Justice in court or violence in the streets. Some people in the neighborhood where Malice Green died say the city will get one or the other when the verdicts come in for three police officers charged in his slaying.
The ramshackle neighborhood of burned-out buildings and vacant lots is still scarred from 1967 riots ignited by a police raid on an after-hours drinking establishment.Forty-three people died, a toll surpassed in recent decades only by last year's Los Angeles riots, triggered by the Rodney King beating verdicts. More than 50 people died in the April 1992 riots and damage was estimated at $1 billion.
"You think California was bad? Let them be found not guilty here. It will be '67 all over again," said Mark Thomas, 19, who rested on a car hood as he sipped a fruit drink outside Alpine Market.
Inside, store owner Ken McCaa agreed.
"Everybody here says if they get off scot-free, there's going to be a riot over here," said McCaa, 33, a former truck driver who bought the convenience store shortly before Green's death a few blocks away.
Closing arguments began Thursday in the murder trial of Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn. Witnesses said the 35-year-old Green was beaten with flashlights outside a suspected crack house Nov. 5 after refusing to unclench his fist.
The twin juries hearing the case were to begin deliberations Saturday.
Closing arguments in the case against former officer Robert Lessnau were scheduled for Monday. Recorder's Judge George Crockett III will rule on an assault charge against Lessnau.
Green was black. The three officers on trial are white. No testimony has indicated race was a motive in the slaying.