by Jason G.
Thursday, May. 17, 2001 at 3:02 PM
short article from Long Beach Telegram
Wednesday, May 16, 2001 Long Beach Press-Telegram
L.B. to move to recoup protest costs
By Jason Gewirtz
Staff writer
LONG BEACH … The city will attempt to recoup nearly $100,000 incurred during a May 1 anarchist protest that shut down part of downtown, despite calls by protesters that police overreacted.
The City Council on Tuesday backed the Police Department's response to the protest, and urged the city prosecutor to seek the maximum penalties for those protesters found guilty.
The council also urged the prosecutor to include some repayment of the city's costs to respond to the incident as part of any plea bargain.
The city spent $93,000 in direct and indirect costs to respond, Assistant City Manager Gerry Miller said.
The May Day protests lead to roughly 100 arrests. Police closed several downtown streets during the unrest and fired rubber bullets and beanbags to control the protest. Sharpened sticks, M-80 firecrackers, spray paint and bags of urine and feces were later found at the scene.
"These to me were folks who came out to desecrate our city with no valid purpose," said Vice Mayor Dan Baker, who proposed the motion.
But several people who were arrested during the incident told the council that police overreacted. Jeff Hendricks, a 22-year-old Cal State Long Beach student, showed up with his arm in a cast from wounds he suffered in the incident.
"We were there practicing our Constitutional right of peaceful assembly," he said.
"I never heard any order to disperse," added 19-year-old Whitney Tays, who also protested that day.
But Councilman Jerry Shultz, who is a sheriff's deputy when he's not a councilman, said he had no sympathy since the protesters broke city laws.
"You were peaceful until the point you moved onto our public streets," he said.