Symposium Examines Crime and Punishment : Violence: Speakers encourage citizens to pressure lawmakers to toughen penalties. The governor is expected at Monday’s event.

In an emotional address to citizens and officials attending a South County symposium, San Juan Capistrano Mayor Collene Campbell on Friday called on Californians to wage an aggressive campaign against state legislators deemed “soft on crime.”

“Zero tolerance on crime will prevail,” Campbell said. “We must make the voters understand who receives money from the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), and groups like the trial lawyers associations, to defend the rights of these criminals.

“This is not a threat, it is a promise,” she said.

Campbell, whose 27-year-old son, Scott, was murdered in 1982, and whose brother, millionaire racing promoter Mickey Thompson, was murdered in 1988 along with his wife, has become an outspoken victims’ rights activist.

Campbell’s appeal for action was voiced at the second of a series of crime symposiums sponsored by the South Orange County Chambers of Commerce. On Monday, Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to speak at the third symposium at the Holiday Inn here.

An ACLU spokeswoman took exception to Campbell’s remarks, saying they do not make political donations, and never have in the group’s 74-year history.

“We do not endorse political candidates,” said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California in Los Angeles.

“This office is in the highest crime rate area in the city. We have drive-by shootings. Last week, the driver of a lunch truck (serving the area) was held up at gunpoint. We do know crime, and we don’t advocate for criminals. We believe criminals should be punished, provided the punishment is proportional to the crime,” Ripston added.

Organizers of the symposium held in Laguna Hills said the goal was to bring together a diverse audience made up of people who want to take an active role in doing something about crime--especially violent crime, which is on the rise.

“We believe that if we intervene we will not find ourselves to be the shooting gallery that Los Angeles has become,” said Carolyn Wallace, a spokeswoman for the South Orange County Chambers of Commerce. “We also want to come up with programs to help change the directions of at-risk youth, and to lobby for tougher crime bills.”

Addressing an audience of about 60 people, Campbell said that she was not speaking as mayor, but “as a victim of crime.”

In an emotional outpouring, she told about the death of her son. And, when speaking about her brother, she paused, and took a deep breath before continuing. “My only sibling . . . my brother Mickey Thompson and his beautiful wife were murdered.

“I had the opportunity to talk with Mark Klaas, Polly Klaas’ father,” Campbell said, referring to a 12-year-old girl who was abducted late last year from a slumber party at her Petaluma home and subsequently murdered. “And we both came to the conclusion that our two kids were murdered because some legislator wanted to give a criminal another chance.”

As Campbell sat down to loud applause, she was thanked for sharing her personal tragedies by Assemblyman Bill Jones (R-Fresno), the author of California’s new “three strikes and you’re out” sentencing law.

“With the signing of” that law, Jones said, “we have succeeded in enacting the toughest anti-crime measure in California in generations. We have now served notice that the citizens of this state have a right to live in safety and that we will take whatever steps are necessary to put criminals away for good.”

Earlier this week, Orange County prosecutors said that they would seek to make Mario Veliz Rodriguez, 30, of Santa Ana the first Orange County resident to be sentenced under the new law. Rodriguez, having been previously convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and second-degree robbery, already has two strikes against him, one as a juvenile offender.