LAPD and Convention

* Twice on Aug. 17, I got out from the Democratic National Convention to the formal protest area and conversed with the protesters through the double chain-link fence. Our views on homelessness, the environment, campaign reforms, etc. were not much different. After Al Gore’s acceptance speech, I and other attendees were detoured by Staples Center security to avoid what they called “ground zero” of the protest area. Did the police clamp down too hard (Aug. 20)? They certainly did.

In the city’s failure to handle some of the mindless L.A. Lakers sports fans, Mayor Richard Riordan created an atmosphere of fear about the protesters. It is truly sad that instead of harnessing the energy, enthusiasm and serious thoughtfulness of many of the protesters, the mayor succeeded in creating an ideological divide where there was little or none. The mayor might have succeeded in creating a sanitized view of L.A.; he has, however, failed the Democratic Party.

ANN LAU

Torrance