f the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles next month is even remotely reminiscent of the party's 1968 convention in Chicago - and signs are that it may be - it could spell as much trouble for Vice President Al Gore as it did for Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey 32 years ago.
At that convention, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley prepared for the expected street protests by turning the city into a virtual police state. The strategy backfired into a series of bloody clashes between the club-wielding police and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators.
As demonstrators chanted ''the whole world is watching,'' the violent overreaction of the Chicago police was indeed telecast to the nation and beyond. Viewers were appalled by what they saw. In the end, the episode shamed and embarrassed the Democratic Party, damaged Humphrey's candidacy, and helped Richard Nixon win the White House for the Republicans.
The police clubbing of the demonstrators probably raised doubts in many voters' minds as to whether Democrats could end the nation's domestic turmoil over the war.
It is with that history as a backdrop that Democrats approach their convention in Los Angeles next month. It serves to remind them of the possible consequences if LA's elected officials make the same mistakes that Chicago's did a generation ago.
This year, thousands of demonstrators promise to take to the streets of LA to highlight issues ranging from corporate globalization to the death penalty.
Authorities in Los Angeles do have a recent memory that should prove instructive - that of the protests in Seattle last November and December over global trade policies. There, too, police overreaction won the public relations war for the protesters. And in Los Angeles, the even more recent celebration that turned into mayhem after the Lakers won the National Basketball Association championship last month should remind city officials to be prepared by convention time.
But the steps the LA authorities are already taking, the talk of the strong police presence needed, sound eerily familiar to those who remember Chicago in '68.
Even Thomas Hayden, who was a key protester in Chicago back then and now is a California state senator and a convention delegate, saw the similarities between Chicago and Los Angeles and spoke out against the city's plan to keep the protesters at a distance. Hayden and others won a lawsuit last week when a federal judge ordered city officials to provide better access to the convention site.
To avoid an overreaction, LA officials should heed news reports that organized labor (which dramatically boosted the number of protesters in Seattle) will not be on the streets in LA. Rather, labor's backers will work inside the convention hall, where one-third of the delegates - AFL-CIO President John Sweeney among them - will be union members.
That means that the number of protesters outside will probably be considerably lower than the earlier police estimates of 10,000 to 50,000.
Sweeney and other union leaders were strongly disappointed over Gore's support for the bill granting China normal trade relations status, but they are willing to set those differences aside and work now on his behalf. The alternative to a Gore presidency, Sweeney noted, is a Bush presidency, and that ''would be horrible.''
Some labor activists are privately worried that protests could end up hurting Gore's chances. The organizers, perhaps not wanting to be blamed for any problems arising from the demonstrations, have insisted that the protest will be peaceful. They say the event (which goes by the shorthand name D2KLA, to represent the convergence of Democrats and the millennium in LA) will address labor issues while criticizing the ''corporatization'' of the Democratic Party.
The fact that many of the demonstrators will be behind Gore's candidacy sets it apart from what happened in Chicago in 1968, where Humphrey enjoyed little backing from those outside the hall. It may also help keep violence from breaking out.
Many of the protesters would support Ralph Nader's Green Party candidacy over Gore's, but they do so knowing it works to the benefit of the person whose views are most at odds with their own - George W. Bush.
Ironically, the GOP convention in Philadelphia, which gets underway in eight days, will have no big protests to worry about - although an alternative ''shadow convention'' is planned by activists and reformers.
In the past week, Gore has been climbing in the polls. A disastrous convention could halt, if not reverse, that climb.
If the Democrats learned anything from Chicago, it is this: The actions of the police could do more to ruin the Democratic convention and seriously harm Gore's chances than the actions of the protesters.
If the LA authorities lose control of the police, Democrats could lose control of the presidency in November.
Robert A. Jordan is a Globe columnist.
