Shadow of ’92 Riots Shapes LAPD Stance on Protests

Long before the Democrats settled on the site of next week’s national convention, LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks had decided whom he wanted to oversee security, if Los Angeles won the right to host the event.

The chief’s man had spent seven years running the Police Department’s Special Weapons and Tactics unit, an elite group known more for confronting--and sometimes shooting--armed suspects than for community relations. This is a man who has coordinated about 500 local crises. This is a man known to his peers as a quick and pragmatic decision-maker--in other words, the quintessential SWAT officer.

So Los Angeles got the convention, and Cmdr. Tom Lorenzen, 50, got the security job.

Lorenzen seized the challenge, viewing it--as do many officers he selected for his team--as an opportunity to salvage the Los Angeles Police Department’s tarnished reputation. These officers know the world will be watching as they respond to the upcoming, potentially violent, street demonstrations.

While protesters facing police in coming days may be fighting what has been called the Battle of Los Angeles 2000, many officers--including Lorenzen and his team--will be trying to redeem the recent, calamitous history of the LAPD.

The 1992 riots were their Vietnam. They won’t let it happen again.

“I said then that if I’m ever in a position to change what went on there, I would,” Lorenzen said. “Well, here I am.”

Several of his handpicked sergeants and other officers strongly echo those sentiments.

“I made up my mind in ’92 that I would never be part of anything like that again--I’ll quit,” said Sgt. Greg Baltad, a former Metro Division officer who worked for Lorenzen and now serves as his assistant officer in charge. “We had become so concerned about public opinion that we failed to do what we were required to do. . . . This is our opportunity.”

“My biggest nightmare,” added Sgt. Dennis Quiles, who worked for Lorenzen once before, “would be another 54th [Street] and Arlington [Avenue].” He was referring to the site of the ’92 riot command post set up by officers: It was woefully short on communications equipment, which hampered their efforts to respond. “I would retire the next day. I couldn’t handle that.”

A Dark Moment in History of LAPD

What these officers, and others in the LAPD’s convention planning unit, can’t forget are the hours and hours of waiting and watching as rioters destroyed sections of the city, while no orders came from Parker Center for the police to respond.

It was one of the darkest moments in the department’s history, stemming from a jury’s acquittal of four LAPD officers on state charges in the Rodney G. King beating. The flash point of the riots was the beating of truck driver Reginald O. Denny, pulled from the cab of his big rig by a mob at Florence and Normandie avenues in South-Central Los Angeles.

Scores of police, armed and many in riot gear, remained stationed nearby but were not immediately called in. Ultimately, the civil unrest cost then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates his job, left a sorely disillusioned department and tore the community apart.

Since then, however, other problems have plagued the department, which earlier in this century was regarded as the nation’s most dishonest urban law enforcement agency but then was dramatically transformed into a model for police around the world.

Most recently, it has been rocked by a new corruption scandal, which was first uncovered in the Rampart Division’s anti-gang unit and later spread to other stations. Officers have been found to have covered up unjustified shootings, intimidated witnesses and planted evidence, among other offenses. The U.S. Department of Justice is threatening to sue the city, alleging that the department has engaged in a “pattern or practice” of civil rights violations.

“We are beat to pieces,” Baltad said, describing morale. “This is as low as we’ve been since maybe the corruption problems in the ‘30s. We have young officers who have never been able to feel good about the department.”

Add to that another unknown, even to the top LAPD commanders: How will the mostly demoralized rank-and-file officers respond to potential trouble? Of the officers expected to be on the streets during the convention, in fact, most were hired after police beat King. On average, they have less than six years of experience with the LAPD.

Some police commissioners, department officials and other local politicians question whether this young police force will over- or under-react if it is faced with a belligerent crowd and orders are given from the top.

“Do we have a young work force that’s relatively inexperienced with crowd control?” Lorenzen said. “Is that somewhat of a concern for us? Yes.”

Even Parks acknowledges that he commands “a young department” but says he believes these officers have received solid training to prepare for next week’s possible problems.

Parks also thinks the convention, which opens Monday, could be a chance for his department to shine.

“We would not be part of the planning process if we thought it would be a negative,” he said. The convention and related events “will highlight the city primarily, but certainly the planning and security will not go unnoticed.”

That is exactly the hope of the officers preparing the department’s response.

Along with representatives from the mayor’s office, the Fire and Transportation departments and the county Sheriff’s Department, LAPD officers have written a 6-inch-thick operations plan for protecting the city during the convention. (The group has been working out of donated corporate offices in a downtown high-rise whose location police don’t want publicized for fear it would be “infiltrated” by protesters.)

The plan focuses on three efforts: securing the actual convention site, Staples Center; ensuring safe travel throughout the city for the convention’s thousands of delegates, dignitaries and invited guests; and--perhaps the most talked-about issue--maintaining order in the streets. It is that last piece of the plan that has made protesters, politicians and even some police anxious.

“I’m scared and I’m frightened--not for myself but for the demonstrators who are coming here in good faith,” said City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg. “Suddenly now the police want to be heroes of the people, now they’re going to save the city from this violent scourge of out-of-control, disrespectful, evil anarchists.”

Protest organizers say they too worry about an overreaction by police. They believe that the LAPD will engage in “preemptive arrests” before the convention or their protests begin. They fear that police may encourage trouble by showing up in force and in riot gear, almost goading demonstrators over whom protest organizers exercise only tenuous control.

“We’ve been given every indication from the get-go that our rights are going to be violated and that they are going to engage in fairly repressive tactics,” said Lisa Fithian, an organizer with D2KLA and the Direct Action Network. “In theory, you’d think it would play out just the opposite: [Since] they are known for being so brutal and inciteful,” you would expect them to counteract that image by being especially cautious during the convention.

