AFTER THE VERDICTS : Residents Relax Defenses; Many Believe ‘It’s All Over’

Like a shaken town waiting for an earthquake aftershock, the San Fernando Valley braced itself. Residents arose early and apprehensively to wait and watch.

Then, once the outcome was known, they gratefully pronounced a swift verdict of their own: Time for life to go on. What happened was good, they said, even if there could never be agreement on whether the jury downtown was right or wrong.

“I think right now the city can really begin to go into a healing mode, and people can take the boards off their windows,” a jubilant Rev. Zedar E. Broadous, president of the Valley branch of the NAACP, said moments after the announcement that two of four Los Angeles police officers accused in the beating of Rodney G. King had been found guilty.

And the boards did come down Saturday morning, even with an uncertain day ahead. Scarcely minutes after the 7 a.m. reading of the verdicts, Korean shop owner Kee Eun Chough was smiling as he removed large plywood sheets from the windows of Super Electronics on San Fernando Road in Pacoima.

Chough was almost joyous. “I thank God,” he said, putting his hands together as if to pray. “Thank you very much.”

From San Fernando Road to Ventura Boulevard, from Panorama City to Warner Center, from the spots that were torn apart by human cyclones in April, 1992, to those that went mercifully untouched, anticipation of a second wave of violence vanished Saturday as quickly as the crackling images of a television set that’s been unplugged.

Businesses opened. An art show went on. Day laborers were on their favorite corners, waiting for work. Church events took on an unexpectedly festive air. A 5K walk in Burbank drew a healthy crowd. Little Leaguers and soccer players took the field. Police--like news reporters--were everywhere, with almost nothing to do.

And, in an irony that caught the collective spirit of the day, a “Keep the Peace” barbecue planned at Pacoima Park was canceled for lack of a threat to the peace.

Organizer Rose Castaneda, an aide to Rep. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City), said most people in the area, including gang members, stayed home after the verdicts. The only activity at the park was a group of youngsters playing baseball.

People everywhere seemed to want to say that, deep in their hearts, they knew it would be this way.

In Warner Center, more than 40 art merchants had gathered in the early morning hours to set up their paintings and trinkets for an outdoor show.

“We decided last night to take a chance,” said JoAnne Casey, who drove from Palm Desert with her husband, Patrick, after midnight. “At 7 a.m. we sat in the van and listened, nervously, to the news reports. When we heard the verdicts, we knew the world was going to go on and we’d sell some art.”

Hundreds of shoppers and gawkers roamed the giant park.

“After the verdicts, I thought it would be a good day to get outside and enjoy something like this,” said shopper Arthur Kingsley of Woodland Hills. “I’ve been nervous for two weeks waiting for this day. But nothing is going to happen. It’s all over.”

Shortly after 7 a.m. at the Boys & Girls Club of San Fernando Valley in Pacoima, Pastor Isaac Gutierrez was directing church members to set up a carnival inside the facility on Van Nuys Boulevard. The annual fund-raiser for the Companerismo de Palabra Viva Christian church was a go.

“We’re not worried about trouble here,” he said. “We’ve been praying.”

For those who look for more temporal causes, police and community workers deserved the credit.

“They have my highest regards,” said the Rev. Curry McKinney, pastor of the True Spirit Community Church, of the police and workers of the Neighbor to Neighbor program who had canvassed the community, counseling peace. “Even if they had brought back an acquittal, the community still would have been semi-calm.”

At San Fernando Middle School, Nadine Normington of Granada Hills watched her son play soccer. She said his coach, a police officer, told her Friday night he didn’t expect any major problems Saturday and that the game would go on.

She watched the early morning verdicts on television--which she said turned out as she had expected--and figured that the police buildup in the past few days would deter any trouble.

“The police have done a good job,” she said.

For most people, the verdicts almost instantly released the fear and apprehension of recent weeks.

“Last night, I put every piece of gold away,” said Saul Shapiro, owner of Alza Jewelers in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. “We were going to remain closed today if the verdict wasn’t guilty. But today it’s a calm and normal day.”

In Panorama City, the Grocery Warehouse, which was looted last year, hired extra guards last week after the jury began deliberations, said Wendell Davis, 33, one of the guards on duty Saturday.

“When I heard the verdicts, I was relieved because I wouldn’t have to work today under such stressful conditions,” Davis said. “We’re going to stay out here, but I don’t think there will be any trouble.”

In marked contrast to a year ago, hardly anyone showed up at the triangle-shaped dirt lot in Lake View Terrace where it all started, where Rodney G. King was beaten in range of the video camera that George Holliday shouldered on his apartment balcony across Foothill Boulevard.

But six representatives of Community Youth Gang Services, a city-funded agency that works to prevent gang violence, were on hand in the foggy dawn. One motorist drove by, honked and shook a clenched fist. Later, rough paper banners went up exhorting passersby to “Honk If You’re Happy.”

The most sober thoughts came from the police themselves, who took the verdicts ambivalently, relieved to know they would not be swept up in urban combat but troubled by premonitions that their profession had been changed for the worse.

“I’m out of here, I’m going,” said Officer Michael Plotts, 33, who stood ready outside Van Nuys Police Headquarters. Plotts said he thought the verdict was motivated by worries about rioters, not justice.

“I think they had in the back of their mind the good of everybody versus the good of the two they offered up as guilty,” he said. As a result, Plotts said, he can no longer “face the criminal or the civil liability that’s associated” with making arrests.

“If I can’t talk them into jail, they ain’t going,” he said. He said he intends to start a new career or return to school.

But, like people in the streets, police also differed in their views.

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on security detail at the nearby Van Nuys courts said the verdicts would have no impact on their conduct as officers.

“This is not a trial against LAPD; it’s not against cops,” Deputy Mike Koch said. “It’s against four individuals.”

The LAPD’s Foothill Division, where several hundred residents protested and gunshots were fired after last year’s verdicts, remained on alert but quiet Saturday morning. About 10 officers gathered in the watch commander’s office to watch the delivery of the verdicts on television. They closed the door and wouldn’t comment when they came out.

Three officers stood on the station roof as lookouts and city buses arrived during the morning to carry others from the station to a command post nearby.

Police presence was evident across the Valley.

Patrol cars with three and four officers in them cruised Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima throughout the morning. At Fire Station 98, across from the San Fernando Gardens housing project, California Highway Patrol officers were posted but received no calls.

At the Promenade Mall, police were in place moments after the verdicts were announced, both in patrol cars and in an unmarked van, cruising the parking lots.

With civil order ensured, a reflective mood took over, and people found an outlet in debating the justice of the verdicts. Certainly not viewed as perfect by very many of those interviewed--they gave almost everyone something to like.

This story was based on reports by staff writers David Colker, Richard Lee Colvin, Michael Connelly, Alicia Di Rado, Sam Enriquez, Tracey Kaplan, Myron Levin, Hugo Martin, Julio Moran, Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Julie Tamaki and Rich Tosches.