Police, Gay-Rights Activists Set Rules for Protest

Despite suspicion on both sides, gay-rights activists and Los Angeles police officials will meet briefly in Woodland Hills this afternoon before the activists protest outside a fund-raiser for state Sen. Ed Davis that features Gov. Pete Wilson as the guest of honor.

Spokesmen for both sides said Thursday they hoped to open lines of communication and avoid a repeat of a violent confrontation on Oct. 23 in Century City, when officers on horseback broke up a protest against Wilson’s veto of a bill banning job discrimination against homosexuals.

But even after a meeting was set at an undisclosed location near the Marriott Hotel, site of the fund-raiser, gay-rights spokesmen questioned police motives and police complained that gay-rights groups had deliberately delayed scheduling the meeting.

Capt. Valentino Paniccia, who will be the police field commander during the demonstration, said he had been trying to set up a meeting for two weeks and was concerned that it was scheduled only 90 minutes before the protest starts at 5:30 p.m.

But Paniccia also said, “I want this to be a success on both sides of the street. . . . They want to demonstrate, and that’s their right. The LAPD is really in the middle.”

David Smith, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center in Hollywood, said today’s demonstration will protest not only Wilson’s veto, but Republican inaction on AIDS and proposed legislation by Davis (R-Santa Clarita) making it illegal for people infected with the AIDS virus to engage in unprotected sex.

Smith and Mark Kostopoulos, a spokesman for ACT-UP/L.A., said they believe the police called the meeting chiefly to make themselves look good. Still, both said their groups agreed to the meeting to reassure police that they plan to demonstrate peacefully.

Kostopoulos said ACT-UP has collected the names of 26 protesters who were injured by police during the Oct. 23 demonstration. Most suffered minor bruises, he said, but one man received a broken arm.

ACLU spokesman Joe Hicks also called the meeting a good idea, adding that it is standard procedure for police and activists to meet before protests.