Although Lorenzen is tight-lipped about most specifics in the plan, he says police will respond in force when necessary. He fully expects mass civil disobedience followed by mass arrests. (The Sheriff’s Department, working with the LAPD, will handle the booking of those arrested and will transport them to county jails, if necessary.)

LAPD Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy, who will serve as the department’s incident commander during the convention, will join Lorenzen in making “real time” decisions on such critical issues as deployment of officers and dispersal of crowds.

For their part, Lorenzen and his team believe that the department should move in quickly to quell disturbances, unlike the approach during the 1992 riots.

“Are we prepared to increase our response level on a daily basis?” Lorenzen asked in his typical question-and-then-answer-himself fashion. “Yes, up to and including asking for mutual aid [help from outside law enforcement agencies]. Are we overprepared? How do you overprepare for a riot? You can’t do that.”

The question--for protesters and others, however--is how measured that response will be.

Former LAPD Chief Ed Davis, Parks’ close confidant and mentor, warns that the department must not become the central figure in any controversy involving demonstrators.

“The response should be appropriate to the need,” Davis said. “The whole world, or at least all of America, will be watching. If you must make arrests, it should be done with a minimum of force. . . . The police aren’t in the position to deal the punishment to anyone.”

LAPD commanders say they expect to make tough decisions. Should they, for example, send 100 officers into a crowd of thousands to arrest 20 people for blocking streets?

For Lorenzen, the answer will depend on a number of factors, including whether officers would be at risk and whether “the rewards”--the number of arrests--would be worth it.

“There will be some things that will happen that we may not be able to respond to, if the risk of responding is greater than the reward,” Lorenzen said. “Are we going to do everything we can to control these scenarios? Yes. Are we going to arrest all of these [protesters] who truly need to be arrested? Yes.”

In making their daily decisions on deployment, commanders will be able to draw on a virtual army of police, posted strategically throughout downtown, armed with nonlethal weapons, including tear gas, pepper spray and bean-bag projectiles.

The LAPD will operate a “unified” command post--Lorenzen refuses to reveal its location--where the police will confer with representatives of other city, county and federal agencies. Morning briefings will be held to update commanders on intelligence gathering and related issues. Police are watching the Web sites used by demonstration organizers as one way to determine protest sites and potential hot spots.

Overall, Lorenzen says, demonstrations in Los Angeles could be worse than the recent major protests in Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Anyone who believes otherwise, he thinks, is unrealistic.

Last week, on the Republican National Convention’s first day, which was calm, Lorenzen said he hoped that people in Los Angeles would not be “lulled” into a sense that everything would be peaceful here. On the second day, when some rioting broke out, he predicted that Los Angeles’ demonstrations would be bigger, better organized and with more potential for illegal activities.

“This is going to be huge,” he said. “My fear is that some politicians and others in this city are going to look at Philadelphia and say it’s not a big deal and the Police Department is crying wolf. I’m not crying wolf. I believe we will have a significant event.”

It is that expectation, however, that instills fear in civil rights attorneys, some local politicians and protesters themselves. They say Lorenzen, and other LAPD officials, are being alarmist.

Handling Protests ‘Will Be a Challenge’

Lorenzen probably didn’t help his reputation much with these groups when he first hit the local spotlight at a packed City Council meeting at the end of June. There, protesters and others got their first glimpse of the man behind the LAPD’s security plans.

Lorenzen, joined by Parks and other high-ranking LAPD officials, sat before the City Council in his dark blue uniform and proclaimed: “It’s going to be very, very difficult, ladies and gentleman, when we have 15,000 to 20,000 people outside the fence line [around Staples Center]. It will be a challenge.”

He showed a video of demonstrations against the World Trade Organization’s meetings in Seattle, prompting jeers from the audience and even from some council members. Demonstrators were seen breaking store windows, hurling bottles, marauding through downtown streets, overwhelming police.

“We believe it’s helpful for you folks to see what could happen,” Lorenzen told the council.

To Dan Tokaji, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Lorenzen’s videotape was an attempt “to demonize protesters and create an us-versus-them type of atmosphere.”

Lorenzen dismisses the criticism easily and casually. He’s been there before. As the head of SWAT--along with his other positions in the department, including chief investigator in the Internal Affairs Division--he grew used to being on the opposite side from the civil rights community.

Lorenzen is already sure he will be named in lawsuits stemming from police activity during the convention for years to come. And he is sure of one other thing too.

“The Police Department is going to be criticized, no matter what happens,” he said.

Just four weeks before the convention, the city was sued in federal court by the ACLU on behalf of protest organizers and others who believed that the Police Department’s “security zone” around Staples Center was unfair and overly restrictive. They succeeded in forcing the department to allow demonstrators closer to the arena.

Lorenzen, who attended numerous meetings with the city’s attorneys and went to court hearings, says the civil rights community has succeeded in creating what will be “a weeklong rock concert at the front door of Staples.”

After the court decision, his team was forced to return to the drawing board, updating the plan mostly by increasing the police presence around Staples.

Lorenzen characterizes the process as a nightmare. He uses the word frequently when describing various aspects of his job. He also uses military terms when discussing the department’s plans--he holds “table-top exercises,” for example, to discuss possible encounters between police and protesters.

In the week before the opening of the convention--or “game day,” as Lorenzen and his team call it--the commander likens himself to an old-time bookmaker, who sits at his desk all day answering phone calls.

He’s confident.

“I’m ready to go. Let’s do it,” he said. “Let’s just see what happens.”