Bookseller Says Police Intimidate : Pro-Communist Outlet Asks Probe by Commission

Saying its staff has been harassed, intimidated and spied on by police, a bilingual revolutionary bookstore Tuesday asked the Los Angeles Police Commission to investigate a series of alleged abuses that threaten to permanently disrupt the store’s activities.

The complaint was filed by the Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Libros Revolucion, a pro-Communist bookstore that caters to Latino immigrants.

Libros Revolucion in the complaint claims that its workers have been detained by police for political reasons and its patrons have been threatened and discouraged from entering the store. Further, officers have followed people leaving the store and mounted a stakeout in front of the building on 8th Street, the complaint alleges.

Concerns Cited

“These acts taken together raise serious concerns about an LAPD campaign to undermine the bookstore’s ability to operate freely, if not to operate at all, and to prevent bookstore personnel from engaging in protected political activity,” the complaint said.

ACLU attorney Paul L. Hoffman, in a press conference, called on the Board of Police Commissioners to investigate the allegations, punish any officers guilty of abuse and disclose whether the Police Department is acting out an orchestrated plan to make it difficult for the store to function.

“Police should not be engaged in harassment of this bookstore, or any bookstore, or any individual engaged in political activity,” Hoffman said. “It’s very important that a bookstore be protected in its ability to distribute literature, free from harassment by the LAPD.”

The case takes on significance because it represents the first formal complaint the ACLU has filed to suggest that the Police Department may be violating a 1984 agreement that ended years of litigation and set guidelines to regulate police intelligence gathering.

Under the guidelines, the police cannot gather intelligence on political groups unless there is evidence the group is breaking the law. The agreement settled a lawsuit by 131 plaintiffs who accused the police of illegal political spying.

Assertions Denied

Police Department spokesman Cmdr. William Booth denied that the department engages in “institutional” harassment, adding that all specific allegations made by the ACLU will be investigated.

The manager of the bookstore, who uses the pseudonym Lucas Martinez, said he believes that Los Angeles police are collaborating with federal agencies or private groups to thwart political activity by bookstore workers.