L.A. Celebrates Post-Verdict Peace; Patrols Scaled Back : Reaction: Grateful residents of the city take gifts to some police stations. Unusually crime-free weekend is a stark contrast to year ago.

With the weather and most residents in full cooperation, Los Angeles marked the day after the verdicts in the Rodney G. King federal civil rights trial in grateful celebration, pouring into churches Sunday to praise the Lord, deluging some police stations with gifts of fresh orange juice and pizza, and cautiously reveling in an unusually crime-free weekend.

Confident that the greatest potential for violence had passed, authorities began scaling back law enforcement patrols, which had been heightened for more than a week in anticipation of the verdicts regarding four Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of King.

The Los Angeles Police Department and county Sheriff’s Department returned to regular eight-hour shifts for the first time since Friday, but beefed-up patrols remained in many areas as Los Angeles police evaluated staffing needs area by area.

By early evening, the National Guard said it had withdrawn all 600 troops from armories across the county.

“I am proud of Los Angeles, and I’m convinced the direction for this city is up,” said Gov. Pete Wilson at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of many churches across the city where the convictions of Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer Laurence M. Powell were celebrated.

The scene from Los Angeles to Long Beach was a world removed from that of a year ago, when the day after the not guilty verdicts in the state trial of the same four officers erupted into the most violent 24-hour period in city history.

Bishop Charles E. Blake drew a standing ovation from the overflow congregation at West Angeles Church of God in Christ when he raised his arms and declared: “Give God praise that our city has peace today.

“We were quite concerned a year ago because we sensed the scales of justice were out of balance,” the pastor continued. “(Now) the adjustment process is in motion. The law of our land works both ways and for all people.”

The stark contrast between Sunday and the day after last year’s verdicts was not lost on 10-year-old Jeymy Castellanos and her brother, Jeremy, 12, playing outside their Lynwood home.

This time last year, the corner liquor store was in flames and “they were pulling people out of their cars and beating them up,” Jeremy recalled vividly. On Sunday, the two headed to the park for a soccer game.

The calm was particularly satisfying for the Los Angeles Police Department, which enjoyed a long-awaited rapprochement in many parts of the city as appreciative residents responded to the department’s seeming omnipresence. Last year, the department was resolutely denounced for failing to react swiftly to the outbreak of violence, but this year the only criticism came from those who feared there were too many police on the streets.

Grateful residents and community groups from Northridge to San Pedro delivered food--mostly pastries, doughnuts and homemade cookies--to police stations, prompting one commanding officer to put out a call for healthful cuisine.

“Our biggest concern is that the officers haven’t gained too much weight over the weekend,” said Harbor Division Lt. Alan Kerstein. “If anybody wants to know how they can support us, tell them they can bring in some fresh vegetables.”

A man in North Hollywood--described by Officer Ron Russell as 6 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing 250 pounds--arrived at the police station with flowers, saying simply: “I didn’t know what else to get you guys.”

The outpouring of affection did not extend to many of the city’s poorest and most ethnically mixed neighborhoods, however. The split verdicts brought a sense of relief but relations with police remained strained.

“All these cops are still out here like something’s going to happen,” said James Gary, 19, as he left a South-Central fast-food restaurant. “When they stop you now, they assume you’re ready to riot or something.

“You walk by, they look at you like you’re a thug,” Gary complained. “Well, if they look at you like that, you’re going to act like a thug.”

Just as they do every weekend, Fannie and Theodore Nelson set up a temporary barbecue stand in a yellow and white striped tent near Vermont and Imperial avenues. On Saturday, the couple said, it seemed as if wherever they looked, there were four cops coming around the corner. But by midday Sunday, law enforcement presence was close to normal, they said.

“They served their purpose. It’s time for them to go,” said Theodore, 20, as he flipped burgers and slabs of ribs.

In Pico-Union, a largely Latino area and one of the most crime-plagued parts of the city, some residents still expressed fear of the police. Rocking her 7-month-old daughter after services at Angelica Lutheran Church, Yolanda Baez, 35, said she was hopeful that the verdicts would make police more respectful toward minorities.

“I hope the police won’t be so harsh with people now,” she said. “They hit the Latinos the same as they hit the black people. It’d be great if they’d treat us all the same--not like animals.”

Her husband, Francisco Baez, 34, a photographer, said the verdicts bolstered his belief that Los Angeles’ system of justice does not work. “They had to bring in those two federal lawyers to put the two of them away. This is a disgrace,” he said.

But Francisco Baez saw some signs of hope. Before the Saturday verdicts, he said, police would ignore him when he approached them with a question. “Now they say hello,” he said. “They’re less arrogant.”

Even among fans of the police, the sense of goodwill and relief was tempered by an underlying anxiety about the unknown, particularly among residents in crime-weary neighborhoods who fear demobilization may mean their neighborhoods will slip back into chaos. Carmen Ortiz, 41, a Mexican-American homemaker who has been in this country for 20 years, had braced for the worst Saturday, stockpiling enough food for two weeks. Last year, she was forced to venture outside despite the gunfire to buy milk for her children.

“We expected something horrible,” she said as she stood outside Angelica Lutheran Church on South Burlington Avenue. Many people remained on edge, she said.

“People are still afraid,” said Ortiz, who plans to keep her cupboard full of reserve rations. “It’s not over. . . . Tonight the police will be gone. It will be back to the same old problems.”

In Koreatown, merchants said they were comforted by the police presence, but some were still taking no chances. Security guard Juan Cortez paced on a sun-drenched rooftop 75 feet above the Ligorio Market on Vermont Avenue, armed with a handgun and police baton.

