Beefed-up Enforcement Raises Concerns

By Jorge Casuso

Choppers circling the city and police in riot helmets with batons at the ready.

These have become frequent images in Santa Monica, where union protests have come to resemble dress rehearsals for next month's Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles and city officials are gearing up for a long hot Summer swarming with beach goers.

City officials say the beefed-up enforcement is a necessary precaution to insure public safety as protestors step up the pressure to unionize the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and call for a living wage for hotel and restaurant workers. One of the demonstrations last month resulted in the peaceful arrest of 24 protestors by officers in riot gear at the entrance to the pier.

"It's difficult to say, but every time we have a protest with that number of people, you have to be prepared," Lt. Gary Gallinot, the police department spokesman, said of a demonstration that drew about 500 protestors last week. "It's been peaceful so far, but you never know. We're gearing up for the Democratic Convention. We want to be prepared."

"I think it's a balancing process," said City Manager Susan McCarthy. "The mix of people in each situation and the dynamics are a little difficult to predict. If you were going to ask your employees to err, you'd ask them to err on the side of personal safety and the safety of others."

But union activists are becoming increasingly vocal about their concerns that police may be overreacting by deploying more than 50 officers in riot gear to the scene of peaceful protests.

"I don't appreciate being practice fodder for their DNC preparations," said Kurt Peterson, an organizer for the local Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, which has staged more than a dozen demonstrations in the past two months. "All of a sudden now, they're clamping down. It is disturbing."

Peterson said that last Thursday protesters were prohibited from walking up the pier ramp and down Ocean Avenue to the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, where a demonstration was staged. Instead, police in riot helmets diverted the crowd to smaller streets, then formed a line in front of the luxury hotel.

"It was totally unnecessary," Peterson said. "They did it to demonstrate strength and power. They scared a lot of people."

Some city officials have quietly expressed similar concerns about how police handled last week's peaceful demonstration that include many of the city's lowest paid workers, as well as some of its most respected leaders.

"I'm very disturbed by what I saw," said a City Council member who asked to remain anonymous. "They had the batons ready to use. To me it was extremely provocative and an overreaction.

"It's a very difficult issue," said the council member, adding that several colleagues planned to express their concerns to the city manager. "If our officers get hurt, council members will be responsible because they pressured them to hold back."

McCarthy said the increased police deployment at the demonstrations is necessary to protect public safety and access (the arrested demonstrators last month blocked Ocean and Colorado avenues at the pier entrance), as well as first amendment rights.

"The department will continue to work with demonstrators to insure first amendment rights are protected," McCarthy said. "But the department also has the responsibility to make sure access to public spaces and businesses is available to all of us."

Although McCarthy disagrees that the police are staging dress rehearsals for the convention, she said the city is taking extra precautions next month.

"I anticipate there will be heightened readiness," McCarthy said. "It's hard to predict what's going to happen and where. The challenge of the convention is certainly on everybody's mind."

The fist test will likely come on August 13, when union demonstrators are expected to protest in front of the Loews hotel, then join other protestors in the shadow of the pier's fun zone, where conservative delegates will be holding a party.

"This is going to be like let's everyone get together and show we have a better time than the Democrats," said Councilman Michael Feinstein, a Green Party member.

Feinstein said the Green Party has rented Rusty's Surf Ranch on the pier for the night and will plaster windows with Green Party signs. The Greens, along with the union activists, will be joined on the beach by protestors fresh from demonstrations in Los Angeles.

"The event has been emphasized to be peaceful," said Feinstein, adding that Santa Monica wants to set an example. "There's every intent of doing this the right way here."

During the weeklong convention, police will circle the city in a helicopter they have leased from Torrance.

Beginning this month, the helicopter has patrolled the perimeter of the city every weekend night waiting for calls for service. Last week the air patrol - which will continue every weekend throughout the Summer - was deployed to help chase down five suspects who were burglarizing a vehicle in a beach lot just south of the pier.

City officials said plans to use the helicopter, which has been used on a less frequent basis in the past, were made before a gunman shot three officers and three civilians during a five-hour hostage takeover on the pier July 4.

"It's part of our preparation for what looks like a busy summer," McCarthy said. "It's not something we would think about doing on a regular basis."