Prepare for Trouble After King Verdict, Business Owners Told : Civil unrest: A sheriff’s deputy tells a gathering in Lawndale to be prepared with plywood, extra food, a water hose and other items. Some grow uneasy when the discussion turns to guns.

It was like an earthquake preparation meeting, except that here the clock seemed to be audibly ticking.

People such as Rosalia Razo, the video store owner, Bob Young, the auto mechanic, and Gary Craig Hoffman, the pawnshop owner, sat together in an office off Hawthorne Boulevard and pondered the question that is beginning to dominate the emotions of Southern California: If there is another riot, what do I do?

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, Deborah Clutter, was telling an audience of 30, mostly business people, to plan for the worst as the federal civil-rights trial of four officers accused of beating Rodney G. King winds toward its conclusion.

Buy your plywood now, Clutter said. Keep your cars filled with gas and have extra cash on hand; avoid automatic teller machines after the verdict, which is expected sometime in April. Buy extra food. Keep a map in your car’s glove compartment to help you detour potential trouble spots. Make copies of your business records. Have a water hose available at your business.

The grim advice was handed out Tuesday night in Lawndale, a city that like several others in the South Bay has come to see itself as living on the gray periphery of a potential riot zone.

In last year’s riots after the acquittal of the four officers in state court in Simi Valley, Lawndale was barely scratched: 15 stores looted, one attempted arson, about $300,000 in damage.

Nevertheless, Nancy McKee, who runs the city’s Neighborhood Watch programs, is taking no chances this time. She set up a “civil disturbance” preparation seminar on the same day the federal government said it planned to give up to $1.7 million to the city of Los Angeles to establish a highly visible police presence in the days before the verdict is announced.

Pawnshop owner Hoffman listened to the talk of preparation with mixed emotions.

Pawnshops, with guns and jewelry, are regarded as prime targets of looters. Hoffman and his sister, who co-own a shop on Redondo Beach Boulevard, know the risks. They have already installed special wood frames around their shop’s windows to hold plywood. The plywood is cut and ready.

But Hoffman is also a lawyer, and as the riot questions flew on Tuesday night, he was bothered by what he considered loosely worded exchanges about guns and self-defense.

The questions were: If I have a gun in my business, under what circumstances can I use it? Will I get sued or prosecuted?

It is a legally complex notion. California law says any person can take the life of someone who is trying to commit murder or any other felony, including breaking into a home or trying to commit “great bodily harm.” Deadly force is also permitted--by any person, not just a police officer--if it is necessary to “apprehend any person for any felony.”

However, in each of these situations, a citizen must also have what the law calls “a sufficiency of fear” that his life is in danger--not simply that his property will be damaged. He can take action if the circumstances are dangerous enough “to excite the fears of a reasonable person.”

Deputy Clutter, a crime prevention and community relations specialist, put it this way: “If someone is going to threaten me, if I believe someone is trying to hurt my children, I will kill them.” She caught herself and waved a hand to soften the tone. “I will stop them. I don’t care about the consequences. If you are stopping someone from potentially killing you, you have a right to protect yourself. But if you know they’re going to run into your A&P; and grab a six-pack of beer and run out of the store--then, no, you don’t have a right. It’s something you have to feel inside your heart. I can’t tell you what the fear level is.”

A retired Inglewood schoolteacher in the audience offered a suggestion.

“The old rule of thumb used to be that if you shoot someone, make sure they fall inside” the store or business, he said.

To Clutter, that implied a suggestion of moving the body before the police arrived. She firmly warned against it.

“Not a good idea. Like, we couldn’t figure it out?” she said.

Clutter told the business owners that the Sheriff’s Department, which patrols Lawndale out of its Lennox substation, plans to put all deputies on 12-hour shifts as the verdict approaches and to put most of its Lawndale patrol emphasis on businesses. She said National Guard units, who were not deployed until the second day of the riots last year, have already been given their assignments.

“I really don’t know if there is going to be a riot, but we’ve been preparing all year as if there were going to be, and so should you. Have a plan.”

Several business owners left the seminar with a sense of relief that law enforcement is better prepared.

“That’s a better feeling than just watching it (a riot) happening on TV and saying, ‘This is nuts,’ ” said George Whiteker, who runs an automobile pin-striping service out of his home.

Whiteker, wearing a pair of old jeans with a tear in the knee, said what bothers him more than the fear of another riot is the burgeoning panic he senses among citizens.

“The scary part of this whole thing is innocent people shooting innocent people,” said Whiteker, who said he owns several guns but does not carry one because he thinks that they create a false sense of security.

Video store owner Razo left determined to immediately buy plywood.

Mechanic Young, a mild-mannered, bearded man who also owns a flower shop, said he plans to distribute Clutter’s list of preparation recommendations to his employees.

He said he remains optimistic that a riot will not occur and will not make drastic changes in his business or life as the verdict approaches.

“I don’t want to live like that,” he said. “When I’m convinced I have to live like that, I’ll leave.”