2nd King Trial Revives L.A.’s Fears and Hopes : Mood: Despite confidence in plans to head off trouble, city is wary. Denny hearings may overlap trial.

There is apprehension but it is not all-encompassing. There is fear but it is not pervading. There is anger but it is not uncompromising. And there is hope, though tempered by hard experience, that recent history will not repeat itself.

Beginning today, the criminal justice system once again will be called upon to decide the fate of four Los Angeles policemen--and, in many respects, of a city itself, one still teeming with tensions unvanquished in the fires of last spring.

It has been nine months now--though somehow it doesn’t seem that long--since a jury in Simi Valley returned the stunning not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating trial, igniting an explosion of rage that reverberated from local street corners to the highest seats of government.

The toll: 52 people dead, 10,000 businesses destroyed, $1 billion in damage and countless tales of private anguish and loss.

With many of the thorniest problems wrought by last spring’s civil upheaval still unresolved, there is apprehension throughout Los Angeles and beyond that more destruction and bloodshed could result if federal prosecutors fail to win convictions against Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and officers Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind and Theodore J. Briseno.

“From the (Rodney King) beating tape to the surreal pictures of burning blocks, everyone has images in their head now that they didn’t have a year ago and it has to have an effect,” said Randy Young, a 39-year-old Pacific Palisades businessman.

Although federal prosecutors aren’t talking, city leaders have already sought to lower expectations. The federal case, they say, is considered harder to prove and its outcome even harder to predict.

The prospect of unrest has only been heightened by the upcoming trial of defendants in the videotaped beating of Reginald O. Denny. In some corners, that case has become a bigger litmus test of judicial fairness than that of the four officers accused of intentionally depriving King of his civil rights.

Three of the Denny defendants (called the LA4 by their supporters) are scheduled to go to trial March 15, in hearings that could overlap the King case.

“The LA4, those brothers are the ones who are really tied in, I don’t think Rodney King is as hot an issue,” said Donald Bakeer, a Washington Preparatory High School teacher and author of a book on which the recent movie “South Central” was based.

Still, the signs of uneasiness--and preparedness--are everywhere, from the inner city to the outer reaches of the San Fernando Valley.

“We all feel that what happened before is just a precursor to what could happen in a much worse way if the outcome of the trials does not favor the minorities,” said Roz Bessen, 62, a retired office worker from Mar Vista on the Westside. “We are all concerned that our neighborhoods will be the next to be burned up.”

In the city’s Pico-Union district, Maria Eva Mejia, an El Salvadoran mother of two who lost all of her clothing merchandise when a neighborhood swap meet collapsed in flames, shudders at the thought of more upheaval.

“I pray to God that it doesn’t happen again,” said Mejia, sitting in a new stall at a swap meet across the street from MacArthur Park. “We’re just trying to survive here, just small merchants trying to make a living and feed our families. It’s unjust that this should have happened to us.”

In Koreatown, which was hard-hit in the riots, merchants and residents are bracing for the worst.

“If it happens again is it possible for us to suffer any more?” asked Hon Do Seok, a 59-year-old women whose South Los Angeles appliance store was looted during the riots. The shop recently reopened but now the family worries that lagging business may force them to close again.

For many of Los Angeles’ minority citizens especially, there is a sense of frustration that conditions of poverty and despair have not improved appreciably since last year’s explosions, and a sense of resignation that more trouble is around the bend.

“Of course there’s a fear los disturbios could happen again,” said Sara Garcia, a street vendor and mother of five from Honduras. “How many people suffered because of what happened? How many decent people lost their jobs? How many kids had nothing to eat?”

In South Los Angeles, where burned-out buildings still dot the landscape, there remains a well of anger. “People are still on edge,” said Charles Hayward, 53 and unemployed, as he sat on the stone fence in front of his home near Figueroa Street and Century Boulevard. “I hate to see another riot happen, but it’s up to the people in the government and on the bench. As far as I’m concerned, a lot of law enforcement is the Ku Klux Klan.”

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’ 8th District is home to some of the most riot-ravaged and poverty-racked neighborhoods.

“There is a sense of fear and some prolonged anger. A lot of people out there are mad about a lot of things, from homelessness to unemployment,” he said. “The jury trial in Simi Valley did nothing to fuel the hope and the aspirations of people. A number of people think the justice system is patently unjust. We’re working against that sentiment, but it’s a tough battle, an uphill battle.”

Clearly caught off guard by last year’s violent eruptions, state and local officials this time are taking no chances, claiming to have achieved an unprecedented readiness to deal with renewed civil disorder. “We’re not going to let the people of Los Angeles go through what they went through last time,” said LAPD Lt. Michael Hillmann, who is directing special riot-training drills at Dodger Stadium.

* Mayor Tom Bradley has organized a platoon of neighborhood volunteers ready to hit the streets to defuse tensions, control rumors and provide information about rebuilding efforts.

* Local law enforcement agencies have revamped emergency tactics, instituted new mutual aid procedures and strengthened lines of communication with each other.

