Activists mull attention-getting actions

By Zlati Meyer, Globe Correspondent, 7/27/2000

HILADELPHIA - AIDS activist Julie Davids missed the Battle in Seattle, though she had her father host her protester colleagues. She was part of the War in Washington and risked arrest. Now, she's gearing up for the Fight in Philly.

The 32-year-old member of ACT-UP Philadelphia plans to participate in a health-care march Saturday and an economic march Sunday, as well as other activities too covert to discuss.

The strategy, however, is clear, and comes straight from the playbook written this spring by protesters at World Trade Organization and World Bank meetings in Seattle and the nation's capital: The bigger and brasher, the better.

''Protestors have had to become more graphic,'' said Davids. ''Nothing profane, but graphic, because of the attention span and media coverage. No one I know wants to chain themselves to the US trade representative. We only do it if we have to.''

Davids and her colleagues will try to capture the interest of the estimated 16,000 journalists who will descend on the city for the four-day Republican National Convention that starts Monday, with stunts - most of them sans permits - that would make the World Wrestling Federation proud.

A mud-wrestling match with people wearing George W. Bush and Al Gore masks. Bushville, a makeshift camp of homeless people. People dressed as life-size cockroaches scurrying about. An 80-foot float, a jab at corporate America, christened Corpzilla. Thirty-thousand shoes dumped at the Liberty Bell to silently ask for gun control. A ''shadow convention,'' featuring pundit Arianna Huffington and political humorist Al Franken.

That activists like Davids are willing to do pretty much anything to secure their cause's 15 minutes of fame doesn't worry residents of the host city. The way they see it, the only similarity between Philadelphia and Seattle, site of the disruptive WTO protests, was the rain that pounded the City of Brotherly Love yesterday.

''I'm looking forward to it,'' said Dr. Richard Goldstein, director of the Wills Surgery Center on Broad Street, just a few dozen yards from the convention center. ''It's exciting to be here. It's no worse than going to a Grateful Dead concert, and I've been to 100 of those.''

He said some concerned patients had called his office, but the four police officers assigned to the nearby street corner should allay any fears.

Deputy Police Commissioner Robert Mitchell appeared equally confident.

''Washington (D.C.) took some lessons from Seattle. We took some lessons from both of them,'' he said, referring to the police response to protesters in both cities.

Mitchell declined to share details of his department's strategies and instead pointed to the 20-plus groups that were granted permits to use what he called the ''free speech site,'' an area at the park down the street from the First Union Center.

Permits have been issued for two of the four convention days. Each entitles the holder to 50 minutes of demonstration time, to be followed by a 10-minute transition time to allow the next group of protestors to take their place. In addition, the city has issued permits to six organizations for pre-convention protests.

One of the unsanctioned events will be staged by advocates for a local cause - the release of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

Peter Chung, a member of the Student Liberation Action Movement and the Aug. 1 Direct Action Coalition, plans to travel from Manhattan to ''disrupt business as usual for the people at the convention.''

The New York University graduate student added, ''Our understanding, especially living in New York City, is this happens every day with police. People coming from my community, working people of color, understand this is what's going on. The force and contempt they show us happens every day.''

That's enough to inspire those who believe Jamal is guilty to come out as well. Radio personality Michael Smerconish of Justice for Daniel Faulkner has organized what he has dubbed ''a protest against the protesters.''

Despite the threat of a face-off, South Philadelphia retiree Michael Delquandro, 66, said, ''I'm not nervous. I have faith in the police department. You're always going to have problems, but you have to adapt.''

The police department knows it will be under scrutiny next week. This department is remembered for its 1985 firebombing of the home and headquarters of the radical naturalist group MOVE that killed 11 adults and five children and is recovering from the national attention garnered two weeks ago when a group of officers was caught on videotape beating suspect Thomas Jones.

''My intent as a police commander is to use the Jones episode to my advantage,'' Mitchell said. ''I cite it as something good - going after a bad actor.... That was one camera. This time, there'll be hundreds of cameras.''