LAPD Faces First Test
L O S A N G E L E S, Aug. 13, 2000 -- Law enforcement personnel charged with keeping the peace here during the Democratic National Convention are facing their first test.
A horde of some 4,000 demonstrators were marching on the Staples Center convention site today to protest the scheduled execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a black man sentenced to death for killing a Philadelphia police officer.
The mass protest, the first of the week, comes on the eve of the four-day nominating convention, which is set to get underway inside the mammoth sports arena in less than 24 hours.
‘If We Can Get Through This One …’
Leaders of the 15,000 activists expected to converge on the city this week promise peaceful demonstrations at the convention, but the federal, state and local authorities assigned to provide security for the event are loaded for bear and prepared for the worst.
With emotions running high among activists, the Los Angeles Police Department views today’s protest — which has been sanctioned by the LAPD — as the first major test of their elaborate security plans and preparations.
“I figure if we can get through this one,” reasoned one high-level LAPD official, “the rest of the week will be OK.”
As the march from Pershing Square, a nearby park, to the Staples Center began, protesters appeared to be standing by their promise of non-violence. While some shouted slogans through bullhorns, others distributed pamphlets calling for an end to “The Racist Death Penalty,” and waved signs reading “New Trial for Mumia” and “Not One More Lynching.”
As a police helicopter circled overhead, uniformed officers lined the designated route, on foot and on motorcycles, keeping a watchful eye on the first major demonstration of the week. Police had initially anticipated as many as 10,000 demonstrators to take part in the march, so the relatively low turnout and the peaceful nature of the protest may make the first test for law enforcement here easier than expected.
The march was set to culminate in a rally inside the LAPD’s designated protest area across from the convention hall — an enclosed parking lot, surrounded by a huge 12-foot-high chain-link fence with reinforced steel cables.
Protesters Allege Frame-Up
Today’s protest, organized by a group called “The Los Angeles Coalition to Stop the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal,” follows on other demonstrations staged by Abu-Jamal supporters at other high-profile events, such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings held in Washington this April.
Advocates for Abu-Jamal insist he was framed for the 1981 shooting death of Officer Daniel Faulkner, and say the police and prosecutors who handled the case are guilty of misconduct. Since he was convicted in 1982, Abu-Jamal, who is awaiting execution on death row in a Pennsylvania prison, has emerged as a cause celebre, with a number of Hollywood actors like Whoopi Goldberg and musical groups such as Rage Against the Machine lobbying for a new trial.
The general chair of the Democratic National Committee, former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, approved the seeking of the death penalty for Abu-Jamal as district attorney nearly 20 years ago.
ABC Radio’s Tim Scheld contributed to this report.