Strong Police Response Comforts Some Residents but Angers Others : Protection: Fear of violence keeps some locked in their homes. The LAPD show of force is criticized as failing to show respect to the law-abiding in the troubled neighborhood.

Salvador Valdes spent most of Tuesday with his sister and mother-in-law behind the locked steel security door of their home near the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues. Still frightened from the clash the night before between police and demonstrators, Valdes wasn’t taking any chances by venturing outdoors--even in daylight.

“It is very dangerous now,” said Valdes, a May Co. electrician who lives a short distance from the most infamous flash point of the April riots. “I did not go to work today because I do not know what is going to happen.”

For many residents near Florence and Normandie, the show of force by Los Angeles police Monday night was a welcome if regrettable event. Speaking in hushed tones from darkened living rooms and front hallways, they pointed with gratitude to passing squad cars as hundreds of police officers continued to patrol the area on Tuesday.

“We feel good because we feel protected,” said Maria Garcia, who waved to police from the front porch of her home on 71st Street. “We have been very scared.”

Still, tensions remain high in the neighborhood, the home turf of men charged in the beating of truck driver Reginald O. Denny at Florence and Normandie in April. Officials have expressed fears that the trial of these men could touch off new violence. A demonstration by supporters of the men set the stage for Monday’s clash. For some residents, particularly those who gathered Tuesday outside a liquor store and gas station at the intersection, the police action generated anger, not gratitude. A man in a knit cap pumping gas said he was carrying a gun and would not hesitate to use it if police provoked him. Another man complained of police brutality and suggested that the very presence of officers invited more trouble.

Robert Latham, co-owner of a nearby chili dog stand, said the police action was uncalled for. He complained that he was wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and dragged to a police car Monday night for “not moving fast enough” as he watched from the driveway of a neighboring business.

“They overreacted,” said Latham, 34. “They just started tripping.”

Even some residents who described themselves as supporters of the LAPD and the deployment Monday night said they were concerned about the tenor of the operation. The residents complained of being abruptly ordered by gun-wielding officers to return to their homes as helicopters overhead illuminated their front yards and patrol cars shone bright lights in their windows.

“If their presence is known, fine, but they don’t have to go overboard,” said Annette Brooks, who feared for the safety of her three young children. “This was like Beirut over here. People in this community are very angry, but the cops have just made it worse.”

Another woman, who described herself only as a mother and 20-year resident of the neighborhood, said the police action was bound to sour police-community relations because it was based on fear, not respect.

“All people wanted was some respect and this isn’t giving them respect,” she said. “The police need to start walking around here and get acquainted. The only people who know the police are the bad people.”

Several police officers patrolling the area acknowledged that relations with residents have not improved since April, and some were pessimistic about the future. But the officers defended their operation--including their no-nonsense approach to clearing the streets.

“We didn’t have time for niceties,” said one officer. “We thought we might have another (riot) on our hands. People fail to realize when we tell them to go inside we are doing it for their own safety.”

Those seeking to calm the situation--including elected officials, ministers and Community Youth Gang Services workers--poured into the neighborhood Tuesday, most of them being met by angry residents outside the liquor store and gas station at Florence and Normandie.

“Checking the temperature,” City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said when asked what he hoped to accomplish.

City officials, meanwhile, said a previously announced plan to use hundreds of volunteers to calm community tensions in the Florence-Normandie neighborhood and elsewhere will be in place in January. Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani said Monday’s incident had not changed the timetable for the program.

Under the Neighbor-to-Neighbor network unveiled by Mayor Tom Bradley earlier this month, trained volunteers will fan out across the city to provide information and control rumors that could lead to civil unrest.

Plans for the volunteer organization have been refined over the last two weeks--with an additional 10 paid staff members to be added to the 10 initially proposed to recruit and train volunteers.

Meetings with gang workers, school officials and community leaders have also led to a shift in focus for the volunteers, who will provide “real alternatives” to violence, such as job training, Fabiani said.

Times staff writer James Rainey contributed to this story.