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| Monica Almeida/The New York Times |
| James Hicks conducted a solitary vigil on Wednesday outside the Inglewood Police Department and the City Hall. |
INGLEWOOD, Calif., July 10 — James Hicks, wearing a Malcolm X T-shirt and carrying a "Power to the People" placard, said he was outraged by a videotape showing a white police officer here beating a handcuffed black teenager, and he warned that the community might explode if the officer was not punished.
"This kind of thing happens all the time, they just got it on tape this time," Mr. Hicks said. "I want to help prevent another riot, and if they don't do anything, there will be another riot."
People in this city surrounded by Los Angeles have been embittered by the beating, but the best evidence that the city is likely to avoid an eruption like the Los Angeles riots in 1992 that followed the acquittal of officers in a similar incident was that Mr. Hicks was the sole protester in front of City Hall this morning.
He was eventually joined by Najee Ali, the executive director of Project Islamic Hope, a community group that has been leading the demands for swift punishment of the officer and changes in the Inglewood Police Department.
Mr. Ali said that, in spite of continued police violence over the years, civic officials seemed to have learned from the 1992 riots and, at least for now, had defused tensions.
"This beating was worse than Rodney King," said Mr. Ali, referring to the black man whose beating by four white police officers was videotaped a decade ago. "Rodney King was a grown man who was not handcuffed. This was a kid who was handcuffed and then slammed against the car and beaten."
But Mr. Ali credited Roosevelt Dorn, the mayor of Inglewood, a largely black, working-class city under the flight path to Los Angeles International Airport, with cooling emotions by denouncing the policemen's conduct. Mr. Ali also said community groups had shown restraint.
"We marched into the City Hall and we said we would not leave until Mayor Dorn met with us," Mr. Ali said. "He met our demand. Our whole aim is to not let this polarize the city along racial lines. We definitely want to be civil in our actions."
Mr. Ali said he believed that the incident was not racially motivated. One of the police officers at the beating, which took place at a gas station, was black, he noted.
"That officer would have beaten a white, Latino or black kid the same way," Mr. Ali said.
John Mack, the president of the local Urban League branch, said: "It seems to me that some cops never learn. Clearly, the child had been subdued and posed no threat to them, and the other officers stood around watching almost like cheerleaders. The striking difference, however, is the way the Police Department and Mayor Dorn are handling it now. They're not stonewalling. They're saying something went very wrong."
The incident took place on Saturday when the teenager, Donovan Jackson, and his father were stopped at a gas station by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies because of an expired license plate on their car. A man watching from a motel across the street videotaped what happened after the younger Jackson had been handcuffed, a scene that has been shown repeatedly on television.
A white police officer, Jeremy Morse, hauled Donovan Jackson in the air and slammed him on the hood of the police cruiser, then hit him in the face with his fist.
The police said the teenager had resisted instructions to keep away from the car.
Mr. Jackson's family, which filed a lawsuit today against the city and the police, said the young man suffered from hearing and speech disabilities and was often slow to respond to commands. He had no police record.
Officer Morse was placed on paid administrative leave while the department investigates. Police officials said he was also under investigation regarding a beating in June.
Many people here said Mayor Dorn's comments quickly defused the sudden swelling of anger over the incident. When confronted on Tuesday by the protesters at City Hall, the mayor, a former judge, was unequivocal in demanding that Officer Morse be fired and charged.
"I only had one thing in mind: to do what was right," Mayor Dorn said in an interview. "I knew what happened was wrong."
He added: "We certainly don't want to make the mistakes of '92. Clearly, I don't want to make those mistakes, and I'm not going to make those mistakes."
Many community leaders said civic officials had not been forceful enough in denouncing the beating of Rodney King.
Merrick Bobb, a special counsel to Los Angeles County who now monitors the Sheriff's Department and who was a lawyer for the Christopher Commission, which investigated the Los Angeles Police Department after the King beating, said he believed that the difference now was not so much the culture of police departments, but the clearheadedness of city leaders.
"The Los Angeles Police Department and law enforcement agencies like the Sheriff's Department have learned the lessons of Rodney King and the civil unrest," Mr. Bobb said. "But it's an open question as to whether smaller departments like Inglewood have been passed by."
In other preventive measures, nearly every law enforcement agency with any possible connection is now investigating the incident. That includes the city of Inglewood, the county Sheriff's Department, the district attorney, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department.
A number of people here said it was mere luck that the beating was caught on tape, adding that such brutality frequently takes place unchecked. Two white Oklahoma City police officers are under investigation after they were videotaped repeatedly hitting an unarmed man with batons as he lay on the ground.
In Inglewood, officials are preparing for a large protest planned for Friday, which the Rev. Al Sharpton is expected to attend. But, at least for now, officials are not expecting anything more than raised voices.
"I think everyone's learned the lessons of 1992, although time will tell how well," said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School. "We know we have these problems. We just can't get rid of these problems."
