Brentwood Residents Grow Angry in Spotlight’s Glare : Simpson case: The enclave endures a siege of sightseers. Signs beseech them to ‘get a life’--elsewhere.

The questions came fast at B. Christian Coe, newly elected president of the South Brentwood Homeowners Assn.

“Is there any chance we can do without the helicopters?” demanded one man who lives not far from where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman were slain. “Can a curfew be put on the area?” plaintively asked a middle-aged woman. And one bespectacled man drew loud laughs and more than a few nods of approval from his 200 or so assembled neighbors when he inquired: “Is it OK to shoot people walking by?” A police officer stepped to the microphone to deliver the sardonic answer: “Only on Tuesdays,” he replied.

Such barbed sentiments are now common in the Brentwood neighborhood where the bodies of Simpson and Goldman were discovered a month ago, and where beleaguered residents say they have lived under a state of siege ever since.

With the media and the curious continuing to descend on the crime scene on South Bundy Drive, traffic accidents, lack of parking and tourists trampling over the private property of the increasingly angry locals have been the inevitable results. And though homemade signs implore sightseers to leave and “get a life,” the continued prominence of the O.J. Simpson murder case has only increased the flow of visitors, who come at all hours and from as far away as Canada, South Africa and Australia.

“We have some frustrated, tired and worn-out residents out there,” said Coe, who presided over a specially called homeowners meeting Monday evening. “They’re at the end of their rope.”

Stories of insensitivity and macabre behavior abound.

One neighbor of the Nicole Brown Simpson residence inexplicably had his house pelted with rocks. Another reported hearing limousines pulling up in front of Nicole Simpson’s condominium at 2 a.m. and seeing more than a dozen people emerge.

“People are bringing their 1-, 2- and 3-year-old babies over here,” said Barry Greenberg, who lives 1 1/2 blocks from the condo. “It’s been a nightmare.”

Added another resident, who lives on Dorothy Street, which abuts South Bundy Drive: “We’re prisoners in our own homes.”

In response, residents have proposed several measures to slow the flow of traffic, including barricading the neighborhood, instituting permit parking and even throwing a tent over the condominium to shield it from sightseers.

But police and homeowners association officials say that given the interest in the murder case, such proposals would be of limited effectiveness. “When there’s something on the news, or something happens in the courts, two hours later, there’s 70 people there,” said Coe. “There are no immediate cures.”

Indeed, none of the proposals would have stopped Gina Mastandrea and Lisa Bivens, who flew in for the day from Seattle just to see the Bundy Drive condo and try to catch a glimpse of O.J. Simpson’s estate a few miles north.

Standing in the hot sun in front of the condo, Mastandrea, 23, said her one-day trip was definitely worth it, even if there really wasn’t much to see, and even if she and Bivens were yelled at by irate neighbors.

“We followed the case from Day 1,” said Mastandrea, who along with Bivens paid $300 for air fare. “We just wanted to see it for ourselves.”

As for the neighbors’ feelings regarding sightseers, “We live in a media society,” Mastandrea said brusquely. “You have to expect that this is going to happen.”

Added Bivens: “It’s America. People are always going to come around to look.”

That compulsion to look is not likely to abate soon, said Chaytor Mason, professor emeritus of human factors psychology at USC. Mason said he expects that gawkers will be attracted to the Brentwood neighborhood for six months to a year. The reasons, said Mason, have to do with people identifying with those involved, wanting to become part of an event larger than themselves and escaping the routine of their lives.

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“Most peoples’ lives are pretty damned dull,” said Mason, “so when they get a chance to insert themselves in something real and get a feeling out of it, they will. They will go hundreds of miles to gain that feeling of fulfillment and identity.”

Not all the complaints are being leveled at tourists.

The media is also a target of scorn, particularly the omnipresent television crews that residents say park illegally and heedlessly drape cables and wires across their lawns. Residents also blame the media for continually broadcasting scenes from the neighborhood, even when there are no new developments.

“What can we do to be protected from these people?” wondered one frustrated homeowner, who complained that police have failed to ticket illegally parked news vans and that the media have been awarded undue privileges.

Some blame is also being aimed at a local businessman and residents.

One Brentwood retailer recently printed a flyer advertising “cut-throat” prices, an ad that has offended some. Similarly, at Monday’s homeowners meeting, a neighbor of the Nicole Simpson residence said that while he appreciated the empathy of other residents, most of the noise he now hears comes from angry horns honking at sightseers and the attendant shouts of “Get a life!”

“You’re much more of a problem in some ways,” he said to the group.

Despite the fractiousness involving residents, the media and sightseers, Karen LeBlanc says she hopes that a new sense of community will emerge among those who live and work in Brentwood.

“Right now, we’re just angry because our space has been violated,” said LeBlanc, who describes her home as being in “the Brentwood Triangle.” “Brentwood has changed, it’s taken on a notoriety and it won’t go back to what it was before. But it’s not Bosnia, it’s not a war zone. We have to rise to the occasion of adapting to, but not necessarily accepting, this situation.”