Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 19, 1993                   TAG: 9304190047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

CHURCHGOERS REJOICED AS THE CALM AFTER THE

Police, saying the quiet was hard to believe, stayed out in force, but National Guard troops on standby were sent home.

Cries of "Amen" rippled through the First AME Church congregation as the mayor, the governor and others lauded the convictions of two officers.

"We come to praise God for peace in our city and justice in our courtrooms," Mayor Tom Bradley told churchgoers. "[Police Chief] Willie Williams and I pleaded for peace. . . . We knew we were ready to preserve the peace in this city."

Police had prepared for the worst, fearing a repeat of the violence a year ago when a state jury acquitted four white officers of beating King, a black motorist. All 7,700 city officers were mobilized, the Los Angeles County sheriff's office beefed up patrols, and 600 National Guard troops stood by in armories.

But peace prevailed after a federal jury on Saturday convicted Sgt. Stacey Koon, who supervised the beating, and Officer Laurence Powell, who struck the most baton blows, of violating King's civil rights after a highway chase March 3, 1991. Officer Theodore Briseno and Timothy Wind, a rookie officer fired after the beating, were acquitted.

"It stayed quiet," Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Britta Tubbs said. "No major incidents. It's hard to believe."

The Sheriff's Department, whose officers had been working 12-hour days this weekend, resumed eight-hour shifts Sunday, said Sgt. Robert Stoneman.

King, who made a dramatic appeal for calm during the riots a year ago, didn't make a statement after the trial.

Although some were dissatisfied that only two officers were found guilty, a fragile calm settled over a city fraught with tension since the beating.

At the church in riot-scarred South Central Los Angeles, the Rev. Jesse Jackson preached a message of rebuilding the area and looking for hope in its ruins.

"I know that behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining," he told about 2,500 people. "But sometimes you have to pray to God for some insight to see the silver lining."

Speaking of the four defendants in King's federal civil rights trial, "Two are going to a physical jail, two are going to a mental jail," he said. At that, the packed congregation erupted in applause.

"In this instance, the jury has spoken and I think justice has prevailed," Attorney General Janet Reno said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

A male juror, interviewed on KNBC-TV, said jurors relied heavily on the videotape a witness made.