Officials Scramble to Draft New Security Plan

Scrambling to respond to a federal court order invalidating their security plan, the Los Angeles Police Department, U.S. Secret Service and other agencies said Thursday they are weighing options that would put protesters closer to delegates and might force the deployment of hundreds of additional officers.

At City Hall, council members were told that a federal judge’s decision ruling unconstitutional the large security zone the city had planned around the convention could potentially add to the burden and cost of policing the convention, slated for Aug. 14-17 at Staples Center.

That verbal ruling, backed up by a similarly scathing written version released Thursday afternoon, took local leaders by surprise and forced a hasty round of reconsideration. But officials acknowledged that they had no choice but to come up with an alternative to a proposal that had been months in the making.

“The judge made it clear we don’t have a lot of options,” Police Chief Bernard C. Parks told City Council members. “The judge said find an alternative to address it and that’s what we intend to do.”

According to Parks, a contingency plan under consideration would allow demonstrators within 100 yards of the convention site, significantly closer than a designated protest site located outside the broad security zone that stretches for blocks around the arena and convention center.

If protesters are allowed closer, LAPD Cmdr. Thomas Lorenzen said the department may have to deploy hundreds of additional officers to protect the convention and ensure that demonstrators stay behind a high fence ringing the area.

After a morning meeting with law enforcement agencies and the Democratic National Convention Committee to assess the implications of U.S. District Judge Gary Feess’ decision, Lorenzen told a council budget committee that he is confident “we can have a resolution” on the question of how close protesters will be able to get to Staples.

Without discussing specifics, he said law enforcement agencies were looking at modifying the fence line in the northeast quadrant of the security zone. The northern boundary of the zone is Olympic Boulevard and the eastern boundary is Flower Street.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed suit against the city and LAPD challenging the constitutionality of the plan to restrict access to delegates, officials, media and convention workers, wants protesters to be allowed to demonstrate at 11th and Figueroa, opposite the entrance to the convention hall.

Judge Feess said during a hearing on the lawsuit Wednesday that he was not concerned with the zone’s western boundary of the Harbor Freeway and southern boundary of Venice Boulevard.

Lorenzen, head of convention planning for LAPD, expressed concern about the prospect of bringing thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of protesters who had not been through security screening devices to within 100 yards of Staples.

If there is an attempt to breach the fence, Lorenzen said “the only way to stop them is with manpower.”

The revised security plan was being crafted without the benefit of Judge Feess’ written order, which was still being finalized late Thursday afternoon.

When it was released late in the day, the order sharply criticized the city’s security plan, as Feess had done in court on Wednesday.

“The area to be cordoned off covers approximately 185 acres of land surrounding the convention site,” he said. “Its configuration prevents anyone with any message, positive or negative, from getting within several hundred feet of the entrance to Staples Center where delegates will arrive and depart.”

Feess said that while there is no dispute that “a narrowly tailored no-activity zone is constitutionally permissible in order to ensure that delegates can enter and exit the Staples Center safely, the secured zone covers much more area than necessary to serve this interest.”

But, the judge added: “Although it may be more convenient for delegates to have exclusive access to the immediate area, convenience can never predominate over the 1st Amendment.”

In addition, he ruled that the city’s parade permit procedures are also unconstitutional because of a requirement that applications be made at least 40 days in advance, imposing an unjustified prior restraint on would-be marchers. And he said the procedure for obtaining permits to use public parks, like Pershing Square, are unconstitutionally vague and too broad.

In his order, the judge directed the city to issue march and rally permits for the D2K Convention Planning Coalition, the L.A. Coalition to Stop the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the Service Employees International Union, Local 660 for a route starting in downtown Los Angeles to a point near Staples Center that lies within the present secured zone.

Even before seeing that document, Deputy City Atty. Debra Gonzales told the council panel that based on Feess remarks in court, the city “must give demonstration groups meaningful access to be heard and seen.”

The judge pointedly told Gonzales that the city had failed to narrowly tailor the security zone to protect the 1st Amendment rights of demonstrators to communicate with the delegates and officials attending the convention. Without offering his own suggestion on different boundaries, he said “there is going to have to be an accommodation to allow the plaintiffs to reach their intended audience.”

LAPD spokesman David Kalish said later that law enforcement agencies are trying to find “some way to adjust the security perimeter to accommodate the judicial ruling and still maintain security.”

Kalish said law enforcement representatives and the Fire Department were examining various alternatives to adjust the northeast quadrant of the security zone. The city hopes to make an alternative location available to the court and ACLU today, he said.

Despite the rapidly shifting scenario, Parks tried to downplay concern about security for the convention.

“We will be prepared,” he said. “We will have a calm convention. We have every expectation that everyone, including the people who live and work here, will not lose control of their city.”

With those comments and others, the chief tried to quell concerns of several council members, including Joel Wachs and Nick Pacheco, who worried that the convention could pull police resources away from the rest of the city. All LAPD officers throughout the city will be required to be in uniform from Aug. 5 through the convention.

Councilmen Alex Padilla and Mike Feuer joined in questioning how much the convention is going to going to cost the city in overtime expense for police, fire and other departments. The panel agreed that they want a full accounting of all those expenses within a month of the convention’s conclusion.

Council members were told that full mobilization of the police department to mandatory 12-hour shifts would cost an estimated $1.5 million a day.

Still, when asked if the city budget can cover whatever added expenses occur, City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka responded: “Yes, we can handle it.”