Innovative Deal to Free Protesters

About 50 protesters arrested during the Democratic National Convention agreed Monday to a compromise that will free them from jail--and their hunger strike--after unusual negotiations with a city prosecutor who spent the night in custody with them, listening to their demands.

The protesters are expected to be released from jail as early as this morning.

The agreement was reached at 4 a.m. Monday, after Deputy City Atty. Howard Gluck spent more than 12 hours trundling back and forth to separate meetings with male protesters in the Men’s Central Jail and women being housed in the nearby Twin Towers correctional facility.

Gluck and the tightknit cadre of protesters from across the nation debated everything from the protest politics of Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to corporate ethics to the rule of law.

The protesters told Gluck that they were refusing to give their names, and thus be bailed out, because the charges against them were unfair, arbitrary and too severe, participants said.

Gluck responded that “even Martin Luther King [Jr.] was willing to pay the price” for his protests, and that the demonstrators needed to do the same.

Finally, each side agreed to give a little, breaking an impasse that began shortly after the protesters were arrested last week during a bicycle rally, a demonstration at the Rampart police station and a protest against Occidental Petroleum Corp.

The agreement, which is in the process of being approved by a series of judges, will result in the reduction of misdemeanor charges of failure to disperse or resisting arrest to infractions of disturbing the peace. The infractions are punishable by fines, which are expected to be waived in lieu of jail time already served.

In exchange, protesters agreed to furnish authorities with their names and other personal information so they can be processed through the system.

“It’s clear they wanted to get out and go back to their families and their jobs,” said a weary Gluck, the assistant supervisor of the city attorney’s Central Filing and Arraignment Unit.

“The protesters did what they felt they had to do,” he said, “and so did I.”

If they had continued to refuse to give their names, the protesters conceivably could have stayed in jail for weeks, clogging the system as a way to continue the civil disobedience they started on the streets. Further complicating things was the hunger strike; dozens of the protesters had entered their fourth day without food Monday, and many others were fasting on the street in front of the jail in a show of solidarity.

In the end, the protesters were so impressed by Gluck’s shuttle diplomacy that they wrote him a letter, thanking him for visiting with them in jail.

The process was put in motion Sunday, when Sheriff Lee Baca met with the protesters and allowed them to consult with their own attorneys and with prosecutors.

Defense lawyer Katya Komisaruk of the Midnight Special Law Collective called Gluck and asked if he would take the unusual step of visiting with the protesters in lock-down.

Lisa Fithian of the Direct Action Network, an umbrella group representing the protesters, hailed the compromise as a significant victory for all demonstrators at the convention. She said the men and women meeting with Gluck were extremely well organized and polite, raising their hands to speak and using nicknames to identify themselves.

As word spread of the compromise Monday, about two dozen protesters staging a vigil outside the jail began to hug, cheer and clap. Some broke out into song: “Solidarity forever, for the movement makes us strong.”

“We still want to stress our issues, like Occidental Petroleum and the [Los Angeles Police Department’s] Rampart corruption” scandal, said Ira Murfin, 24, of Chicago, one of the demonstrators camped outside Twin Towers and fasting.

But, added Frank Salerno, 28, of Atlanta: “I think this worked out well.”

As that legal battle was winding down Monday, another potential one was starting.

Late in the day, the ACLU of Southern California filed a federal lawsuit against the LAPD, alleging that police officers violated the civil rights of some news media members who were attempting to cover the department’s shutdown of a protest area Monday evening.

The lawsuit also alleges that officers assaulted at least four journalists during the Monday night melee, although they were clearly identified as members of the media.

“It would be different if they were in the middle of the mix,” ACLU Chief Counsel Michael Small said of the journalists. “But they were not standing next to the protesters or even interviewing them in a crowd. They were off to the side, doing their business. And boom, they’re shot. Or they’re clubbed. Some people were shot and clubbed.”

In all, 10 people were arrested during the Monday night confrontation between police and protesters, which followed a concert by the band Rage Against the Machine.

Small said that even if police give an order to disperse, the news media has a right to stay in the area and report on what was happening, including clashes between police and protesters.

LAPD officials disagreed, saying an order to disperse includes journalists. “They can make the argument that they have the right to be there, but . . . our point is, if we say you have to go, you have to go,” said LAPD Sgt. John Pasquariello.