* The state Office of Emergency Services has created a checklist of emergency procedures and key contacts to be used by law enforcement agencies statewide and has distributed the list to Los Angeles officials.

* Marshals are beefing up security at the federal courthouse where the case will be heard. Dozens of deputy marshals, some of them brought to Los Angeles for this trial, surveyed the perimeter of the Edward R. Roybal Building on Tuesday, and they are prepared to monitor the proceedings to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

* The National Guard has been conducting drills at command headquarters in Sacramento and is closely monitoring the King case’s progress. All required equipment--body armor, face guards, locking plates for weapons--has been distributed to units that would be deployed in Los Angeles, said Guard spokesman Col. Roger Goodrich.

In addition, emergency ammunition has been “strategically located” throughout the state to facilitate a rapid response, Goodrich said.

Business and property owners also are gearing up.

Securicorp International Inc., a private security guard firm, has already increased its 400-member staff by 50 guards in anticipation of calls from customers, said a spokesman.

The Boys Market grocery chain, which suffered extensive looting and destruction at its inner-city stores, has drafted a battle plan to protect property and employees. Among other things, it calls for chaining shopping carts together to use as barricades.

More ominously, many gun stores report increased sales of firearms and use of practice ranges.

“Whereas before it used to be mainly young men, now it’s white, black, Latino, young and old,” said Elias Yidonoy, owner of the LA Gun Club, located at 6th Street and Alameda Avenue. “Sadly, in this economic climate gun-related sales seem to be one of the few businesses that has increased.”

But the Korean-American Grocers Assn. is urging its members not to take up arms, said director Ryan Song. Song said reports of Korean-American merchants buying firearms to protect themselves are rife in the community.

“Most of the people we have talked to know about the upcoming trials, which indicates a realization that the outcome could affect them,” said Song. “The events are so strikingly similar to last year and it’s all happening just about at the same time, so there is apprehension.”

For many, it is not only the four police officers or the Denny defendants who are on trial. The entire justice system, the Police Department, the city’s leadership, its ability to find common ground as a community and to disagree while maintaining a unity of purpose are all under scrutiny.

“For those of us who care and have feelings of empathy for inner-city residents . . . there is a real feeling of powerlessness,” said Louise Frankel, a 70 year-old Tarzana community volunteer. “I’m hoping our various levels of government will begin to be responsive and creative.”

Amid all the fears and dire predictions, there are also many who see rays of hope in a new Administration seemingly more attuned to the needs of urban America and a new police chief locally who has impressed with his low-key style and sense of authority.

Joyce Watson, the mother of one of the principal defendants charged with beating Denny, said she hopes the city can continue its progress toward peace, even as the police officers go on trial for the second time.

“Each day, it seems like our hearts are lighter and lighter, and things are getting better and better,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “I hope that continues, because for our city to heal, our hearts need to heal.”

Also, while the charges against the officers this time may be more difficult to prove, federal prosecutors enter the arena with the advantage of lessons learned from the previous state case that resulted in acquittals on all but one count against one officer.

But they face the huge challenge of proving not only that the March 3, 1991, beating was excessive but also that the defendants intentionally used unreasonable force.

Many legal experts predict a more comprehensive prosecution, with an expanded group of witnesses who will be prepared to bolster impressions culled from the beating videotape.

Many observers also believe that King himself will testify this time.

“I’m as sure of that as I am of anything in this case,” said defense attorney Michael P. Stone, who represents Powell. “It was perceived by the public as being one of the major defects in the state prosecution, and I think it’s clear that he will be called this time.”

The defense’s case, meanwhile, is expected to get a boost merely from the fact that the four attorneys are no longer openly brawling with each other.

During the Simi Valley trial, Briseno testified against his fellow officers, accusing Powell, for instance, of being “out of control” as he pummeled King.

That testimony will not be admitted this time, and although Briseno has not recanted his earlier statements, he insists now that he was not in a position to judge Powell’s actions.

Both sides are grappling with the challenge of weeding out prospective jurors whose views of the beating, as well as the state trial and its violent aftermath, make it impossible for them to be fair.

While there is little question that the King and Denny trials will severely test Los Angeles’ mettle and resiliency, many believe the city may emerge a better community if lessons from the past nine months are heeded.

Gene Hale, president of the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Congress, said his membership is so concerned about the prospects of renewed unrest that all have agreed to discuss events with every young person they meet.

“The evidence” of how a riot can ravage a community “is right there in front of their faces. You don’t have to take them on a bus tour,” Hale said.

On the evening last year when the citywide curfew was imposed, Randy Young had been scheduled to pick up a plaque as Pacific Palisades’ Man of the Year for his environmental and historical efforts in the city.

A few weeks later, during the rescheduled ceremonies, he found himself talking to the assembled crowd not about Pacific Palisades but about South-Central Los Angeles.

“It is very difficult living in Pacific Palisades to understand what is happening downtown; it is a different world and to say otherwise would be a lie,” he said, recalling events of last year. “But I feel very strongly that we have to search for solutions. What I said then goes just as much now: Their problem are our problems, just as our problems are theirs. We are part of one city.”

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