Leaders Fear Complacency in Wake of King Verdicts : Reaction: Community leaders praise police for keeping the peace. They cite the need to address problems of crime, gangs and graffiti.

There was no fire this time.

No mayhem, no killing, no looting.

Los Angeles survived the second Rodney G. King beating trial unscathed by the violence that rocked the city last spring. But what remains--after the verdicts, the national media attention, the joyous celebrations or mournings--is what was there before: a city very much in need of solutions.

And that, said leaders in the northeast Valley, must not be forgotten.

“We must realize that we cannot let our guards down,” LeRoy Chase Jr., executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley, said at a news conference Monday. “Everything is not OK. We have to address the problems of crime, gangs, graffiti, drive-by shootings.”

Standing outside the Boys & Girls Club in Pacoima, Chase and other community leaders praised the community and the Police Department for “keeping the peace,” but they also called on the city to remember the issues that were at the root of the problem.

“It doesn’t stop with the verdict,” said Marie Harris, a longtime activist and resident of Pacoima. “It continues, and we must continue our peace on the streets.”

In the weeks before the verdicts were issued Saturday, the Boys & Girls Club was a meeting place for community members. A coalition of groups that included the National Council of Negro Women, the NAACP, the United Chambers of Commerce and other groups, met there with members of the Foothill Division of the Los Angeles Police Department to share ideas and strategies for ensuring the community would not erupt in violence after the verdicts were released.

Barbara Perkins, president of the Valley chapter of the National Council of Negro Women, said the police had done a “tremendous job” in working with community leaders and attributed much of the calm to their efforts.

But the community also launched its own efforts. Some members of the coalition called businesses that sold alcohol and asked that they not sell to the public 12 to 24 hours after the verdict was announced, Perkins said.

Others, such as Harris, promoted the “Peace in Our Streets” campaign. Banners hung from street poles throughout Pacoima declaring “Peace And Respect in Our Streets,” and residents and business owners have worn red, white and blue ribbons as a show of solidarity.

Those who attended the news conference were pleased with the outcome of the trial and the response of the community, but said it was only one step on a long road.

“I feel that justice was served,” Perkins said. “However, I feel that justice is a full course meal and we saw Saturday morning the appetizer.”

Perkins urged city and community leaders to use the same energy that ensured calm on the streets after the verdict “into solving some of the problems that got us to this place in the first place.”

Chase, a candidate in the District 7 City Council race, said the increased police presence in the community during the days leading up to the verdict brought about a decrease in crime. He called for more officers in the department and for patrolling the streets.

Leaders also called for an increase in “preventive programs” such as the Boys & Girls Club, which provide youth with positive activities.

“It’s critical for us to put energy and time into developing our young people,” Perkins said.

For the Rev. Zedar E. Broadous, president of the Valley branch of the NAACP, the Rodney King incident was one of many injustices that his organization has a long tradition of battling--a tradition that he has vowed to continue.

“The struggle still continues,” Broadous said. “Rodney King was not the first time or the last time . . . “