UPDATE

Demonstrators Hire Guards for Protection During Protests



By MARGARET RAMIREZ and RICHARD WINTON, Special To The Times<

Demonstrators this morning hired security guards to protect them from police, but there was no recurrence of the violence between officers and protesters that erupted Monday night at a rock concert outside the Democratic National Convention.

"I think there is definitely a concern about the violence that happened last night," said Adalia Garcia, a third-year Loyola Law School student and one of the protesters.

Garcia said about two dozen security guards were hired to flank 500 protesters who marched up 1st Street to the downtown Ronald Reagan State Building. Among the group were college students, young women who might be especially vulnerable to physical assaults by police, she added.

"I did feel that police response last night was excessive," said Garcia, 25. "I was hit twice with rubber bullets while I was trying to leave the area."

The demonstrators shouted "schools, not jails!" as a reggae band played from the back of a truck that accompanied the group. One of their demands was to shift spending from prisons to education.

Another demand by the group was that authorities forgo building schools such as the downtown Belmont Learning Complex, a half-finished, $200-million high school that has been shuttered because of environmental problems. The ghostly looking structure has come to represent ineptitude in the 700,000-student urban system, the second largest in the country.

Wearing T-shirts that said "Justice for Youth," many in the crowd danced around a giant puppet of California Gov. Gray Davis.

Ramon Martinez, a first-grade teacher at Utah Street Elementary School in Boyle Heights, about two miles east of downtown, said the group of mostly teenagers and young adults wanted to end "the racist setup" of public education in California.

When four women draped a banner over a downtown overpass of the 110 freeway, police ordered them to remove it. The women quickly whisked the banner off and hustled off the bridge. The sign said, "Justice For Youth."

California Highway Patrol spokesman Stan Perez claimed the banner was part of an unsuccessful attempt to close down the freeway, "which is exactly what our intelligence said they would try to do at exactly this day and time."

Perez said the CHP had hundreds of officers stationed throughout the metropolitan area to prevent something like that from happening.

Andrea Castelli, 24, of San Francisco, was one of the four young women who held the banner over the freeway. She had been at the rock concert that turned violent Monday night.

"I think they're [police] more apt to be violent today," Castelli said of police.

But Rashead Price, a muscular 30-year-old from Los Angeles who watched the demonstration at the state building, commended LAPD officers for "keeping their cool."

"I believe in a nonviolent approach," he said.

In a second demonstration this morning, about 200 people gathered at Pershing Square, the city's downtown park and rallying point, to hear speeches before taking to the streets to march on behalf of women's issues.

"We grow most of the world's food and then cook it," said marcher Margaret Prescod, in a voice gone hoarse after Monday night's chaos. "We give birth to the whole world's population and then we raise it. . . . Women are producing $16 trillion worldwide. That is $16 trillion that is stolen from us by the multinational corporations."

The crowd at Pershing Square ranged from "raging grannies" to young women in tank tops. They held signs that said "Stop the War on the Poor," "Economic Justice for All Women" and "Everyone Who Works Deserves a Paycheck."

Demonstrating against racism, a third protest group marched from MacArthur Park, about two miles west of downtown Los Angeles, to the Staples Center convention site.

Clementina Sanchez, one of the 350 demonstrators and a mother of five, listened as leaders of the Bus Riders Union decried the inadequacies of Los Angeles bus service before the march got underway.

"They don't care about Latinos, blacks and poor people," she said in Spanish. "I'm old, I'm tired. The buses are no good. Service is no good. Sometimes, they're broke. Sometimes, they're late."

Los Angeles police and their critics disagreed this morning over the appropriateness of the forceful police response to Monday night's melee outside the opening session of the convention. The fracas broke out as President Clinton was speaking inside Staples.

Ten people were arrested and several people--including an American Civil Liberties Union attorney and homeless activist Ted Hayes--were injured when police fired rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas during the violence that erupted after the Rage Against the Machine concert. Hayes and an unidentified 21-year-old man were hospitalized overnight.

The trouble began in the protest zone across from the Staples Center convention site after a small group of people began throwing rocks, chunks of concrete and bottles at police. A few people tried to climb a security fence and others started several minor fires.

"The LAPD displayed incredibly poor judgment in their response to the illegal behavior of a handful of attendees at the concert," the ACLU said in a prepared statement. "Protest leaders acted swiftly to try to stop that illegal behavior. . .

