Race Relations Los Angeles

Jewish and Asian American leaders, whose communities represent nearly 20% of Los Angeles County's population, are trying to forge friendships in hopes of combating such chronic issues as racism and stereotyping.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has seen the film three times, and encouraged the deputy chief in charge of LAPD's professional standards to pass copies around the department. But Joe Hicks, the longtime African American community activist, believes the movie so distorts the state of race relations that it could hurt Los Angeles' reputation. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa loved the movie. His lawyer, a former member of the county Human Relations Commission, hated it.

Jurors in the federal hate crime case against five members of a Highland Park gang Thursday began deliberating a question that could have implications for race relations in Los Angeles: Did a Latino street gang launch a campaign of violence to remove black people from their neighborhoods?

The Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, the city agency taking the lead in trying to defuse tensions at a San Fernando Valley elementary school, is also the subject of a new report concluding that the agency lacks focus and has done little more than produce a calendar and an essay contest.

MOVIES Planet Bombshell: Fears of a bomb attack have forced the cancellation of the scheduled Sept. 3 gala opening party for Planet Hollywood's Paris eatery on the famed Champs Elysees. Organizers said Paris Police Chief Philippe Massoni requested the cancellation for safety reasons. Two bomb attacks in the past month have killed seven people and wounded nearly 100 in central Paris. Police suspect Algerian Muslim rebels who accuse France of backing the military-led Algiers government.

The front page headline came as something of a surprise: "Boland, Hayden Plan New School Breakup Effort." Now here's a fun couple. Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland, the Republican ex-realtor from Granada Hills, and state Sen. Tom Hayden, the ex-campus radical from the People's Republic of Santa Monica, tied the political knot Wednesday at a news conference outside Northridge Middle School. You could almost hear the Carpenters: "We've only just begun. . .

Debbie Siler of Compton doesn't fear getting lost in Simi Valley anymore. "Last week I was driving toward Simi Valley with a friend and I told her, 'Don't worry. If we get lost, I know a police officer out here,' " Siler said. Siler met the police officer, Detective Gene Hostetler, last year at a softball game between South Los Angeles area and Simi Valley residents as a way to unite the two communities. The game was congenial and successful, and a second will be played Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

Vying for one of the most important constituencies in city politics, eight candidates for mayor Thursday laid out strikingly similar approaches to solving the major problems facing the city, including racial tension, crime and the recession. The forum, which was sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League and drew about 100 people, was only the second one of the campaign.

Not since the debate over mandatory busing have race relations in Los Angeles received such attention. It is about time. During my campaign and after taking my seat on the City Council last month, I have witnessed increased tensions between police and the community, blacks and Koreans and, most recently, the tragedy at Jordan Downs and its aftermath. The lack of respect for human life in a civilized society cannot continue to fester in Los Angeles.