is accused of beating, and to Rodney G. King, to come to her home Saturday for a holiday dinner.

Williams said the meeting would be a chance to promote “healing” in the city and that she would present the men with greeting cards from her neighbors.