Dead Gratitude

Some Times readers may have received the wrong impression about the recent Grateful Dead concerts at the Long Beach Civic Arena.

Although numerous people were arrested (79, by one account), my hat’s off to the Long Beach police and the Deadheads.

Remember, more than 30,000 bodies passed through the gates over the weekend. I thought the police were as friendly and as practical as I’ve ever seen them, and the Dead fans seemed to behave themselves with considerably more courtesy than last spring’s Irvine Meadows concerts, when several hundred crashed a fence to get in to the concert.

CHUCK GERHARDT

Los Angeles

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