Friday August 11 8:27 PM ET
Judge Bars LAPD From Raiding Activist HQ
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles judge on Friday issued a restraining
order preventing police from raiding the headquarters of activists
planning mass street protests during next week's Democratic National
Convention.
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The temporary restraining order forbids police from entering the
ramshackle four-story ``Convergence Center'' in the downtown area without
a warrant and from seizing giant puppets, posters and placards that dozens
of activists are making inside.
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The court order was sought by the American Civil Liberties Union of
Southern California after the main umbrella groups D2KLA and Direct Action
Network complained that their rights to free speech were being violated by
police harassment.
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The activists, who plan some 20 major nonviolent marches or rallies on
issues ranging from the death penalty and sweatshop labor to corporate
globalization, had feared a mass police raid on Saturday, two days before
the Democrats come to town for the Aug 14-17 convention.
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ACLU lawyers said they had logged 22 separate incidents of surveillance
and harassment, including random police visits without warrants, low
helicopter overflights and people being followed and searched after
leaving the building.
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The demonstrations, which start at the weekend, may rival those in
Seattle, Washington D.C., and at the Republican Convention in Philadelphia
last week, although neither the organizers nor the police have put a
figure on how many people might take part.
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The Los Angeles police department, facing its toughest public test since
the savage 1992 riots surrounding the police beating of black motorist
Rodney King, says it believes the majority of protesters will be peaceful.
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But they have also pledged that unlawful behavior will not be tolerated
and that their main task is to ensure that the convention goes ahead
without interruption.
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U.S. District Court Judge Dean Pregerson however declined to bar police
from keeping the protest headquarters under surveillance if they had
``probable cause.''
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``The city has a history of unfortunate riots...on hot summer days,''
Pregerson said, adding that police officers had a right to ``protect the
city, the people who are coming here for the Democratic National
Convention and the people who are lawfully protesting.''<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Court order issued today barring LAPD from raids on convergence spaces and puppets","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2000\/08\/604.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}