Compton Getting a Bad Rap, Residents Say : Reaction: Tucker’s indictment is the city’s latest image problem. But many say outsiders miss the town’s profound sense of community.

Robert Henderson said he was not shocked by reports that Rep. Walter R. Tucker III has been indicted on charges of taking bribes--but, like most Compton residents, he complained that the city’s always getting a bad rap.

“Nobody’s really surprised. Seems like something’s always happening here,” said Henderson, a security guard in the Compton shopping plaza where Tucker, a Democrat, has his district office.

That sense of resignation and frustration was evident on street corners, in doughnut shops and in stores as somber city residents recounted the controversies that have beset their community lately.

Last week, a home video was aired nationally showing a Compton police officer beating a 17-year-old youth, stirring allegations of police brutality.

And now this.

“It seems like Compton is always in the news. I don’t even read it anymore,” said Kevin Brown, who was born in Compton.

Eddie Gaines, whose family owns a barbershop, said he believes that Compton is being unfairly targeted by the media and the FBI, which sought the indictments against Tucker.

“They always look for the worst,” Gaines said. “Where is Compton on the weather map? We get excluded from the regular stuff (in the media). But when something bad happens, here comes the news van.”

Indeed, Compton has become more noted for its shortcomings than its assets.

Last year, the state took over the city’s school system after independent auditors found that mismanagement had placed the district $17.8 million in debt.

Several large civic projects, including an auto mall and a giant hotel, have run into problems because of bad management or bad luck--spoiling city leaders’ plans to make Compton a stopping point for consumers throughout the Los Angeles area.

And 27% of the city’s 91,400 residents live below the poverty level, nearly twice as high as the proportion of those living in poverty in Los Angeles County as a whole.

But residents say what outsiders don’t see is the city’s profound sense of community. Many of its tree-lined streets are still well-maintained and quiet; many of its businesses are still locally owned.

“They say Compton is one of the worst cities around, but it’s not a ghetto,” Joyce Gaines said as she clipped a customer’s hair at the family’s barbershop on Compton Boulevard. “It’s a community of families.”

Resident Cathy Chavis said she and her husband, a doctor, could have lived anywhere in the Los Angeles area. They picked Compton to set up their medical practice and to build their house, valued at about $1 million, because they liked the city and felt that they could make a difference there.

“People say to me, ‘You live in Compton? Aren’t you scared?’ I’ve never had any problems here,” she said. “I think the city just gets a bad rap.”

What’s more, residents say, Compton’s problems are no different than those of any other city in the Los Angeles area.

“You think these things don’t happen in Santa Monica?” said Monica Davis, 26, who lives on the Westside but works as a hairdresser on Rosecrans Avenue. “The authorities figure that the city is a high-crime area, so they just pick on us.”

As for Tucker, he’s no different than most politicians, residents say.

“Politics has a way of rubbing off on people,” said Ronnie Goins, 40, an out-of-work carpenter who grew up with Tucker. “I’ve lost my faith in all politicians.”

But other residents said Compton needs to take a hard look at itself in the wake of the controversies.

“People have lost their way here,” said Alisa Lee, 35, who has lived in the city for 20 years. “The devil is on the loose, and he picks on the weakest. We are just the weakest.”

Although Eddie Gaines said he was frustrated with the way that Compton has been portrayed in the media, he would be disappointed if the allegations against Tucker--who was elected to Congress in 1991 after serving as the youngest elected mayor of Compton--prove true.

“I hear people saying all politicians are crooked,” Gaines said. “He should be better than that because he is representing Compton. He is one of us.”

Mayor Omar Bradley, who spent much of last week discussing the controversy over the videotaped police beating with the media, said the allegations against Tucker came at a bad time for the city.

“What else?” Bradley said. “It is not a bright day for Compton. . . . It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

Maxcy Filer, who was on the Compton City Council for 15 years, said he is disappointed by the turn of events.

“I am somewhat disgusted because we all worked so hard for Compton,” Filer said. “All these people here used to have big ideas about Compton. They were idealists.

“But there are no more idealists.”