Grace Under Pressure

The police were caught napping during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, which seemed to spark an ongoing national tour of anti-capitalist furor. The police chief there quit in embarrassment. When the stage moved to Washington, D.C., for international lenders’ meetings, federal and local authorities shut down public offices and mobilized heavy security escorts for busloads of WTO participants. Not a big deal to Washingtonians inured to the inconveniences and disruptions of daily motorcades and marches. And in Philadelphia, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney rode his bike pell-mell into a protest near the Republican National Convention, achieving both bruises and near folk-hero status.

Now, with the Democratic National Convention convening Monday, it is Los Angeles’ turn to try to balance legitimate security needs with the right to free political expression.

Los Angeles officials--chastened by public reactions to their slow response in the 1992 rioting here and this year’s brief melee after the Lakers claimed the championship--know they can’t allow a Seattle-like debacle. The District of Columbia is a unique federal/urban enclave that can get away with a national security-like clampdown; Los Angeles cannot. And it’s highly unlikely that local civil liberties lawyers would allow Philadelphia-like roundup arrests of protest leaders on minor or questionable charges and subsequent jailings at bail rates normally reserved for serial killers.

Most important, Los Angeles police and political leaders must carry realistic expectations to the week’s events. They will have to walk a fine line between tolerance for free speech and decisive action to contain those who would do harm. It will come down to how well local, state and federal authorities exercise flexible and measured responses as situations dictate.

No one should expect anything close to perfection. There probably will be arrests. Philadelphia emerged from the Republican convention with 390 arrests, several dozen injuries and nearly 50 damaged vehicles. While there are questions about how Philadelphia officers handled some of the preemptive roundups of protest leaders, police there did convey a sense of calm and nonthreatening control.

The stakes here could not be higher for two of the city’s most important leaders. Mayor Richard Riordan lobbied heavily to land the convention and twisted arms for a huge commitment of private funds. Because Riordan has invested so much, how the city handles the spotlight will either solidify or diminish his legacy as mayor. Police Chief Bernard C. Parks is in a similar position; hanging over him is the continuing Rampart scandal and fresh memories of public dissatisfaction about the LAPD’s muted response to disturbances after the Lakers championship victory.

Most city and county leaders are saying the right things: encouraging peaceful protests but warning that lawbreakers will be swiftly punished. But troubling is the palpable sense that some LAPD officers see the Democratic convention spotlight as a kind of “redemption week,” a chance to atone for and exorcise everything from the 1992 riots to the Rampart corruption scandal. That’s exactly the wrong way to view the week to come.

Riordan and Parks have chafed under the pressure, complaining that the police are “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” The jobs of mayor and police chief are indeed tough ones. An important part of doing well in these jobs is the ability to weigh needs, understand consequences, listen to criticism, to react but not overreact. This applies more than ever to the mayor and the police chief this week.

The coming of the Democratic National Convention holds some risk for the city. It holds even greater opportunity. What Los Angeles needs most this week is grace under pressure.