A Tense May Day on Rodeo Drive

More than 100 sign-toting and drumbeating May Day demonstrators paraded up and down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills on Monday, holding up traffic as an entourage of police in riot gear trailed them.

Three protesters were arrested on suspicion of violations including vandalism and malicious mischief, said Lt. Ed Kreins, spokesman for the Beverly Hills Police Department. The tensest moment occurred when protesters sat in the street and one hurled a television set into the middle of the intersection of Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way.

The demonstrators represented a variety of interests from animal rights to environmentalism and held the rally in conjunction with others across the nation as part of May Day 2000 “Day of Global Action.”

The demonstrators wore masks, beat drums, carried effigies of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other leaders, and insulted police and shoppers as they marched on Rodeo Drive past stores such as Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren and Guess. Store employees held doors shut as the demonstrators passed with signs reading “Rise Up” and “Made in a Sweat Shop, Sold on Rodeo Drive.”

“Our goal was to bring our message about corporate capitalism to the people . . . and expose contradictions between the rich and the poor,” said Lisa Fithian, an event organizer. “I think we did that.”

That arrests were made at all is unusual for a city that has seen animal rights activists protesting the sale of fur, Kreins said.

“We rarely make arrests,” he said. “If demonstrators are wiling to work with us, then we’ll usually facilitate them as far as traffic.”

The protesters were followed by a caravan of police cars and motorcycles and officers wearing riot gear. About 75 officers from the Beverly Hills Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Culver City Police Department and the Santa Monica Police Department monitored the event.

Protest participants said that they thought the response was an overreaction but that it also showed they chose the right spot for their rally.

“The reaction wouldn’t have been the same if we marched somewhere else,” said organizer Scott Gibson.