Protesters Say L.A. Will Be Used as Model of Injustice

Gathering in front of the arena that will house the Democratic National Convention next month, activists said Wednesday they would use the event to highlight Los Angeles as a model of the injustices of the global economy--even as city officials hope it will advertise the city’s health and prosperity.

“Regardless of what reality L.A.’s political leadership and the Democratic Party want to create,” organizer Lilia Garcia said, “we cannot hide the horrible reality that one-third of our children are in poverty, that in many communities nearly 80% of our children do not have health insurance.”

Activists with the two coalitions planning protests--the D2K Network and Rise Up! Direct Action Network Los Angeles--expect daily marches and other forms of legal protest during the convention, which will run Aug. 14-17. They say they do not plan to shut down the event in the same way protesters sought to block meetings of the World Trade Organization in Seattle and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, D.C.

But organizer Lisa Fithian said discussion is underway on whether to try to block access to “institutions that the DNC uses to oppress people.” Such institutions include corporations such as Arco and public agencies, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, she said.

One area of agreement has emerged among a number of the various protest groups intending to demonstrate during the convention: Many insist that they have no intention of using a designated protest zone outside a vast security area around Staples Center and the Convention Center complex.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the city and Los Angeles Police Department, challenging the security zone and designation of the protest zone outside it as an unconstitutional infringement on 1st Amendment rights of free speech and peaceable assembly.

That case is scheduled for a hearing next week, but the two sides already are at odds. On Wednesday, advocates for the protesters complained about the city’s handling of the matter, particularly a request by the city attorney’s office to file a declaration in the case under seal, concealing its contents from the public and the demonstrators.

In filing the sealed supplemental declaration of Louis S. Vasta, chief executive and director of logistics for the Democratic National Convention Committee, attorneys for the city said they believe disclosure of certain information to the public or to the plaintiffs “would jeopardize the security of the Democratic National Convention and the safety of all of the persons who will attend the event.”

The city contends that the security zone is reasonable and necessary to protect the convention.

ACLU attorney Daniel Tokaji called the city’s filing under seal “absolutely outrageous. It is a blatant attempt to circumvent the judicial process. . . . This is not a police state and we don’t deny free speech rights based on secret declarations.”

With the legal battle proceeding on one front, protest organizers also used their news conference to say that they intend to refrain from violence--a stance they urged the Police Department to adopt as well. The organizers also urged the LAPD not to preemptively arrest protesters before they take the streets, a tactic used by Washington, D.C., police earlier this year.

“Because our primary value is community, not competition and destruction, we are nonviolent and we are challenging the LAPD, despite its well-known history, to be nonviolent,” organizer Shawn McDougal said.

LAPD Cmdr. David Kalish said later that “provoking an incident would be the last thing we want. Our goal is to maintain public safety and maintain public order.”

The protesters’ news conference before a crush of reporters outside Staples Center was the latest attempt to put a face on the 10,000 to 50,000 demonstrators expected to arrive in Los Angeles next month. Activists sent a similar message at the National Press Club in Washington last week--that they are nonviolent and want to draw attention to injustice.

The LAPD has been warning of a different possibility. In a video presentation to the City Council last month, police showed footage of violent demonstrations in Seattle and warned that rogue bands of anarchists may try to damage property in Los Angeles. Earlier this week, police staged a “training” session in San Pedro for television cameras to film officers containing a mock protest.

At the news conference Wednesday, protest organizers stressed the diversity of the coalition they had assembled. Representatives of immigrant groups stood next to anti-globalization activists holding signs calling for everything from campaign finance reform to speeding up the amnesty process for undocumented immigrants.

“This is really what democracy looks like,” organizer Margaret Prescod said.

Emphasizing that diversity, activists distributed a calendar with 24 different events listed for the week of the convention, from a teach-in on genetically engineered foods coupled with a march to a Trader Joe’s to puppet marches and a “reality tour” of Los Angeles.

Linking all the activities--and similar ones in Philadelphia during the Republican National Convention July 31 through Aug. 3--are underlying themes, organizers said.

“These demonstrations are not just about the Democrats, are not just about the Republicans,” said organizer Jia Ching Chen. “They are about the U.S. putting forth a global system that puts profits ahead of everything else.”

Since the 1970s, organizers said, Los Angeles has suffered from that system as businesses moved manufacturing jobs out of the central city to Third World countries with lower wages. That has left families without gainful work, activists said.

Protest organizers took numerous swipes at the LAPD, claiming that their counterparts in Philadelphia have been photographed leaving meetings by people they believe to be police. Fithian said that two activists were questioned by LAPD officers Saturday outside a training session and that when she walked across the street to speak with an officer she was threatened with arrest for jaywalking.

In keeping with long-standing policy, Kalish said the LAPD will not confirm or deny any intelligence gathering activities.

Plainclothes officers mingled around the fringes of the media crowd at the news conference, and two sergeants stopped by to watch.

“Nobody is going out there looking for any trouble, provoking any trouble,” Sgt. Gary MacNamara said. “That is the last thing we want.”