Halt to Alleged Surveillance of Activists Sought

Attorneys for activists planning to demonstrate during the Democratic National Convention next week demanded Tuesday that the Los Angeles Police Department halt its alleged surveillance of the protesters’ headquarters and said that, unless authorities agree, they will go to court Thursday to seek an injunction against the department.

At least five times in the past month authorities have visited the four-story building near MacArthur Park, said activists, who voiced fear that the LAPD will emulate police in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., who shut down buildings being used by protesters.

“The people who are here are very alarmed at the surveillance and the threat that they will be raided by the LAPD,” said Dan Tokaji, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “They are very concerned the LAPD will be taking action to suppress their right to free speech.”

In a letter sent out this week, the ACLU, National Lawyers Guild and other civil rights attorneys say that unless the LAPD pledges, by today, not to monitor or close the so-called Convergence Center, an injunction barring police from doing so will be sought in federal court.

City officials said Tuesday that they had just received the demand and would not comment. LAPD and city officials have previously praised the preemptive police tactics in Washington and Philadelphia, saying they were useful law enforcement techniques.

The ACLU’s move highlights growing concern among activists and some lawyers that authorities across the country are trying to head off sometimes rowdy protests before they reach the street. Police in Philadelphia rounded up several perceived leaders of protests during the Republican convention and held them in lieu of bail of up to $1 million. Washington police arrested hundreds of activists as they walked down the streets before April protests against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Even during recent protests in Canada, authorities targeted U.S. activists crossing the border.

“I’ve been active for a long time, and I haven’t seen this level of repression in this country,” said David Solnit, who was followed by police before protests in Ontario, Canada, arrested and held for four days during demonstrations there.

Cmdr. David J. Kalish, an LAPD spokesman, said Tuesday that he could not comment on the issue because of “potential litigation.” But officials have privately and publicly endorsed the idea of preemptive action against demonstrators if, and only if, those activists are engaged in illegal activity.

“With delayed reaction, you permit huge crowds to build and build before you take action,” said LAPD Cmdr. Mark Leap in an interview last week after visiting Philadelphia to observe the tactics there. “In Washington, the Police Department took extensive preemptive action early to prevent the tactics from being fully implemented. . . . You didn’t see that in Seattle.”

It was in Seattle that an estimated 50,000 protesters succeeded in shutting down meetings of the World Trade Organization in protests that were punctuated by widespread police use of rubber bullets and tear gas and targeted vandalism of stores by some protesters. Seattle’s police chief resigned after those incidents.

In Washington, police arrived at the protesters’ headquarters the night before demonstrations were scheduled to begin. They closed the building, saying they were conducting a fire inspection. Activists complained that they were not allowed access to food, medical supplies and political literature inside.

Also that day, police arrested about 600 people leaving a legal march near the Department of Justice, according to a class action lawsuit filed last week by attorneys for protesters.

Hours before civil disobedience was scheduled during the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia last week, police closed off the streets around a warehouse, where activists were building puppets, and waited for a judge to sign a search warrant. Officers arrested more than 70 people in the building and confiscated the puppets. Police later displayed at a news conference rags dipped in gasoline, chicken wire and other tools they said were to be used to attack police or assist in other illegal acts.

Activists contended that the material was for a juggling display. During the sporadically violent protests that followed, a few officers suffered injuries. More than 100 activists remain in jail in Philadelphia on a hunger strike complaining about their treatment there.

In Los Angeles, where lead organizers have pledged nonviolence and no property destruction, police officers have already paid multiple visits to the old department store on 7th Street that protesters have converted into their headquarters.

On the night of July 15, a group of officers entered the foyer of the building and asked to see a lease, saying they were concerned about potentially violent protests during the convention, according to activists.

On July 22, activists and attorneys say, police again went to the building and asked to see a lease. On Aug. 2, fire inspectors tried to enter the building, and after they were turned away because they had no warrant, activists saw police videotaping the building, they say. On Sunday and Monday nights, activists say, police stopped by and spoke to activists outside the building.

LAPD Lt. Horace Frank said that the department does not conduct surveillance of political groups and that any contacts between police and people headquartered in the neighborhood comes through routine patrol activities.

“When our officers are out there and they see anything that is a possible violation of the law,” Frank said, they investigate.

Also on Tuesday, three activists who were arrested while hanging a protest banner outside Staples Center Monday were released on $20,000 bail.

Victoria Pipkin, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said prosecutors had declined to file felony charges against the three activists, who are instead expected to face misdemeanor counts.

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Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.