Hahn Attacks Bradley Over Remarks on L.A. Crime : Mayor: City attorney’s letter criticizes a two-week Asian trip to promote tourism. It also says the city is being torn apart by the Rodney G. King beating.

City Atty. James K. Hahn denounced Mayor Tom Bradley on Wednesday for traveling to the Far East during the Rodney G. King controversy and criticized Bradley’s comments to foreign journalists about crime in Los Angeles.

“Instead of going to Japan to try to assure tourists that it’s safe to come to Los Angeles, why don’t you stay here and work on making this city safe for our own citizens who live here?” Hahn said in a two-page letter delivered to Bradley’s office.

“The city is being torn apart over the implications of the Rodney King tragedy and children are being murdered in drive-by shootings while you are promoting tourism,” the letter said. Bradley is scheduled to return Sunday from a two-week trip to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong to promote trade and tourism. He left Los Angeles on April 12, just hours after announcing drastic city budget cuts and amid continuing turmoil over the status of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

For the low-key Hahn, generally a friend of Bradley’s, the criticism is uncharacteristic.

“I think he will be surprised,” Hahn said. “I think he will be upset that his supposed friend would write this letter.”

It was unclear on Wednesday whether Bradley has been told about the letter, but Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani responded quickly, calling Hahn a potential 1993 mayoral candidate who has “thrown a temper tantrum.”

Fabiani called Hahn’s letter “stream of consciousness” and “sour grapes” because of proposed cuts in the budget of Hahn’s office.

Hahn has maintained a low profile during the controversy stemming from the videotaped beating of King, but he said he decided to speak out because he was “offended” by statements attributed to the mayor in Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times.

“I’m not running for mayor,” Hahn said. “I’m just an angry city attorney dealing with increasing crime.”

At a news conference in Tokyo, Bradley complained that many Japanese view Los Angeles as “a dangerous city” plagued by drive-by shootings and gang wars. He called that view a “myth” and said drive-by shootings and gang activity occur “in a limited area of the city,” involve “primarily black or Hispanic gangs,” and, to date, have threatened no tourists.

“Thank God no tourists were involved!” Hahn wrote sarcastically in his letter to Bradley. “It sounds as if you think it’s all right as long as the only families that will be grieving . . . are black and Latino families.”

In a statement, Fabiani said the story “misrepresents” the mayor’s position on gang violence. He said the city is doing “everything within its power” to fight gangs and drugs.

George Cotliar, managing editor of The Times, said the mayor’s news conference comments were tape-recorded and accurately reflect what Bradley said.

Hahn agreed with Bradley that few drive-by shootings involve tourists, but said that many tourists have been victims of crime.

Hahn also attacked Bradley’s “hit-and-run” budget, saying that it was “dropped as your plane left for the Far East on a trip most people insist did not require your presence.”

The budget, Hahn said, should be read “with white wine, Brie and quiche” and lacked any indication that the mayor recognizes the “serious crime problems facing the city.”