Bradley Plan to Keep Peace Gets Mixed Reviews

Despite its billing as the city’s best hope for stemming another outbreak of violence as two potentially explosive trials approach, Mayor Tom Bradley’s newly launched Neighbor to Neighbor program is drawing decidedly mixed reviews.

Billed as an unprecedented effort to empower the city’s diverse and divergent communities, the program is slated to bring together hundreds of volunteers to hit the streets to maintain calm during the trials of four police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King and three men accused of assaulting trucker Reginald O. Denny.

The program is modeled in part on a New York volunteer effort created in response to that city’s racial upheavals and credited with averting violence last summer during a grand jury inquiry into the shooting death of a Latino man by a white police officer.

However, some Los Angeles advocates view the program as a misguided effort that tends to perpetuate stereotypes about minority communities.

There is no reason to believe that minority communities will react violently if the four police officers are acquitted again, said Gloria Romero, who is active on law enforcement issues and is on the Hispanic Advisory Council of the Los Angeles Police Commission. “I feel alarm and sadness at the stereotypes this promotes almost without understanding the real reasons that people riot.”

Other community leaders contend that the program is a public relations ploy that could do more harm than good if the public perceives it as merely an attempt to pacify certain neighborhoods.

“There is nothing evil about asking people to talk, but we’ve been talking for 30 years,” said Burt Corona, an executive with Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Latino social welfare group. “I see very little hope if we don’t have anything concrete to offer in terms of day-to-day problems.”

One aim of city officials in the event of unpopular verdicts is to channel anger constructively rather than destructively.

However, anti-gang activist Chilton Alphonse said no amount of networking will keep a lid on tensions if the people perceive the criminal justice system is tainted.

Alphonse said he has been asked to join a steering committee for the program but has not decided if it will be worthwhile.

“Keeping the community together is something I can endorse,” he said. “But in a lot of ways this seems like a publicity ploy.”

But many advocates are cautiously optimistic the program will succeed in reducing tensions surrounding the trials of the officers accused of beating King and the men accused of assaulting Denny.

“I think the overall idea of a proactive effort to address what can be anticipated in terms of anger and anxiety is a good thing,” said Anthony Thigpen, a community activist. “It’s a positive step that the government is spending money on this as opposed to relying only on law enforcement.”

Still, Thigpen and other advocates who represent the communities most heavily affected by last year’s upheaval say the program must be sensitive to ethnic differences while offering more than just “We Are the World” rhetoric to be successful.

Already some members of the Korean-American community are complaining of being left out of the process.

Of the organizers hired so far, none are Asian-Americans. Howell said a few leaders in the Asian-American community were approached about joining the program but had conflicting schedules. Efforts are under way to bring others on board, she said.

But some Asian-American leaders remain pessimistic that the program will succeed in reducing fear in their communities.

“Many store owners are very fearful right now; they feel they are going to be victimized again,” said Bong Hwan Kim, executive director of the Korean-American Interagency Council. “Many of these people don’t have the mind-set that they can work with the mayor as part of the solution because they have been left out so many times before.”

The Neighbor to Neighbor program is the cornerstone of Bradley’s plan to avert the kind of violence that rocked the city last spring following not guilty verdicts for four white police officers.

The officers’ trial in federal court is expected to begin in February, closely followed by the trial of three black men accused of assaulting Denny as the riots broke out.

For the duration of both trials, the mayor’s plan calls for the volunteers to visit shopping centers, housing projects and schools to discuss the trials, and to provide updates and information about rebuilding efforts.

Twenty-three organizers were hired to put together neighborhood teams in eight geographical zones across the city. The city’s Housing Authority and Community Development Department are providing $331,000 in start-up funds for the program. The mayor has requested an additional $2.6 million in city funds to expand the program to include youth activities and job referrals.

Program officials argue that the city would come in for heavy criticism if it did nothing to prepare for the aftermath of the upcoming trials.

“We’ve had nothing but positive reaction from people,” said program director Marcella Howell. “People are pleased that there is some kind of proactive work being done.”

But Howell conceded that, with only a few weeks before the scheduled start of the trials, the program is still evolving, that organizers have just begun putting together their teams and that the tasks of each team are still undecided.

On Thursday, organizers gathered at the headquarters of the Jewish Federation for a frenzied volunteer recruiting effort conducted via a phone bank.

Lori Sanchez, who is organizing the East Los Angeles neighborhoods of Boyle Heights and El Sereno, said that despite the immensity of the task and looming trial dates, organizers believe they will be able to bring communities together.

“It’s quite a challenge, but all of the organizers are very motivated and committed to doing this,” she said.

Still, city officials concede that several issues remain unresolved. The program’s coordinator recently left the project, and Howell said that the program’s administration is undergoing a restructuring.

It has been decided that two people are needed to coordinate the program but neither has been hired, she said.