Reginald Denny

I am much more interested in Reginald Denny, the white trucker who was the victim of a tortuous beating at the beginning of the LA riots, than I am in the fate of black defendants Damian Williams and Henry Watson. It seems to me that the defendants, as individuals, were incidental to the heart of the trial, while Denny stood out as a giant among men. Denny's only offense was his color. He became a victim simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time in a country whose perspective, when it comes to race, is as poisonous today as it has ever been.

It is safe in Los Angeles. Or is it? Some thoughts: The guilty verdicts told police in Los Angeles and elsewhere that there is a line they may not cross. Democracy requires that, yes, even young black males with criminal records - the urban specter used by racists to rationalize letting cops run wild - be protected from police brutality every bit as much as the most law-abiding of white citizens. The decision will not tie the hands of police facing life-threatening situations.

We'd like to think that this newspaper's editorial reaction to the verdicts in the Reginald Denny beating case would have been the same no matter what those verdicts had been. We believe in the jury system, and question verdicts only in extraordinary cases. The initial verdict acquitting the police officers in the Rodney King case was one of those rare instances. The Reginald Denny verdicts are not. Many Americans regard the Denny verdicts as outrageously lenient, as were the findings of the first jury dealing with the officers in the King case.

Former District Attorney Ira Reiner testified he did not consider the race of the three men accused in the Reginald Denny beating when charging them with crimes punishable by life in prison. "The fact that they are African-Americans had nothing to do with it whatsoever," said Reiner, who was called to the witness stand yesterday in a pre-trial hearing by defense attorneys who want charges dismissed on grounds of discriminatory prosecution. Reiner said that charges of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and torture were "appropriate.

VERDICT IN DENNY CASE CONTINUES TO TOUCH A NERVE I concur with Claude Lewis' column of Oct. 20 on the compassion of Reginald Denny. Mr. Denny's sensitive response to our racial problems is a constructive lesson not only for our children but also for ourselves. Last month, I was stunned to learn that a Reading-based Ku Klux Klan leader had notified authorities that he planned to hold a prayer vigil in support of Reginald Denny on the steps of Pennsylvania's Capitol. Many who were in Harrisburg the day this story broke were angered by this blatant attempt to use the trial in Los Angeles to promote hatred and manipulate public opinion.

MORE ON THE L.A. VERDICTS The Los Angeles community response was "generally calm . . . Defendants' relatives pleased by verdict. " Leonard Jackson of 1st Ave. AME Church said: "We saw justice working at its best. " Oh yes, of course, because had it not, had Watson and Williams been convicted, as was deserved, another riot would have ensued. When the police, doing their job, stopping a law breaker, Rodney King, were acquitted, a riot was the result. Another trial took place and now the police are in jail.

LOS ANGELES DENNY TRIAL NEARS ITS END Jurors can see for themselves that two men charged with beating Reginald Denny are the same ones in the videotape that has come to symbolize the 1992 riots, a prosecutor said in closing arguments yesterday. "We have seen that videotape. It is burned in our brains. We all know what happened to Reginald Denny," Deputy District Attorney Janet Moore told the jury. "You saw Henry Watson put his foot on (Denny's) neck and hold him to the ground, and Damian Williams threw the brick," Moore said.

There are some striking parallels between the beating of Reginald Denny during the Los Angeles riots this month and the beating of Rodney King during a traffic stop last year. Both incidents were captured on videotape, broadcast repeatedly across the country and used by authorities to bring criminal charges against suspects. Arrested yesterday in the beating of Denny were Damian Williams, Henry Watson and Antoine Miller. A fourth man, Gary Williams, surrendered. And both incidents had a racial component that exposed the country's deep racial divisions.

This time, the scene is remarkable for what isn't happening. Panicky homeowners are not crowding into gun dealerships to load up on arms and ammunition. Shopkeepers are not boarding up windows and installing riot screens. And Police Chief Willie L. Williams is not omnipresent on TV, appealing for calm and asking citizens to "take a deep breath. " For the most part, Los Angeles appears to be breathing easy as it awaits verdicts in the racially charged trial of two black men accused of beating white truck driver Reginald Denny in the opening moments of the 1992 riots.

IN TEXAS, the state where James Byrd was dragged to his death by three white men who were convicted of homicide and sentenced to death by an integrated jury, a black woman has just been charged with a sensational murder. She is accused of running into a homeless white man who got caught in the glass of her windshield, driving him home, parking her car in the garage, closing her garage door and allowing him to bleed to death as he begged her to call for help whenever she checked on his condition.

"Your blues ain't like mine. " - Bebe Moore Campbell Spousal abuse. That's probably what I should've written about. If I'd said that husband beating, while a serious problem, pales in significance next to wife beating, people would probably have thought it an unremarkable statement. Problem is, I didn't write about spousal abuse in a recent column, but race. Made essentially the same argument, though - ridiculed the notion that black prejudice against whites is a pressing national issue.

SALUTE TO A NEWS VENDOR Every morning my mother drives me to Little Flower High School, and at 9th St. and Roosevelt Blvd., a black male named "George" sells the Daily News. My mother buys the paper from him every day. This man is very kind and friendly. He always has something nice to say to us - sometimes very funny things. He also tells us every Friday to have a safe and good weekend. We look for him every day, sometimes waiting for the light to turn red two times so it will give him time to get to our car. The Daily News should be very proud to have a person like him working for them.

VERDICT IN DENNY CASE CONTINUES TO TOUCH A NERVE I concur with Claude Lewis' column of Oct. 20 on the compassion of Reginald Denny. Mr. Denny's sensitive response to our racial problems is a constructive lesson not only for our children but also for ourselves. Last month, I was stunned to learn that a Reading-based Ku Klux Klan leader had notified authorities that he planned to hold a prayer vigil in support of Reginald Denny on the steps of Pennsylvania's Capitol. Many who were in Harrisburg the day this story broke were angered by this blatant attempt to use the trial in Los Angeles to promote hatred and manipulate public opinion.

Public reaction to the verdict in the Reginald Denny beating trial that cleared two black defendants of most of the serious charges in the beating of the white truck driver in Los Angeles did not surprise me. It was along racial, generational and class lines. Within the white community, there has been backlash over what many feel was too lenient a verdict. There is strong feeling that the jury's decision was a miscarriage of justice and the two men should have received life sentences.