NEIGHBORS OF STATION REACT WITH SURPRISE, FEAR, PRAISE

LOS ANGELES -- It's a modest but unfailingly safe neighborhood, say
residents who fill the houses and apartment buildings just west of
downtown that make up the city's Rampart neighborhood.

And, according to almost anyone who has been here a half-dozen years
or more, this maze of small, hilly streets divided by the Hollywood
Freeway and dotted by old homes of all shapes and sizes seemed to be
getting safer every day.

Which made it all the more surprising when a convoy of television news
trucks arrived in the neighborhood disgorging reporters in search of
word about the biggest police scandal to hit Los Angeles in more than
50 years.

It was a scandal centered at the neighborhood's own Rampart station,
where 10 officers and a supervisor have been suspended while officials
investigate allegations that people were framed for crimes they didn't
commit, officers lied to get them convicted, and at least one innocent
person was shot by cops who then put a gun in his hand and arrested
him for assault.

The wounded man, Javier Francisco Ovando, was released from prison
last week and got to speak by phone with his 2-year-old daughter,
Destiny, for the first time Sunday, his lawyers said. Ovando, who was
paralyzed by the shooting, has never seen the child.

At the heart of the investigation is Rafael Perez, a former narcotics
officer who pleaded guilty to stealing eight pounds of cocaine from an
evidence room, and who blew the whistle on the other allegations in an
effort to obtain a lighter punishment when he is sentenced Oct. 22.

``It makes me think less of the police department, by all means,''
said Jack Williamson, who lives in a small home literally a stone's
throw from the Rampart station, and who works across town at UCLA
promoting women's sports.

``It makes me think, `You don't know them like you thought you did,'
'' Williamson said as he got ready for church Sunday morning. ``If
you're ever under investigation or stopped for something, who knows
what might happen to you.''

Several of his neighbors expressed similar feelings, although many
weren't as quick to give up on the police. Several praised Rampart
officers for keeping this old neighborhood safe as it has emerged in
recent years as one of the more ethnically diverse sections of Los
Angeles, with immigrants from Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and
other countries joining the Latino and white residents who were
already here.

``A lot of neighborhoods, you want to be inside by 6 o'clock,'' says
Hector Ramirez, up early to wash his new car in front of an apartment
building across the street from Williamson's house.

``But here,'' he added, ``if you want to come down to the market after
dark and walk back, you can. Here it's a quiet, nice place. A nice
neighborhood.''

And the police, he says, are always polite.

``They do a good job, at least out here,'' adds another neighbor,
Danny Dagdagan.

Then, gesturing toward the police station down the hill, he laughs and
adds, ``I don't know about inside there.''

One who has been inside and wasn't happy about it was Danny Martinez,
who complained of officers showing him a lack of respect and of one
confiscating his half-ounce of marijuana, then keeping some of it for
himself.

``I never reported it,'' the 19-year-old said.

T.J. James, who lives behind the police station, said some officers
have always been too quick to roust people, adding that such an
attitude helped create the atmosphere in which the scandal developed.

Criminal justice experts say such thoughts -- of safety but at what
price -- will likely damage police-community relations over the long
run as the impact of the scandal sinks in on both the community and
the city as a whole.