A City on Edge Again: Justice Versus Mercy : Denny trial: Most seek a verdict and sentence that recognize fault but also understand the emotions surrounding the beating.

We have gone through it twice before, and we are bracing ourselves for another verdict and sentencing in what seems an end less torture played out on video tape. Yet, the dynamic is different this time.

Odds are there will not be another major civil disturbance following the verdicts in the Reginald O. Denny-beating trial. At worst, a kind of guerrilla warfare could develop if the two defendants are found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to long prison terms. “It is not going to be a standing war--your army on one side, my army on the other,” says Curtis Owens, executive director of the African-American Unity Center, “but irresponsible minds may respond irresponsibly.”

Within the African-American community, however, there is general agreement on two issues: No one deserved to be beaten the way Denny was beaten; and justice is not equitably distributed in Los Angeles. Whether you are talking to the unemployed on the streets, to an angry youth or to a middle-aged, middle-class African-American, there is a common view, based on bitter experience, that there is a double standard in the criminal-justice system, one for blacks--particularly for young males--and one for whites. According to a 1992 Los Angeles Times Poll, and a CBS poll taken in 1993, many of the rest of us--Angelenos and Americans--know this well.

Ironically, our awareness of a double standard, reinforced by the non-guilty verdicts in the first Rodney G. King-beating trial, work against another civil explosion. Those first verdicts were a shock. We all saw the beating on videotape; most of us expected that the four Los Angeles police officers involved would be convicted. When they were not, the reaction was rage at yet another example of the double standard.

When the rebellion first erupted, the anger was directed against the police, and the police withdrew. Had there been leadership in the Los Angeles Police Department, odds are the disturbances could have been controlled. This time around, there is leadership in the LAPD, there is a plan, and there is an improving relationship between the police and the African-American community.

We also have the reminders of the ’92 unrest. Residents of the Crenshaw area and South Central still must travel miles to get a prescription filled because all the drug stores were destroyed. Too many of the small-business victims have given up or have not yet found the help they need to rebuild. April, 1992, is too vivid a memory to expect a replay of the same human pain and physical destruction.

Some in the black community are calling for mercy before justice, demanding an acquittal in recognition of the circumstances under which the two Denny defendants reacted. But the prevailing view in the community is that those who beat Denny did wrong and should not go free. Most are asking for a verdict and sentence that recognize the fault of the Denny assailants but also understand the emotions at the time Denny was beaten. The criminal-justice system went overboard in giving the policemen who beat King and the shopkeeper who shot Latasha Harlins to death the benefit of the doubt, handing out light sentences. If the double standard is not to apply again, the young men on trial for beating Denny should be similarly treated.

In the long run, there will not be peace in Los Angeles until the underlying problems of racial discrimination and poverty are solved. It is essential that Angelenos face up to the fact that an absence of violence following the Denny verdicts does not automatically translate into the presence of justice. African-Americans, it should be noted, were the only racial or ethnic group to suffer a net job loss during the 1990-91 recession. Low-income housing has decreased at a frightening pace. Public education is in trouble. Viable African-American businesses are few and far between. And, most of all, there is a strong belief that the justice system itself is unfair.

As Americans, we hold tightly to our belief in the rule of law and look to it to assure equality and due process. Now, it is an elusive, idealistic dream, but what else can there be?