Authorities Give Stern Warning to Protesters

Los Angeles County’s top law enforcement officials Thursday combined words of encouragement to peaceful protesters gathering for next week’s Democratic National Convention with promises not to tolerate lawbreakers.

“We have plenty of room” in the county jails, Sheriff Lee Baca said.

Baca was joined at a news conference at the downtown Criminal Courts Building by Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who urged protesters to “be vigorous, be forceful, be heard, but operate within the law” and by Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler, who supervises all criminal matters in Los Angeles County courts.

Fidler vowed that anyone arrested will be treated “with dignity, with access to justice,” but that anyone who tries to subvert the court system will not get away with it.

Fidler said he was referring to news reports that demonstrators might try to blockade courts and that some individuals who have been arrested may try to tie up courts by taking off their clothes in lockups.

“We’ll have naked court if necessary,” the judge declared.

To prepare for the convention-related arrests that are anticipated next week, Fidler said, he has reduced routine court calendars downtown and is prepared to operate courtrooms 24 hours per day if necessary to comply with requirements that people arrested appear before a judge within 48 hours, not counting weekends.

Baca, whose department operates the nation’s largest local jail system, said that if demonstrations lead to arrests throughout the convention week, he will probably shuffle those arrested among the department’s eight facilities. Those jails hold 19,000 inmates on an average day, the Sheriff’s Department says.

As head of a law enforcement emergency cooperative, Baca also said that he was prepared to lend Los Angeles police the assistance of his deputies and, if necessary, to call in help from other police agencies in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

“Thousands of officers can be brought to the central area within hours to assist the LAPD,” he said.

A Los Angeles Police Department representative, Cmdr. Garrett Zimmon, took on the role of civic booster. He said his department wants to ensure that anyone who “wants to express their 1st Amendment rights has that ability,” but also that Los Angeles looks good to the world.

The department’s goal, he said, is to make sure that “we get the opportunity to showcase the city of Los Angeles . . . an opportunity to showcase our wonderful Staples Center.”