A CITY IN CRISIS: HOPE AND PRAYER AMID THE ASHES : Sheriff Calls for Federal Civil Rights Prosecutions : Crime: Block urges action under U.S. laws against those involved in setting fires to Korean businesses and in assaulting the trucker. FBI says a probe is under way.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block called Sunday for federal prosecution under civil rights laws of those who he said had targeted Korean businesses in the riot, as well as those who had assaulted white truck driver Reginald O. Denny at the South Los Angeles intersection where the unrest began.

Block said the acts “clearly constitute attacks on people and property simply because of their race,” and he expressed hope that federal authorities are “going to bring whatever resources are necessary to bear to investigate those incidents very quickly and very thoroughly and deal with them as appropriate.”

The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles are investigating the incidents, an FBI official said.

In a Times interview, Block also said neither he nor Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates requested that federal troops or federal law enforcement officials be sent to Los Angeles.

Block said he had raised questions about both the deployment of federal units and the need for civil rights prosecutions in a Saturday night meeting with Deputy U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert S. Mueller III and FBI Field Coordinator Oliver B. Revell.

The sheriff disclosed that his deputies have been taping many television reports on the riots in an attempt to learn the identities of those responsible for illegal acts, and he said he hoped the stations would voluntarily give authorities other available tapes without the necessity of subpoenas.

In a separate statement, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Hal Grant said investigators “will use the videotapes if we can get them.”

Grant said that the department’s media bureau has taped news broadcasts of riot coverage but that investigators are hoping for additional videotape.

“We’ll use what we’ve got. But we’d like to get the media to cooperate, and we would like to get raw footage or anything,” he said.

When asked what evidence he had that Korean-owned stores were targeted, Block said, “just the number that were torched” and a feeling that there could well have been a conspiracy. The matter must be investigated, he said.

Block’s call for prosecutions was followed quickly by confirmation by Charlie Parsons, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, that the FBI has opened an investigation in conjunction with the U.S. attorney’s office of “various incidents” that have occurred during the riots, including the beating of Denny and the arsons of Korean-owned businesses.

“We are trying to identify the individuals who were the perpetrators,” Parsons said. “There are a number of statutes” that could be invoked to lodge a federal prosecution, he added, including federal civil rights laws.

A federal prosecutor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There could be federal jurisdiction if we get enough evidence.”

However, the prosecutor cautioned, “don’t assume that everyone who’s been (shown) on television” looting or committing other crimes will be brought into federal court. Thousands have been arrested and are facing state criminal charges.

One federal law that could be used in the Denny beating is a Reconstruction-era law that makes it a crime for two or more persons to conspire to violate the civil rights of an individual.

This law can be used to prosecute private parties as well as government officials, said William Van Alstyne, a Duke University law professor.

The law applies if the perpetrators have acted toward the same goal, Van Alstyne said, but they need not have planned together. For example, he said, if one individual pulled the driver out of the truck and beat him and then another came along and kicked him in the head--as was graphically depicted on television--they could be prosecuted together.

As for the arsons, Parsons said there are a wide array of federal statutes that come into play during a riot. Among them is a law making it a crime to injure or interfere with a person who sells articles that have moved in interstate commerce. This law has been interpreted to cover almost anything sold in a store.

There also is a federal arson statute that could be used, he said.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said Sunday that he had held extensive discussions with city Fire Chief Donald O. Manning and county Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman. He said neither chief was ready to state that the arsons were racially motivated.

“As a matter of common sense, you can assume some were and some weren’t,” Reiner said.

Reiner said his office and the Los Angeles Police Department were also investigating the Denny beating.

In the interview Sunday, Block also said there is “no question” that members of the Revolutionary Communist Party were involved in the looting and fires at several government buildings and a number of businesses, including The Times building, downtown on Wednesday night. They too should be prosecuted by federal authorities, he said, although he said there was no racial aspect to those incidents. (Attempts to reach a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party were unsuccessful.)

For many crimes, it will be up to prosecutors to decide whether to invoke state or federal laws.

Parsons said: “With any crime where there is concurrent jurisdiction, the prosecutors will look at it and see which statute applies the best. This is done on a case-by-case basis. . . . That’s the prosecution’s decision.”

On the matter of neither he nor Gates calling for federal assistance, Block said the first he knew of the decision was when he watched President Bush’s speech Friday night.

Paul McNulty, chief spokesman for Atty. Gen. William P. Barr, said Sunday afternoon: “It’s safe to say that all federal personnel were requested to be there by both the mayor and the governor.”

However, on Sunday night, Block and federal sources said most of the 1,200 federal law enforcement officers--such as the FBI, marshals and Border Patrol--ordered here only three days ago would start leaving this morning.

Block requested the officers’ departure after consulting with Gates, Mayor Tom Bradley and Gov. Pete Wilson. “We all decided they really were not needed,” Block said.

However, one federal law enforcement source said he believed that it was peculiar for local law enforcement officials to have urged their federal counterparts to depart so soon considering how much money had been spent to send them here and how slowly the Los Angeles Police Department had responded to the rioting.

Federal troops also sent here by President Bush are expected to remain in the city at least through Wednesday, a source close to the mayor said.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Stephanie Chavez and Victor Merina in Los Angeles, and Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington.