Year- End Focus: Quotes of 1995

Jan. 4:

“For some reason, it’s usually teenaged boys. We had a kid last year who actually played the game with an automatic pistol. So he lost.”-Chief Homicide Detective Rick Swanston, of the LAPD’s West Valley division on deaths caused by people playing Russian Roulette.

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July 16:

“This is California. There is no shortage of disasters.”- Glendale attorney Dan Gruber, whose practice has swelled thanks to quake- related disputes.

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Aug. 9:

“You know, you can’t just go to the Price Club or Kmart and say, ‘I want a body that is going to fit my description.”’- Deputy Dist. Atty. Albert H. MacKenzie arguing for a murder conviction in the trial of two Ohio business partners involved with a Glendale doctor in a $1.5- million Insurance swindale.

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July 19:

“Just because God knocked your facility to hell, doesn’t mean the federal government can put it all together again.”- FEMA spokesman Morrie Goodman on the probability that the remaining $8 billion in federal aid will not be enough to repair hospitals, schools and other public facilities damaged in the 1994 Northridge quake.

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April 24:

“You don’t try crossing these streets because it’s like a shark- infested waters.”-Bill Davis, 26, on the danger of crossing San Fernando Valley streets such as Sherman Way, where two elderly Korean women were killed on their way to English classes at a Reseda church.

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Nov. 9:

“The truth is he killed a kid. How many more kids have to die?”- Daniel Ruiz, outside a Van Nuys Courtroom protesting the no- jail sentence given to William A. Masters II (below) for shooting a graffiti tagger to death in January.

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Jan. 11:

“I’m not freaking out.”- Lucille Yaney, owner of the Inn of the Seventh Ray, an organic restaurant and Topanga Canyon landmark, as she chanted furiously to “the elementals” to try to stop the rain.

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Oct. 25:

“A coyote would have to have a hall pass to get in.”- Justice Street Elementary School Principal Phil Shaffer explaining that students are safe despite recent coyote sightings in the neighborhood.

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Oct. 26:

“We’re between a rock and a Red Line.”- Marylane Farris, Hollywood Hills homeowner, speaking about living over the route of the planned tunnel for the Hollywood Universal City segment of the Metro Rail subway.

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Oct. 28:

“I just couldn’t believe they live in Woodland Hills.”- Angela Stone, a Woodland Hills hairdresser on new dad Alec Baldwin punching out a photographer eager for a picture of his baby and mom Kim Basinger.

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Nov. 5:

“I told those cops, ‘I don’t even like policeman.’ But I’m not just going to stand there and watch somebody die. No way am I going to do that.”- Mark Burdick, 42- year- old homeless ex- Marine, who pulled Officer Martin Guerrero form his burning patrol car.

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June 20:

“It’s going to get to be like the Third World.”- Penny DeMara, 23, at the Mid- Valley Comprehensive Health Care Center in Van Nuys responding to reports that six of the eight county health clinics in the Valley may close.

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Sept. 15:

“Men are not pigs- pigs are gentle and intelligent.”-Phyllis Frisby, who shared her Lake View Terrace home with 58 potbellied pigs until it was declared unfit by county officials.

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April 23:

” I’m going to be stimulated by the word of God and within minutes I’m going to have to confront this building.”- Pastor David White of the Christian Family Church, on ‘Mature World,’ a new Santa Clarita novelty shop that will sell erotic videos and magazines.

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March 28:

“I think she’s actually well- meaning in a benevolent despot sort of way.”- Helen Bernstein, United Teachers- Los Angeles president, on Los Angeles City Council candidate Roberta Weintraub, who was denied a union endorsement.

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Nov. 16:

” My family is ruined.”- Howard Davis Sr., a retired Beverly Hills police officer, after a Vany Nuys jury ruled that his son, Howard Davis Jr., was sane at the time he sexually assaulted four women and a girl.

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Nov 10:

“We always expected a little excitment from Glen. But this is way beyond what we expected.”- Doug Courtney, former employer in Hamilton, Ohio, of suspected serial killer Glen Rogers, who was sought by police in Los Angeles and four Southern cities in connection with at least five and perhaps many more killlings.