Overselling of Tickets Blamed for Melee at Palladium : Disturbance: Two men are injured at Hollywood club. Police, neighbors say overbooking creates tension.

After declaring a tactical alert to quell a Christmas Day melee at the Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles police on Saturday blamed the disturbance on the club’s practice of overselling tickets, which was recently condemned by a city zoning board.

About 130 officers, 60 of them in riot gear, responded to reports of a shooting at 11 p.m. Friday that left two men injured at the Sunset Boulevard club. The crowd, which police said had grown impatient because of an overbooked deejay dance party, pelted officers with rocks and bottles.

Four people were arrested for disturbing the peace, said authorities, who dispersed the crowd by about 12:30 a.m. No officers were injured and the condition of the two wounded men was unknown.

“They overbook every single thing that they have,” said Sgt. Roger Jackson of the LAPD’s Hollywood Division. “These little mini-riots are a nightly occurrence.”

The Palladium’s management could not be reached for comment Saturday. A message on the answering machine of the party’s promoter, Seven Oasis, said: “We would like to apologize for the ignorance of a few. Once again it was that ignorance of a few that spoiled the fun of many.”

Joe Shea, a community activist who lives four blocks from the club, said that he has been documenting disturbances there for several years. “Some of these things have really been wild, just tearing up the place,” said Shea, president of the Ivar Hill Community Assn. “They’ve been really incredible.”

Asked by police to mobilize the neighborhood’s opposition, Shea presented a long list of complaints against the Palladium to the Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals. At an October meeting, the board adopted a set of regulations for the club, including guidelines requiring uniformed security, food service to accompany the sale of alcohol and a ban on on-site ticket sales less than two hours before of an event.

“The Palladium ought to look at becoming a real 21st-Century supper club as it was just 10 or 15 years ago, instead of trying to make every nickel and dime they can from every act that wants to get a crowd in there,” Shea said.

Another zoning board condition requires Palladium management to reimburse the city for costs related to disturbances there, Shea said. That probably will not be cheap, considering that officers from at least seven divisions showed up Friday--many of them receiving holiday overtime pay.