State May Help Pay for L.A. Convention Crowd Control

SACRAMENTO —  The Davis administration is trying to insert $4 million into the state budget to help police with crowd control at this summer’s Democratic National Convention, despite concerns that only limited taxpayer funds were pledged for the event.

The administration wants to route most of the money through the California Highway Patrol, contending that it will help law enforcement keep onramps, freeways and streets open for dignitaries during the mid-August event in downtown Los Angeles.

The governor’s request says that $1 million would be earmarked for “the purchase of security equipment to screen individuals and packages at Staples [Center] during the convention.” An additional $2.4 million would be used to “contract with the Los Angeles Police Department to provide additional security.”

But although the official request does not list the items being purchased, the material also includes pepper spray and tear gas, along with various other crowd control equipment, said state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles).

He said the purchase of the crowd control devices is part of what he fears could be an overreaction by the Los Angeles Police Department to peaceful demonstrations. Hayden also said he suspects that the LAPD, reeling from the Rampart police scandal, is avoiding making a request directly to the City Council.

“The city budget is being squeezed by Rampart settlements,” Hayden said, “and LAPD wants tear gas and other weapons, but is afraid to go to the City Council with the request.”

An LAPD source, however, said Rampart had nothing to do with the situation. The LAPD and other city departments were told early in the process not to ask for additional city funds because officials wanted to limit the bill footed by taxpayers, the source said.

Peter Hidalgo, Mayor Richard Riordan’s press secretary, said the money will go toward fulfilling the city’s commitment to provide transportation and security for the event.

“We are very pleased with the fact the governor is willing to support the efforts,” Hidalgo said. “It is a generous act and not something that should be viewed as negative.”

Cmdr. David Kalish, an LAPD spokesman, said the “additional resources are important to the department and will enhance our efforts to facilitate a successful convention.”

Although the Davis administration is seeking the money, officials in Riordan’s office and at the LAPD have been involved with the state in discussions about security needs.

“The governor requested the funds in order to provide mutual assistance for the convention,” said Davis spokesman Phil Trounstine. “The governor has to be concerned about security issues in light of [rioting at World Trade Organization meetings in] Seattle and other instances that have occurred.”

The Legislature appears likely to approve the governor’s request, even though the state spent no money on the Republican National Convention four years ago in San Diego.

“Clearly, we want to have a safe convention,” said Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga. Although he plans to support the expenditure, he said: “The city of Los Angeles is going to get tremendous benefit from the convention, and it is one more area where Los Angeles is getting a special carve-out.”

In Los Angeles, word of the money was embraced.

“The Police Department needs to be at its best,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said Thursday. “It will require any resources that can be made available. . . . It’s hard not to use taxpayer money. The Police Department is not a privately funded entity, nor should it be.”

Los Angeles has committed to spending $4 million on transportation and whatever is needed to cover police overtime costs for the four-day convention, which begins Aug. 14. Some officials have estimated overtime expenses at $1 million a day. The event’s host committee vowed to cover other expenses by raising more than $35 million from dozens of private sponsors.

“This was not supposed to cost anyone outside city money,” a City Hall source said. However, in light of demonstrations at the World Trade Organization meetings this year in Seattle and Washington, D.C., Los Angeles law enforcement officials worry that they may need more help than they first anticipated.

“[The LAPD] desperately needs money,” the source said. “This is not like policing a dentist convention.”

Hayden acknowledged the possibility of terrorism, something that law enforcement authorities warned about last month. But he said precautions against such a prospect can be taken quietly and that the city still can allow nonviolent protests.

In a letter to Vice President Al Gore’s campaign chairman, Tony Coelho, Hayden called for civilian oversight to act as a “buffer against the police.” The LAPD and FBI, Hayden said, are “unable, in terms of their organizational culture, to comprehend the protests it will be their duty to control.”

“These events are too political to be left to police, but that is exactly what is happening,” Hayden wrote. “The protests are being defined as a security threat instead of a political challenge. This is a formula for embarrassment, if not disaster. . . . When the police begin using pepper spray and batons against nonviolent young people, the image will flash around the world.”

Hayden warned Coelho against a repeat of the 1968 convention in Chicago, where Hayden was accused with other leaders of the anti-Vietnam War movement of inciting riots.

The equipment to be purchased includes bomb detection devices, Hayden said, plus 40 launchers that he believes are like semiautomatic rifles to deliver pepper spray.

Also included, he said, are three launchers that can deliver a total of 12,000 balls filled with pepper spray; 1,400 rounds of “smokeless exact impact sponges,” 20 gas guns, numerous chain cutters and a device identified as a “motorized agitator.”

“If there is this kind of problem, why is the request being made covertly?” Hayden asked. “The LAPD should go to the City Council and Police Commission and make a request through official channels. My assumption is they are unwilling to make an open request.”