Gregory Freeman: Many In Area Worked Hard To Avert Riots P-D 8/8/1992

Headline: MANY IN AREA WORKED HARD TO AVERT RIOTS
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Fri., May 8, 1992
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 1C, Edition: FIVE STAR

SO NOW THAT the smoke has cleared and the rioting - for the most part - has ended, St. Louisans are asking themselves whether the kind of rioting that took place in Los Angeles could happen here.

The answer, without reservation, has to be a resounding ''yes.''

In many ways, St. Louis was lucky last week. Many people worked hard to prevent violence here.

On the day after the Rodney King verdict, Tony Scott, a radio personality at radio station KMJM - known as Majic 108 - urged listeners to the urban contemporary station to funnel their rage by driving with their headlights on.
Many headlights were on that day.
At City Hall, numerous meetings were going on. Mayor Vince Schoemehl met with Police Chief Clarence Harmon, Fire Chief Neil Svetanics, Comptroller Virvus Jones, Aldermanic President Tom Villa, Public Safety Director Bill Kuehling, Urban League President and CEO Jim Buford and others to go through everything that could possibly happen and to consider all contingency plans.
The Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality, the Public Safety Department and other city officials headed to the police command post to monitor all calls, and a ''rumor hot line'' was set up so that if any officials heard rumors of trouble, they could be verified or headed off.
Several local radio stations had call-in shows and allowed people - black and white - to vent their frustrations with the situation. KMOX radio, to its credit, suspended much of its weekend programming to explore the Los Angeles situation and its relevance to St. Louis and to take calls from frustrated listeners. I was a guest during one of the many hours it devoted to the subject.
The St. Louis Clergy Coalition deserves tremendous credit for holding a rally Sunday of blacks, whites and others who were appalled by the verdict and the rioting. More than 1,300 people showed up to hear pleas for peace and justice.
Many first gathered at Harris-Stowe State College. From there, a caravan of more than 300 cars traveled to the Old Courthouse for the rally.

Those were only a few of the major efforts to soothe tensions here.

But what about next time?
   What if some event takes place here that touches a similar nerve as the King verdict? It's not unheard of.
   In 1983, black communities here were shaken after a police officer chased a knife-wielding suspect on foot through a neighborhood in north St. Louis and fired at her. He missed the suspect but accidentally killed a young woman who had been sitting on her aunt's front porch. The cop was white, the young woman was black, and the case sparked an outcry from blacks about what many felt to be reckless behavior by police in black neighborhoods.
    The issue culminated in a protest march from City Hall to the downtown police station in which several hundred people participated. The mood was tense, and the anger of the chanting crowd could have easily turned to violence. Fortunately it did not.

But what can be done to make sure that next time isn't the time when violence erupts?
Riots break out when people believe they have no voice or power. Riots are their way of communicating their dissatisfaction. It's not the right way to communicate, but angry people can do foolish things. We saw that in Los Angeles.

So what to do?
   Federal investment in neglected big cities is desperately needed. President George Bush can blame our urban ills on LBJ's ''Great Society'' all he likes, but the truth is cities have been largely ignored by the federal government in the last dozen years or so.
   In the 1980s, money that was used to renovate crumbling cities was yanked out from under them. Funds for summer jobs programs that not only provided work for teen-agers but also provided a public service to urban areas all but vanished. Money for children and police disappeared.
    The federal government threw out both the baby and the bath water. It's almost as if the government wanted to see urban areas fail - as if it had planned to encourage the middle class and more affluent to flee the cities for the suburbs.

American society must work harder to be inclusive. Government today is more inclusive than it once was, but when it comes to business, many people are left out of the system.
In St. Louis, for instance, the number of black professionals is comparatively small. Blacks on boards of directors of local corporations tend to be few and far between. None of the largest companies here has seen fit to select a black (or woman, for that matter) as its chief executive officer.

What happened in Los Angeles could have happened anywhere in this country, including St. Louis.
Our society must be courageous enough to make the tough decisions that will truly help urban areas. Until then, we must face up to the fact that it could happen here.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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