Protest Over Police Beating Continues : Compton: Latino leaders decry what they call longstanding discrimination in the city’s hiring practices and lack of representation in power structure despite being half of the population.

For the second consecutive day, Latino leaders gathered outside Compton City Hall on Friday to protest the police beating of an unarmed teen-ager and to criticize what some described as continuing racial conflict in a city run by blacks but occupied by a growing population of Latinos.

“This is racism perpetrated by one minority group against another,” Pedro Pallan, former president of the city’s Latino Chamber of Commerce, said of last week’s beating of 17-year-old Felipe Soltero by a black police officer. “Have the oppressed now decided to become oppressors?”

The incident, captured by a neighbor’s video camera and widely played on television, has been compared by some Latino activists to the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney G. King. Protesters have demanded an apology from Compton Mayor Omar Bradley and the resignation of Police Chief Hourie Taylor.

On Friday, as Taylor left for a fishing trip delayed by the controversy, demonstrators also took aim at what they called longstanding discrimination in the city’s hiring practices and the lack of Latino representation in Compton’s power structure.

“Over 50% of the population here is Latino, and we get zero respect, zero response to our concerns at City Hall,” said Latino chamber President Arnulfo Alatorre Jr., who called for an end to what he termed “Compton’s racism.”

“Latinos are treated worse by city officials than the blacks were treated by whites in South Africa,” Alatorre said. “We don’t want an apology--we want people in City Hall. We want somebody to represent us.”

About 80 Latinos, many hoisting Spanish-language signs, took part in the protest, one of the most visible signs of racial tension in a city whose black population has steadily dwindled since peaking at 73% in 1980. By 1990, according to U.S. census figures, the black population had dropped to 53% while Latino’s made up 44% of all residents. City leaders now estimate that Latinos represent a 51% majority.

In spite of those shifts, no Latino has ever been on the City Council and all the city’s top leadership is black. The seven-member school board, which oversees a mostly Latino student population, has just one Latino member.

Of the city’s 125 police officers, 73 are African American, 14 are Latino, 34 are white and four are of other races.

Tension between Latino and African American students erupted at all three Compton high schools last fall, causing one school to be closed for a day after brawls broke out. In each case, the combatants were divided along racial lines and involved dozens of students, officials said.

Compton Mayor Omar Bradley, whom protesters criticized for saying Wednesday that he had “no reaction” to the beating administered by Officer Michael Jackson, defended the city’s employment practices by saying the city has suffered cutbacks in recent years and there has been minimal hiring.

He acknowledged that there are no Latinos working in City Hall.

“Really, this is a dual responsibility,” Bradley said. “While the city has a responsibility to hire Latinos, so should Latinos hire African Americans, and they aren’t doing it. So it goes both ways.”

Bradley said the legal issues precluded him from commenting on the videotape, first seen Tuesday. The beating is the subject of a grand jury investigation, as well as an internal probe by the Compton Police Department, the FBI and the district attorney.

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“There is the potential for criminal as well as civil legal action in this

case and, because I represent a $114-million corporation, which is the city of Compton, I must temper my remarks,” Bradley said from his home Friday. (City Hall is closed on Fridays.) “But certainly I never intended to offend anyone.”

Xavier Hermosillo, founder of a Mexican American activist organization called NEWS for America, criticized Bradley’s stance: “When the beating of Rodney King was shown, everyone reacted. . . . I seriously doubt (he was) blank-faced about the Rodney King incident.”

Despite the angry rhetoric decrying racism, Latino and black leaders said they hoped that the demonstrations would create some unity between the races.

Black leaders present for the picketing, mostly from the Compton chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said they were concerned about the possibility of rhetoric fueling racial tensions.

“You can end up with a real serious problem here and that’s why we’re here,” said local NAACP President Royce Esters, who repeatedly warned of racial trouble brewing in Compton. “We need to respect each other’s concerns, get together and talk.”

Elsewhere, Latino and African American leaders from South-Central Los Angeles united to downplay the racial significance of the beating, which occurred at the Westland trailer park. Representatives of the Community Coalition, a multicultural group, and members of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church held a news conference in front of the church on Florence Avenue, where some leaders denounced police brutality regardless of its targets.

Joseph Moss, president of the Men’s Group at Bethel, said the black community must be quick to speak out against such brutality even when the victim is not an African American.

“Did we wait for the grand jury when it came to Rodney King?” Moss asked. “We must realize that whatever happens to them, happens to us, whether it is a Hispanic child or any person of color.”

Sylvia Castillo, president of Neighborhoods Fighting Back, told reporters that many Latinos believe that the issue of police brutality crosses racial boundaries.

“Since we (Latinos and blacks) live side by side, we share many of the same problems,” Castillo said. “That is why this is not an issue of race, it is simply about police accountability.”

Times staff writers Robert Lopez and Yvette Cabrera contributed to this story.