Armed with a positive message, cop gives rap a good rep.

HIP-HOP COP: Roosevelt Matthews, a.k.a. Rosie the Rapping Cop, a.k.a. One Time, has as many aliases as some of the hoodlums he puts behind bars. But the Hawthorne police officer says he will use any name--or music style--to get through to high school students these days.

Matthews, a former gang member who made headlines two years ago by taking on rapper Ice-T over the controversial song “Cop Killer,” has put together his own rap act with a different message: Fade the color lines. That includes stopping the crime, violence and racial tension that has plagued many youths in local high schools.

Rap is the music and the lyrics that these kids listen to and understand, Matthews said Tuesday before a show at Hawthorne High School.

“They’ve got to learn that they’ve got other options than ‘jackin’ people’ and gangbangin’, “ he said.

The show, with its multimedia display, dancers, hip-hop dance music and free-style rap artists, has all the trappings of a full-scale concert tour. But the positive message in songs such as “Who’s Jackin’ Who?” and “Undercover,” Matthews says, is a rebuttal to the so-called gangsta rap that glorifies sex, violence and lawlessness.

“Taking the law into your own hands is just not the way to go,” he said.

Now Matthews wants to take his act on the road. To that end, he hopes to enlist the help of local officials, including Hawthorne Mayor Larry Guidi, to spread the word about his show.

Guidi, who says that he and Matthews have been friends since the officer pulled him over for a traffic violation several years ago, has already found a backer for Matthews’ next show and hopes to get other school districts involved.

Matthews says he just wants to get his message out.

“We can work together. I’m the proof. I’m the example.”

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SOUTH BAY FIFEDOM: If Mayberry’s Barney Fife were alive and hangin’ out in the South Bay, chances are he’d stick out in upscale, surfed-out Manhattan Beach like grits at a sushi bar.

But that’s not how Los Angeles Magazine sees it. The magazine’s latest cover story compared Manhattan Beach to Mayberry in naming it the fourth-best place to live among 20 surveyed in the Los Angeles basin.

The survey ranked neighborhoods in 10 categories by quantifying such criteria as medical facilities, climate and living conditions. Beverly Hills surprised no one by topping the list, which included neighborhoods across the Los Angeles spectrum.

Manhattan Beach ranked among the best for its low crime rate and schools but suffered in its cultural and culinary rankings--as, you might expect, would a town sporting Andy Griffith at the helm. You could find more serious art in a traveling carnival, the article sneered.

Manhattan Beach Councilman Jack Cunningham approved of the rating, but confessed that he didn’t quite get the Mayberry thing. “Manhattan Beach is sort of our own little world here, kind of out of the swing of L. A.,” he said. “It doesn’t really have a small-town atmosphere, though. But I guess they have to say something in L.A. Magazine.”

The survey might be more credible if it didn’t give its second-place ranking to, of all places, Culver City--putting it ahead of third-place Santa Monica and far beyond Brentwood (ranked 11th) and Malibu (17th). “I used to live near there, and that (ranking) was kind of a surprise,” Cunningham said. “But it’s kind of like the preseason basketball rankings; teams are ranked No.1 and then they get clobbered.”

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MARINA MARAUDERS: The masked prowlers have always been a problem at San Pedro’s Cabrillo Marina. They slink past security with ease, stealing food and vandalizing property. Boat owners have even opened their boats and startled groups of them relaxing in nautical splendor.

Good thing they’re only raccoons. But the furry little terrorists have been making life miserable for marina denizens, as well as residents of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. And they seem to be laughing at the efforts of marina Manager Bob Hyde to corral them.

“One time a member of our security patrol looked out the window, and they were camped out on the back porch of the office,” Hyde said. “It was kind of like, ‘Yeah, here we are, and what’s for dinner?’ ”

So Hyde has thrown up his hands and called in a professional trapping service to escort the unwanted guests from the premises. State-licensed Animal Trapping and Removal Service in the past month has relocated more than a dozen raccoons from the marina to more sparsely populated wilderness areas.

“You’d think after you haul 15 or 16 of them away, you wouldn’t have many left,” a bemused Hyde said.

Paul Piercy, owner of the trapping service, said the peninsula is probably the area most populated by raccoons, possums and skunks from Malibu to San Clemente. But the East Coast has it much worse, he said--the animals are more numerous, and rabies is increasingly common among them there.

Piercy said animals clean up after people. “The more people and more trash, the more there will be some part of nature behind them cleaning up.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Barbie doesn’t define herself in relation to children or family. In her world, Barbie is always first, while Ken is a gnat, a fly, a slave, an accessory of Barbie, a eunuch priest in a goddess cult.”

M. G. Lord, author of “Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Living Doll.” J8