File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2000/anarchy-list.0007, message 321


Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 09:46:15 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca>
Subject: LAPD Secrets


http://www.laweekly.com/ink/00/36/news-shea.shtml

LAPD Secrets

Judge refused to keep you from reading this convention plan

by Joe Shea

U.S. District Judge Gary Feess’ ruling in favor of convention protesters
sheds a little light on the paranoia of the LAPD.

Much has already been made of the judge’s scolding the city for putting
convenience before the First Amendment. Nearly as important, for
champions
of an open society, was the judge’s refusal to go along with an LAPD
request
to seal from public view a three-page document.

The attempt to put the lid on the document, which deals with the mundane
details concerning motorcades, parking for dignitaries and bus stops,
has
not received play in the local media, most likely because the details
are
not terribly interesting. However, the failed effort to keep it secret
shows
how shamelessly sinister the LAPD is making the convention protests out
to
be.

In the document, Democratic National Convention logistics manager Louis
S.
Vasta discusses the security justifications for a 186-acre protest-free
zone
around the Staples Center. The LAPD told the judge it was so explosive
and
revealing that it must be kept from the prying eyes of the press and
black-masked anarchists.

“Disclosure to the public or to plaintiffs would jeopardize the security
of
the Democratic National Convention and the safety of all persons who
will
attend the event,” Deputy City Attorney Debra Gonzales argued.

The L.A. Weekly dug it up with the help of City Attorney James Hahn’s
spokesman Mike Qualls and the ACLU, which brought its case against Chief
Bernard Parks and the city on behalf of protesters ranging from the
National
Lawyers Guild to the better-known D2K umbrella of direct-action folks
and
backers of Philadelphia journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of
killing a Philadelphia cop and faces execution.

All of the details in the report were up in the air this week because of
the
judge’s rejection of the protest-free zone.

But, according to the document, in the “secure zone” — between Venice
and
Olympic boulevards and Flower Street and the Harbor Freeway — police
planned
to create a temporary cul-de-sac. The purpose of this “turnaround” — on
11th
Street, west of Figueroa — was to keep dignitaries’ cars off Georgia
Street
so they won’t drive past the front door of the Staples Center.

“The cul-de-sac on 11th Street will allow for the drop-off of other
officials, including predominantly speakers at the convention, on the
east
side of Staples Center. The vehicles must be allowed to remain in close
access to their guests. Lot 8 is necessary for pick-up of these official
guests without leaving the security perimeter,” the document says. In
Lot 2,
east of the entrance to Staples, parking for 500 “official vehicles” is
provided.

Perhaps so that they wouldn’t seem entirely self-serving and lame,
convention organizers also trotted out another bugaboo: their fear that
bus
service to and from the convention center would be disrupted if
demonstrators knew where the “massive bus operations” for the event
would be
staged. “We know from past experience that buses are prime targets for
demonstrators. If buses can be stopped, delegates cannot be picked up.
If
the bus shuttle system is disrupted, the result could be the stranding
of
thousands of individuals in downtown Los Angeles and the complete
disruption
of the Convention.”

Longtime bus advocate John Walsh suspects that “the plan is not to
attack
the buses; the plan is to lie down in front of the buses.” He predicts
that
downtown subways and the MTA’s Long Beach–L.A. Blue Line train will be
stopped almost instantly if trouble breaks out to keep from giving
demonstrators an alternative route to the action (or those stranded
thousands a way out).

According to the Vasta document, the buses will be parked in lots 5, 6
and 7
and have to be within the perimeter “because of the large number of
threats
that have been publicly made by certain groups against this convention
to
the effect that they intend to interfere and possibly attempt to disrupt
this convention.”

Chief Parks wouldn’t discuss the matter: “No, we will not comment on
that,”
he told the Weekly.

Indeed, he didn’t tell the chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee of
any
threats assessment the police may have developed to buttress Vasta’s
claims.
“They have not shared that information with any of us,” said
Councilwoman
Cindy Miscikowski’s legislative deputy, Adena Tessler.

In court papers, the ACLU offered a point-by-point rebuttal of virtually
every claim the LAPD made about threats, saying most of the department’s
claims were based on hearsay, lacked personal knowledge and expertise,
and
are attributed to unidentified people and unsworn out-of-court
statements.

On one claim, ACLU lawyer Dan Tokaji noted that it “fails to set forth
facts
to explain the conclusions drawn by declarant about terrorist attacks
and
how the media encourages these attacks.”

And Walsh, a substitute teacher, knocked down the probable size of the
protest contingent from 50,000 to 5,000, especially after national labor
leaders infuriated local ones by saying they would encourage their
members
not to take to the streets.

“It’s like everything else in L.A.,” he said, invoking the torpid
official
celebration here on New Year’s. “It starts with a big buildup and then
fizzles out.”

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