Citywide Town Meeting Blasts Justice System : Rebuilding: Many in TV hookup say minorities are treated unfairly. They call for reform to prevent violence.

If there was one thing it seemed everyone agreed upon in a spirited televised town meeting among participants throughout Los Angeles Sunday, it was that more civil unrest is inevitable unless the criminal justice system gets an overhaul.

One moderator of the live, three-hour broadcast, KABC-TV anchor Ann Martin, helped set the tone of the show by noting that, “Racial tensions have brought this city to the boiling point more than once.” She said the show was about finding ways of promoting understanding throughout the city, so that future flare-ups can be avoided.

But in short order, a host of participants--including parents and teen-agers, merchants, elected officials, community activists and even some judges--heaped scorn on what they called a flawed judicial system.

They said that the system discriminates against minorities from the moment they are arrested to the time they are prosecuted and sentenced for crimes they either did or did not commit. Such injustices, they maintained, combined with the indignity of longstanding economic inequality for minorities, led to the rioting last spring after four Los Angeles police officers were found not guilty on most charges in the beating of Rodney G. King.

Some participants warned that such inequities will spark more riots unless something is done.

Newly elected Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, talking over boos and hoots from some in the audience, defended the judicial system while acknowledging its flaws.

“I understand there is no credibility in the criminal justice system--it is lacking,” Garcetti said. “Many feel that some people who commit crimes get off easy and others who don’t deserve it get convicted. . . . But I am putting all of my efforts into this, and I am confident that we will prevail, that there will be justice for the entire community.”

Leonard Broom, a longtime resident of South-Central Los Angeles, was one of many who were openly skeptical of Garcetti and other officials who participated in the program, which frequently turned rancorous and combative.

“First of all, justice begins at the top and not the bottom,” Broom said from Manual Arts High School. As a roomful of apparent supporters cheered, he added: “We know it took years for all this to happen. What we want to know is what you are going to do about it. I have seen a lot of mayors and district attorneys, and things have stayed the same.”

The town meeting, in the planning stages for a month, was held against the extraordinary backdrop of a city publicly calling for peace but preparing for more civil unrest in the wake of the federal civil rights trial of four officers accused of beating King, and the trial of three men accused of beating trucker Reginald O. Denny during the initial hours of the riots.

Titled “Together: Neighbor to Neighbor--A Town Hall Gathering,” the program was aired on KABC-TV, Channel 7 in cooperation with Mayor Tom Bradley’s Neighbor to Neighbor program. The show used studio, satellite and microwave facilities to interconnect seven Los Angeles area communities, to allow more than 300 audience members and phone-in callers to participate in a discussion of major issues facing Los Angeles.

President Clinton delivered a taped message during the broadcast. And about 50 residents from South-Central, the Eastside, West Los Angeles, Hollywood, Van Nuys, Koreatown and the Pico-Union area gathered at schools to participate in the program.

The show originated from KABC-TV studios in Hollywood, and was hosted by Channel 7 news anchors Martin and Harold Greene, with help from many invited “guest resource persons” such as Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Garcetti, Rebuild L.A. Co-Chairman Peter V. Ueberroth, U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack.

There were several glitches in the live broadcast, including sound problems and complaints by some participants that they were not given enough air time. The meeting was designed to promote dialogue among the diverse members of the community on a wide variety of subjects such as the justice system, jobs, racial harmony, education and public safety.

But time and again, talk returned to the subject of inequality in the treatment of Anglos and minorities, which many participants contended has led to judicial and economic discrimination.

After several participants said the effort to rebuild Los Angeles was more evidence of economic discrimination, Ueberroth said there has been progress, but the media and others are too fixated on bad news to give his organization a chance.

“Businesses are coming but not as fast as we’d like,” he said. “But they are coming back, and hiring people from the neighborhoods. But nobody wants to talk about that.”

Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade, a charitable organization in South-Central Los Angeles, said his community is tired of hearing official promises from Ueberroth and others.

“We have been told to respect the justice system but at the same time what has been perpetrated on us has been injustice,” he said. “We are not going to allow our people to be abused any longer.”

Sandy Champion of West Los Angeles was one of many program participants who had a more conciliatory message.

“Everybody seems to be preparing for the negative instead of being nonviolent,” Champion said. “Yes, there have been some injustices. But we need to give the justice system a chance to work itself through.”