“Business is already picking up,” said supermarket owner Enrique J. Alejo, who last year guarded his store with a gun as two neighboring businesses burned. “The people, they tell me they are more relaxed. They feel more comfortable.”

When will he call off the extra security?

“I can’t tell you when,” he said. “It depends. I’m watching.”

Yet true signs of relaxation--as if the city had taken a collective sigh of relief--were far more evident Sunday than any time since the federal civil rights trial began months ago.

By midafternoon, Ardmore Park in Koreatown had been transformed into a model of goodwill among the city’s diverse ethnic groups. At one end of the park, two multiracial Little League teams tossed a ball around a diamond, while at the other end, Latinos played soccer and dozens of Korean families listened to the hit Korean song, “Hand in Hand.”

The groups had met at the park for a long-scheduled march against drug and alcohol abuse, but the multiracial expression of solidarity had added meaning after the verdicts.

“I see a new sense of optimism. I see the community coming together,” said Dan Robles, a church minister and march organizer. “What we have to do now is take care of problems that cause rioting. And we have come together to do that.”

Violet Epps, an elementary school teacher who lives in South-Central, was at an all-night prayer meeting until 6 a.m. Sunday. She was one of the first to arrive at the march.

“I’m tired and sore,” she said. Putting her hand on her chest, she said: “But I have peace in my heart. We hope people can see we can all get along.”

Rodney G. King, the man at the heart of the two-year controversy, was “disappointed and saddened” that the other officers were acquitted, his attorney, Milton Grimes, said Sunday.

King, who slept through the reading of the verdicts Saturday morning, was in an “anxious state” the night before, Grimes recalled. “I said to him: ‘How can we sleep?’ and he said: ‘It’ll be all right.’ ”

Juror 11, a 55-year-old Fullerton man whose name is not known, said in an interview on the Orange County News channel that “I think the most important thing is the system do work.”

The juror, whose face was not shown, echoed another juror’s remark that the videotape was the most significant piece of evidence. He added that Koon appeared arrogant on the stand and that King’s testimony was “not that strong” because he could not recall the sequence of several important events.

The juror, who had demanded to be paid for an interview when contacted Saturday by The Times, said he was not paid for his interview on the television program.

Although police were expected to scale back their heavy street mobilization, officers were still out in force in certain areas Sunday.

In one 50-yard stretch of the Venice Beach boardwalk, there were 14 LAPD officers--about one every 10 feet. Locals said it was the most police they had seen in years. And they were certainly easy to spot: by midafternoon, as the hot sun beat down, the officers were the only ones left wearing all their clothes.

Glenda Williams, 28, a Los Angeles hairdresser, said she was glad that the thin blue line had gotten a bit thicker--even if it was only for a little while.

“With all this strangeness, it’s nice to have the police around,” Williams said. She was referring specifically to the verdicts, although her words took on new meaning in light of the man standing next to her. Charles L. Marsh, 52, was standing on his head, playing the guitar and yodeling.

Kim Oczkowski, 23, thought the cops were neat--so neat, in fact, that the Houston tourist asked to take their picture with a couple of the locals.

“This is definitely different,” she said as she beckoned four LAPD officers to stand closer to a woman in a purple bikini.

Oczkowski and her husband had planned their first vacation to California for months, she said, and had been worried that the verdicts might ruin it. When they boarded the first westbound flight on Saturday morning, the verdicts had not yet been read, and they did not know the good news until they landed.

“We’d planned this vacation ahead,” she said, “and we were going to come regardless.”

In a far more somber setting, a crowd of about 300 gathered at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in West Los Angeles for a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

Dania Berman, who lost much of her family in death camps, was among those lighting a memorial candle. Now a real estate agent in Sherman Oaks, Berman was 8 at the time of the ghetto revolt.

“I hope that somehow we can bring the world together and be one,” she said, reflecting on the apprehension that has seized Los Angeles in recent weeks. “I hate to think it’s not possible, but in reality I only hope.”

If crime in the city over the weekend is any indication, there may be grounds for optimism.

Appearing on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” Police Chief Willie L. Williams said crime in Los Angeles dropped as much as 60% in some communities during the police buildup that began a week ago.

Lt. Nils Linder of the coroner’s office said statistics on deaths over the weekend were not available Sunday, but he predicted that they were “significantly down from normal.”

Williams credited heightened police patrols for helping to avert a repeat of last year’s riots and suggested that crime might stay relatively low if he could deploy more officers on street patrols. He used the television appearance to urge passage of a city ballot measure to add 1,000 police officers to the department.

Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Michael Bostic, acting commander of the department’s West Bureau, described morale as “extremely high.” Williams, he said, seemed to have passed his first real test of leadership in the beleaguered department.

“There was never any doubt who the boss was,” Bostic said. “A lot of officers are feeling confident that he’s definitely the boss now.”

Lt. Richard Gonzales, executive officer at the LAPD’s Emergency Operations Center, said the department would begin gradually scaling back its massive deployment of officers starting at 6 p.m. Sunday.

About 2,500 uniformed police officers--almost twice the usual number--were deployed on the city’s streets once the King jury’s deliberations ended Friday, Gonzales said. He said all officers would still carry tear gas canisters on their belts in case of trouble, but that other special non-lethal weapons, such as rubber bullets, would be returned to command posts.

In the San Fernando Valley, Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker said he was eager to return officers to routine operations. “They’re bouncing into each other,” he said.

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Leslie Berger, Mathis Chazanov, Paul Dean, Paul Feldman, Sam Fulwood III, Greg Krikorian, Marc Lacey, Don Lee, Dan Morain, Tony Perry, Kenneth Reich, Carla Rivera, Somini Sengupta, Hector Tobar, Ted Rohrlich, Amy Wallace and Nora Zamichow.

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