Plea-Bargain in Denny Case Would Let Mob Rule Prevail : Justice: The serious nature of this case, no less than in the Rodney King case, demands prosecution.

Plea-bargain away the Reginald Denny beating case, and you might as well close down the district attorney’s office and give all the murderers, rapists and robbers tickets. Mob rule will have prevailed, might will determine right and justice will be no more. Criminals will be encouraged to band together and threaten, if prosecuted, urban conflagration so as to remain immune from punishment. Our criminal justice system, all too often ineffectual, will process only those hapless souls who commit crime alone without posing a potential danger of civil unrest.

Sound far-fetched? Not really. Recently, the district attorney and a mayoral candidate publicly expressed in terms of “social legitimacy” the beneficial effect of a plea bargain for the defendants in the Denny case. You remember that case: Reginald Denny, a truck driver, stopped at a traffic light at Florence and Normandie, defenseless, pulled from his truck and savagely brutalized, kicked and pummeled in the head and body. Like the Rodney King case, this notorious mayhem was videotaped.

Just as it is critical to our justice system that the cops who beat Rodney King be held accountable for their barbarism, so too must the men who demonically beat Denny be convicted for their crimes. To short-circuit justice in either of these cases or, more pointedly, to plea bargain it away in the Denny case is to trivialize and place in further paralysis our entire criminal justice system. Plea-bargain the Denny defendants and you place a stake in the heart of the integrity and credibility of our system of justice. Constitutional notions of fundamental fairness and equal justice under law will wither.

Try only those who lack the criminal coterie who possess the weaponry, reckless abandon and brazenness to incite substantial disturbance, and not only will justice terminally hemorrhage, but our city streets will be nothing more than a criminally infested asphalt jungle wherein the civil expectation of human conduct will cease to exist.

The purpose of our criminal justice system is twofold: Evaluate conduct to determine if it is criminal and, if it is, mete out appropriate punishment. The system has to be at all times fair and effective, resolute and compassionate. Not all cases that flow through it can or should be tried. Each case requires a careful, professional qualitative analysis to determine its proper disposition. The Denny case rises to the level where no lesser plea should be accepted. Get in court and try it. D.A.’s are not politicians; they are not social engineers. D.A.’s are charged with the responsibility for investigating, charging and trying those who commit crime; to hold criminals accountable and responsible for their wrongful conduct.

While it was painful and horrifying to observe the rioting of last April and to recognize that the social and economic issues remain basically the same as those that ignited the Watts rioting--jobs, education, housing--mindless plea bargaining of the Denny or King cases would place in motion an engine of incalculable danger to the safety and welfare of all decent people by sanctifying the heinous double standard of justice.

Let the pols, the social scientists, the private-sector power brokers and all people of conscience work together to solve the root causes of crime, frustration and anger that exist too prevalently in our city. But, at the same time, one must not suspend the standards of equal justice during the reconstruction.

We need progressive reformers to fix social injustice, but we also need tough, professional, fair-minded district attorneys who have the guts to look the Denny defendants in their eyes in court and say loud enough for everyone to hear: “You’re going to pay for what you did!”