"The police intervened with a heavy hand, shutting off the event's power and entering the protest zone on horses and in riot gear to disperse the crowd using batons and shooting rubber bullets and tear gas. Had the police cooperated with the rally organizers, the night could have ended calmly."

James Lafferty, executive director of National Lawyers Guild in Los Angeles, said during a downtown news conference that Monday night's reaction by the LAPD "demonstrated once again why it has the reputation in this country of being the most corrupt, the most brutal, the most unprofessional and--we must add to that--the most cowardly police department."

However, LAPD officials said they were pleased with their officers' performance Monday night. LAPD Chief Bernard Parks said the ACLU wasn't being objective in its criticism.

Parks called Monday's police tactics "a measured strategic response, undertaken with consideration of the safety and security of all involved.

"The response was conducted with absolute regard for the constitutional rights of all the participants in this incident . . . and [it was] appropriate for the situation," Parks said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, a longtime police supporter, agreed.

"I think they acted with restraint," he said. "They didn't use deadly force."

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who was an activist and protester in the Bay Area during the 1960s, wondered whether police had given Monday night's demonstrators enough time to disperse before moving against them.

"There is concern about anybody being shot [with rubber bullets], because it could have been avoided," Goldberg said.

LAPD Cmdr. David Kalish, a spokesman for the department, emphasized that, before the clash, police and protesters had largely coexisted peacefully.

"As we look at the last couple of days, we saw first on Sunday a large demonstration and march that lasted for several hours and there were few incidents," said Kalish. "Yesterday, we had three marches with close to 10,000 individuals . . . and there were only nine arrests."

"Unfortunately, at the end of the day, things changed. . . . Large pieces of concrete were ripped out of the ground; large metal street poles ripped out of the ground, reportedly some slingshots were fired. People threw containers filled with some sort of caustic chemical. . . . Some reported bottles of urine thrown at officers. And also, as you all saw, some of the individuals started to light fires in the area.

"They began climbing over the fence. As you saw, they tried to unravel the fence. Finally, it required the police to respond," he said.

"The decision to disperse the crowd was based on the level of violence in the crowd."

Other convention-related events scheduled for today include an "Education in America" discussion in Beverly Hills; a women's health-care luncheon at trendy Spago restaurant in West Hollywood; a rally opposing sanctions against Iraq at the protest zone; and a downtown ride-by from Critical Mass, an environmental bicycle group protesting the use of automobiles.

There are fun and games too. Democrats on the House and Senate Commerce committees have been invited to Dodger Stadium to dine on hot dogs and take a few swings at home plate.

Inside the convention hall, the theme will be "You ain't seen nothing yet." Featured speakers include the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley and Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. of Tennessee.

: Evening of Protest Takes Chaotic, and Painful, Turn



First Person: Of Rage, Rubber Bullets and Riot-Masked Horsemen



By JOE MOZINGO, Times Staff Writer



Following is a first-person account of last night's clash between Los Angeles police and the crowd at the Rage Against the Machine concert outside Staples Center.



MOZINGO



Once you’ve been shot several times by rubber bullets and charged by a small army of riot-masked police horsemen, it’s hard to remember how peaceful most of Monday had been as protesters and officers met in downtown Los Angeles.

As one of many reporters covering the protests for The Times, I was walking away with the bulk of the crowd after Rage Against the Machine, an event that capped a day of largely orderly demonstrations.

A sea breeze had finally cooled what had been a stifling day, and concert-goers were quietly heading up Figueroa to their cars.

The demonstrators I had interviewed throughout the day were giddy about being part of a social movement they considered historic--a growing rebellion against corporate dominance around the globe.

Around 7:30 p.m., I called The Times’ city desk to say that everything from my vantage was calm. But an editor told me that other reporters had called in saying there was trouble breaking out elsewhere--some people were throwing bottles over a fence by Staples Center. I started jogging the three blocks to the 12-foot fence that the city had erected to separate the protest area from the front of Staples Center. The trouble still wasn’t obvious, as the crowd still appeared at ease and festive. Some people were dancing, and others were packing up their giant street puppets.

It wasn’t until I jostled through the vast parking lot and up close to the fence that the situation became decidedly more menacing.

The anarchists--a group of angry black-clad protesters I had followed most of the day, and who had already had a few tense moments with police officers--were hurling rocks and bottles over the fence. Scores of stone-faced officers in riot masks stood on the other side.

As I scanned the scene, my throat immediately began to sting and dry up as I got a breath of pepper spray set off by police.

I started coughing.

