Supremacist Can Hold a Rally but Not a March : Simi Valley: City officials say they don’t have the resources to protect Richard Barrett and his followers during a parade.

White supremacist Richard Barrett can stage an outdoor rally Sept. 12 in Simi Valley but cannot hold a parade because there will be too few police officers to protect him, city officials said Wednesday.

City leaders canceled the parade this week after Ventura County Sheriff John Gillespie told them that he could not afford to grant Simi Valley’s request for more than 300 deputies and other officers to help guard Mississippi attorney Barrett and his followers during a parade.

Instead, Simi Valley Police Chief Lindsey P. Miller said that about 100 officers from his department, plus an equal number of deputies, will protect members of the Nationalist Movement during a rally confined to one place outside the East County Courthouse.

After a trial in the courthouse last spring, jurors acquitted four Los Angeles police officers in the Rodney G. King beating case. Barrett’s group had obtained a city permit to march and rally in support of the jury and the officers.

Simi Valley officials said they now will allow the parade only if state or federal leaders provide National Guard troops or other forces to help protect Barrett from 300 to 400 counterdemonstrators who are expected to attend.

“We don’t have the resources to protect him in a march on the city streets,” City Atty. John Torrance said. “It’s too much physical area to cover.”

Torrance added, “We have already sent letters to both Gov. Wilson and President Bush, requesting aid so as to afford Mr. Barrett his constitutional right to have a parade. If we got outside assistance to augment our 100 officers, and that was sufficient to secure a parade route, then Mr. Barrett could have his parade.”

Torrance said the city had received no reply Wednesday to the aid requests, which were sent out the previous day.

He said Barrett’s parade permit, issued under the city’s new public assembly law, was issued on the condition that sufficient police protection can be arranged.

In a telephone interview from Mississippi, Barrett said he believes that the city is acting in good faith by requesting help from the National Guard. But he said he believes that the city’s permit law is unconstitutional and insisted that he will make the final decision on whether to march or conduct only a rally.

Barrett said he is prepared to go to court if he concludes that the city is curbing his free-speech rights.

“I’m leaving for California with my megaphone under one arm and my typewriter under the other to be prepared to use the streets--or the courts, if necessary,” he said.

On June 6, Barrett and six supporters assembled in the Simi Valley City Hall parking lot, intent on marching around the block to the courthouse. But Simi Valley police halted that parade and escorted Barrett and his associates to safety after some of the 300 counterdemonstrators became unruly and a few began throwing soda cans at the supremacists.

A coalition calling itself “Neighbors Against Nazis” is organizing a Sept. 12 counterdemonstration, and police believe that it will be even larger than the last one.

Concerned that violence might erupt again, Miller asked Gillespie, under a mutual aid pact, to provide 327 deputies or police officers from other Ventura County cities to help guard the parade route. Miller estimated that this would cost the county up to $120,000.

“We cannot handle that,” Undersheriff Larry Carpenter said. “We’re desirous of helping (Miller), but we must arrive at a way to greatly scale down the operation and the potential for violence.”

He said his agency could not absorb the cost of protecting Barrett at a time when county budget cuts have eliminated 42 jobs and nearly $3 million from the department’s budget.

Carpenter said his department will send the smaller force of deputies to the Sept. 12 rally to help protect the courthouse, which is county property.

Miller said he plans to cordon off an area for Barrett and his followers in the courthouse parking lot, separating that group from counterdemonstrators who might gather in a nearby park. Counterdemonstrators will not need a permit to assemble in the park, which is outside the city’s jurisdiction.

“If they want to stand in the adjacent park and make speeches, that’s fine,” Miller said. “If they start throwing rocks or soda cans at Mr. Barrett or my people, then we’ll take appropriate action.”

Paige Moser of Simi Valley, one of the organizers of the counterdemonstration, said her group plans to express its opposition to Barrett without violence.

“We are going to talk to the police,” Moser said. “We want them to know what we’re doing--for our safety.”