Rally at Courthouse Asks End to Bigotry : Simi Valley: Demonstrators outside the scene of Rodney G. King beating trial call for tolerance.

An emotional rally calling for an end to bigotry took place Saturday outside the Simi Valley courthouse where the Rodney G. King beating trial unfolded and where a white supremacist from Mississippi later aired his volatile views.

The event, “Solidarity Celebration,” was set up by a Simi Valley-based coalition called Neighbors Against Nazis. Participating were African-American, Latino and gay activists, along with feminists, leftist political groups and labor unions.

About 80 people from Ventura County and other areas visited information tables in the East County Courthouse courtyard. They listened to protest songs and impassioned speeches about double standards in the justice system.

Neighbors Against Nazis was formed by some of the activists who angrily protested two Simi Valley appearances last year by white supremacist Richard Barrett.

But social harmony was the main theme of Saturday’s event.

“It’s time for us to come together and get rid of the hate,” Louis Bryant, a civil rights activist from Ventura, told the crowd. “We’ve got to get back to caring for each other.”

At each of Barrett’s two Simi Valley appearances, more than 100 police officers and sheriff’s deputies were called in to protect the white supremacist from unruly counterdemonstrators. Demonstrators were arrested at both events.

In contrast, Simi Valley police stayed out of sight during most of Saturday’s rally and made no arrests.

“This is a unity rally, rather than having to combat face-to-face a white supremacist,” said Lisa Swanson-Cash of Simi Valley, a member of Neighbors Against Nazis.

Her group received an assembly permit from the city, but Simi Valley officials did not endorse the event or participate in it. Mayor Greg Stratton watched a portion of the rally from behind tinted windows in the courthouse lobby, which was closed to the public.

“It was a political rally for their particular beliefs,” Stratton said Saturday. “They were touting it as an anti-racism rally. But other issues were involved, including a strong anti-police flavor.”

Ramona Ayala of Camarillo was among the speakers who denounced police harassment of minority residents. Ayala founded Padres y Hijos Unidos (Parents and Their Children United) to call attention to police abuses.

In another symbol of anger toward officers, someone affixed a sign to the courthouse doors that read: “Kops and the Klan--Now There’s Equality.”

The rally was scheduled for Saturday after John Varela, an avowed Ku Klux Klan representative from Bakersfield, told Simi Valley officials that he wanted to demonstrate outside the courthouse on that date.

Varela canceled his event to avoid a clash with Neighbors Against Nazis but said he may appear in Simi Valley in late February. Saturday’s rally proceeded without incident.

“I don’t see the Nazis or the Klan here, which is a horrible defeat for them,” said Carl Roman of Los Angeles, who was handing out flyers for Supporters of the Marxist-Leninist Party, U.S.A. “To me, with all the anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-black stuff, I thought it was important to show people that we support this group.”

Many of those who took part in the rally were from Ventura County.

Leaf Monroe of Newbury Park, a 38-year-old public health nurse, brought her 3-month-old baby, Hana, to the event. “I don’t want my daughter to grow up in a world where hate and bigotry are prevalent,” she said.

“Ventura County is very conservative--the Simi Valley-Thousand Oaks area in particular,” said Claire Connelly of Gay & Lesbian Resources of Ventura County. “This is where we have to start building a human rights coalition.”

Bob Marston, a Simi Valley computer engineer who was registering voters at a Green Party of California table, was pleased by the diverse turnout. “It let the people of Simi Valley see a different side of the community,” he said.

But the event also attracted a significant number of activists from across California.

Among the contingent from Los Angeles, Nat Williams, 30, was distributing handouts that said: “Free the LA4+! Amnesty for All.”

Williams said his leaflets refer to the men charged with the beating of truck driver Reginald Denny during the civil unrest last spring.

Moises Montoya, 33, of Berkeley, an activist with the Freedom Socialist Party, said he was not disappointed by the modest turnout at Saturday’s rally, which was blamed partly on the chilly and unusually windy weather.

“People who are experienced activists learn to measure these things by the quality, not just the” number of participants, he said.

About a dozen young people affiliated with the United Anarchist Front attended the event. “We heard the Klan was going to be here,” said Samuel Lye, 19, of Whittier. “We don’t agree with people oppressing others because of their color or sex or class.”