A couple weeks before The Times had issued us gas masks, something I had scoffed at a bit as an overreaction to the upcoming protests. But I had already grabbed the thing, nervously, earlier in the day, as hundreds officers, some cocking their guns, surged forward with metal nightsticks during a noon stand-off on 6th Street.

This time, I actually got the mask on.

Two protesters had climbed the fence and others were braced against the chain-link and their red anarchist flag. Another reporter told me that the group had ripped out metal signposts and winged them at the officers.

The smell of vinegar--used by demonstrators to cut tear gas--was strong, and people were hacking away, clutching bandannas over their mouths, as the pepper spray drifted through the crowd. One man was lying on the ground without a shirt as people tried pouring saline solution in his eyes.

A band was still playing, but after 8 p.m. the police cut the power and told everyone to leave.

"I hereby declare this an unlawful assembly," an officer said over the sound system. "I order the crowd to disperse."

They gave us 15 minutes--to which the several hundred lingering protesters uttered various, more obscene versions of "Get lost!" A cluster of demonstrators and others started lighting up cardboard protest signs and a flag.

Over a loudspeaker, a bearded man with a clown nose who had been heckling police all day was announcing in his most official tone: "Please do not shoot us. We would appreciate if you did not shoot us."

After more than 15 minutes, a dark line of officers appeared through the smoke, marching fast along the eastern flank of the parking lot. More than 20 officers on horseback, holding long riot sticks, were alongside.

There was a resounding gasp from the crowd, few words, and everyone began fleeing. I ran too. No point taking notes while you get trampled by a horse. The mounted officers circled us, forming a line along the front fence, and started pushing the crowd out like a piston clearing a cylinder.

A few more belligerent crowd members threw bags of trash and cans at the horsemen. At least one person got trampled.

The crowd was pushed to the northeast corner, into another phalanx of officers who were pointing what looked like shotguns--armed with rubber bullets and bean bags--at the crowd. The group’s angry utterances changed to "Don’t shoot!" and "Peace."

They were pushed onto Olympic Boulevard, where the words turned back to obscenities. The group stopped just past Francisco Street. The police ordered them to move. They didn’t.

The horses were lined up--23, side-by-side. Hundreds of other officers were in tight formations. A bunch of us reporters stood at the front of the crowd, futilely hoping police would take the time to notice our press passes. I was frantically writing one-word notes like "horses" and "vinegar" and "armpit." (I don’t know what the latter was referring to.)

Then, boom!

It sounded like a shotgun, echoing hard off the pavement and city walls. Several deafening shots rang out as the crowd ran west on Olympic. Again, I ran with the crowd, flipping down the gas mask to guard my eyes. Rubber bullets stung the back of my arm.

The crowd stopped a block away, near the underpass of the Harbor Freeway. The police lined up about 50 yards away, behind spires of smoke and a yellowish full moon.

Again, after repeated orders to move on, shooting erupted in trails of sparks. This time a rubber or foam bullet caught me in the chest as I talked on a cell phone with my editor. I cussed that it hurt. It stung, but at that distance the pain faded quickly.

We ran away again and had several other stand-offs on Olympic. Protesters and reporters began picking up rubber bullets off the ground for souvenirs. With so much adrenaline running through us, it was difficult to feel anything but amazement and a strange curiosity about what would happen next. It was a surreal scene.

Finally, by Union Street, the police rushed the crowd. Out of the chaos, an officer approached me and an Associated Press reporter, as we stood under an awning. We were yards away from anyone else. The other reporter yelled that he was "Press" and we held up our passes. The officer pulled up his gun, as if to aim it, just feet away from us.

Just an idle threat, I thought.

Boom!

We both jumped and ran. My ears were ringing like I have never experienced. But, somehow, we weren’t hit. Maybe he aimed near our feet. It dispersed us, nonetheless. Horsemen followed us up a side street, as motorcycle officers chased people down on sidewalks and a gas station parking lot to scatter the group.

After 16 hours of walking in the sun, navigating fed-up police and taunting crowds, I could think only one thought: This was the first day of the convention.

The police were claiming that their actions were in response "to the level of violence in the crowd". This is interesting...weren't they the ones perpetrating the violence in the crowd? It seems to me more people were injured from police violence than were injured due to "violence" perpetrated by the demonstrators. Many of the reports from those on the scene indicate that the police were no longer interested in dispersing the crowd, but with punishing them. Also, why don't these reporters try to get reports from people on the scene other that police spokespersons? I would think that it would make more interesting reading than the official story.