300 Jeer at Supremacist’s 2-Man Rally : Simi Valley: One supporter shows up at Richard Barrett’s demonstration backing verdicts in Rodney G. King beating case.

More than 300 people marched in protest and yelled obscenities at white supremacist Richard Barrett and one supporter, who staged a two-man rally Saturday outside the Simi Valley courthouse where the Rodney G. King beating trial took place.

Flanked by deputies in riot gear and confined to a fenced courtyard, Barrett and James Jones of Los Angeles appeared in support of the verdicts in the King beating case. A row of deputies holding protective shields forced those demonstrating against the two men to stay about 80 yards away.

A temporary fence, topped in some sections with barbed wire, and a row of Ventura County sheriff’s deputies holding shields separated Barrett from the counterdemonstrators.

Barrett, a Mississippi lawyer who leads the Nationalist Movement, attempted a similar rally June 6, but that event was halted because of violence among some counter-protesters.

Saturday’s rally, which began at noon, ended at about 3:30 p.m. when police escorted Barrett from the courthouse and about 50 remaining protesters dispersed.

“A man threw a party, and nobody showed up,” Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said.

Police said four Simi Valley residents were arrested on assault charges as a result of rock-throwing incidents and skirmishes with officers during the counterdemonstration.

Joseph Woodrow Jordan, 20, and Frederick Damien Thomas, 18, were booked into Ventura County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. Both were being held on $5,000 bail late Saturday. Arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday. The names of the others, both 17-year-old boys, were withheld because of their age.

One of the boys was bitten by a police dog as officers chased and arrested him. He was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries before he was booked, along with the other youth, into Juvenile Hall, police said.

Police Chief Lindsey P. Miller said no major injuries or property damage was reported during the counterdemonstration.

About 225 police officers and deputies were assigned to protect Barrett, and Stratton said it will cost the city and county between $50,000 and $100,000. “It was a total waste of taxpayers’ money,” the mayor said.

City officials said rigid security measures were imposed to prevent the violence that erupted June 6 when Barrett tried to hold a rally and parade in the parking lot of Simi Valley City Hall.

Simi Valley police canceled that event and whisked Barrett and six supporters to safety after a few of the 300 counterdemonstrators began throwing soda cans at Barrett and the police.

Barrett sought a city permit to return to Simi Valley for another parade and rally in support of the four Los Angeles police officers accused in the King case. City officials said they opposed Barrett’s message, but could not deny him a permit because of his constitutional right to free speech.

After they were unable to line up enough police officers and deputies to protect a parade route, city officials confined his activities to a rally adjacent to the courthouse.

Both Barrett and his opponents were upset about the fencing arrangement. Because of the distance between the groups and a noisy sheriff’s helicopter overhead, neither side could hear the other’s words very well.

Although the protesters were kept away, news reporters were permitted to interview Barrett and take pictures as he unfurled an American flag and a flag bearing the Nationalist Movement’s insignia.

Barrett fended off repeated questions about where his supporters were.

“Let them ask how many people were on the back of Paul Revere’s horse,” he said. “I don’t know. But I know he had a message of freedom.”

Barrett also claimed that his followers “would be here today if they didn’t have these extraordinary security precautions. The American people are not cattle to be herded into a pen.”

At one point, he said his supporters were having trouble joining him in the restricted area. But Simi Valley Police Lt. Richard Thomas quickly responded: “There has been no one requesting permission to cross the police lines and be with your crew.”

While Barrett was talking to reporters, some demonstrators marched through the parking lot in a circle, waving anti-racism signs and chanting, “Nazis, go home,” “No justice, no peace,” and “We the people take a stand, the KKK can’t have this land.”

Others lined the fence, taunting deputies and daring Barrett to confront them face-to-face. “We’re over here, Barrett,” one protester yelled through a megaphone. “What are you afraid of?”

Many of the counterdemonstrators were dismayed by the barricades that kept them away from Barrett.

“When I got here early this morning and saw the barbed-wire fence, I thought about Dachau, I thought about Birmingham and Selma,” said John R. Hatcher III, referring to the Nazi concentration camp and two Alabama cities that were focal points of the 1960s civil rights movement.

Hatcher, an Oxnard resident who is president of the Ventura County chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, added: “Racism is alive and well in Ventura County. Racism is the reason we are here today.”

Hatcher was among about 200 people from Ventura County and elsewhere who attended a “Neighbors Against Nazis” rally Saturday morning in a park adjacent to the courthouse.

“An attack against human rights for anyone is an attack against us all,” Paige Moser, one of the organizers of the rally, told the crowd. Moser, a Simi Valley resident, is a coordinator of the Simi-Conejo chapter of the National Organization for Women.

Simi Valley city officials, concerned that a counterdemonstration could turn violent and give Barrett more publicity, had urged residents to stay home.

But several speakers at the park insisted that by ignoring Barrett, they would be adopting the same attitude that led to the rise of Nazism.

“More people are becoming aware that it has to be resisted publicly, not in the privacy of our homes,” said Monica Hill, a Los Angeles resident who helped organize the counter-protest.