Mutual cooperation eases arrests

By Lynda Gorov, Globe Staff, 8/17/2000

OS ANGELES - To their mutual benefit, everyone was getting along nicely yesterday when the handcuffs came out.

At the request of demonstration organizers, only those protesters willing to be arrested sat down on the police station steps. The rest of the crowd stepped back. Then, speaking calmly into a bullhorn, an officer announced that the arrests would commence and asked the people headed to jail to please remain seated until each had been led inside.

No one screamed obscenities at police, who lined the street and stood with batons at the ready. Nor did police fire pepper spray or rubber bullets at the hundreds of demonstrators massed outside the city's most notorious station house. With each side armed with video cameras, no one wanted more trouble on a day when the theme was police brutality and other perceived injustices in the judicial system.

''We are having a demonstration, not a riot, and so far the police seem to be exercising restraint,'' said Shawn McDougal, a local community activist. ''They're obviously aware of the attention on them. And we know that the best way to get our message out is peacefully.''

But peace is not news, and television camera crews pressed as close as possible to the protesters, who sat with their heads bowed and mouths gagged in symbolism. The journalists were the only ones ordered to move. Neither the demonstrators who stood with fists raised nor the scores of officers at every nearby corner took an angry step toward each other.

Thirty-seven people were arrested, all of them voluntarily, charged with misdemeanors for trespassing and blocking a public building, police said. By midday, that brought the number of arrests since Saturday, when people started arriving for the Democratic National Convention, to 189. That is about half the arrests that occurred when the Republicans met in Philadelphia earlier this month.

''It was nice and peaceful, and that's how it should be,'' said Officer Jason Lee, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. ''People demonstrate and raise their concerns and, in turn, we not only protect other citizens but also the demonstrations. Obviously, they know the law, and we know the law, and it worked out fine.''

The mutual cooperation was a turnaround from Monday night, when police on horseback swept through a crowd of concertgoers after a handful caused trouble. Afterward, police defended their use of pepper spray and rubber bullets. Numerous injuries, none of them serious, were reported by organizers of the protests surrounding the convention.

The arrest process was less orchestrated on Tuesday, when scores of bike riders participating in a mass protest ride downtown were swept up by police. At least one reporter was also arrested. Late yesterday afternoon, another demonstration dedicated to law enforcement issues briefly turned ugly with some protesters throwing bottles and other objects at police, who then charged them with batons and fired some rubber bullets.

Throughout the convention, much of downtown Los Angeles has resembled a militarized zone, with phalanxes of police officers on corner after corner, while others patrolled the streets by squad car, motorcycle, and bicycle. Time and again, department officials have said they understood that all eyes were on their force, now embroiled in a far-reaching corruption scandal that is expected to result in the dismissal of hundreds of tainted cases. The scandal is centered on the Rampart Station, where yesterday's first demonstration took place after a march from MacArthur Park.

''I'm really glad this community right here has the voice and the will to come out here and demonstrate about what has to be fixed,'' said Alex Sanchez, whose activist brother remains in jail, although he is widely believed to have been framed by corrupt officers from the Rampart Division. ''The Democrats are gathering here, and this is our only chance to be heard by them. But they're covering their ears and refusing to listen.''

The police, at least, had no choice but to listen yesterday. For hours in the hot California sun, they were face to face with some of their harshest and most constant critics, young people from poorer neighborhoods who complain they are often harassed without cause. Together with adult activists and others concerned about the still-spreading scandal, they set forth their demands in unison: an end to racial profiling and the establishment of an independent civilian review board to investigate Rampart Division, among others.

''It's important for those of us who oppose oppression in one area to stand with people who oppose oppression in another,'' said Tim Ream, an environmental activist from Eugene, Ore. ''I'm willing to get arrested, but I hope I don't. Then again, whenever you step into the street to protest the LAPD, you have to be willing to get arrested.''