The Protests

Daily Convention Coverage

Michael W. Lynch | August 15, 2000

(Page 2 of 2)

Democratic delegates were walking by, thanking the assembled officers for their efforts. Ten feet away, hotel employees and conventioneers were taking pictures with two officers, who showed off the round shiny silver cartridges, roughly 8 inches long and 1 inch around, that held the foam rubber baton bullets that would later be fired at protesters.

Belotto elaborated on the LAPD’s position: The cops are not going to let protesters, anarchists or otherwise, break their lines, which is exactly what they tried to do earlier. A group of protester, he said, charged the police line, and then retreated into the crowd. Arrests were made.

I asked Belotto how the cops separated the peaceful protesters from the provocateurs, mentioning the criticism that arrests often seem random. He explained the standard operating procedure: Protesters get a permit to march from point A to point B at a designated time. Marching implies motion, says Belotto, which means they are in violation of the law if they stop. If they do stop, the police will tell them to move and offer a route. If they don’t ambulate, they are all in violation of the law and subject to arrest. It’s the responsibility of the protesters to police themselves and ensure that a few rabble-rousers --that is, members of the Black Block -- don’t land everyone in jail. Said Belotto, "It’s a matter of responsibility for the big group to police the small group."

This mindset explains events that go down later. In the evening, I marched with the protesters to the Staples Center, arriving sometime after 6:00 PM. On the way, I witnessed the cops mindlessly moving onlookers off the sidewalk and onto the street, even though they were simply shopping, or working, and had no active interest in the march. I witnessed protesters mindlessly taunting cops, who are working 12 hour shifts, plus overtime if they want it, every day in unbearably hot sun. "Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay, LAPD Go Away!" chanted a woman at the front of the march as we passed an intersection secured by the cops. Just for effect, she also threw in "Fascists!"

The confrontation came a couple hours later, as President Clinton delivered his farewell address to the adoring crowd inside the Staples Center. The radical chic band, Rage Against the Machine, which had put on a free concert, had finished raging, but their machines still hummed with electricity. The cops, upset that some protesters were climbing the fence that separated them from the Staples Center, pulled the plug on the stage, announced that the fun was over, and ordered people to leave in 15 minutes. Many left, but some didn’t, choosing instead to start fires, climb fences, and chuck bottles and softball-size chunks of concrete at police officers.

Depending on who you believe --after five to ten minutes, according to protesters, or after more than 15 minutes, according to the cops -- the LAPD charged in on horseback, firing crowd-dispersing foam-rubber baton bullets. When I left the Staples Center after Clinton’s speech, the fires were still smoldering and chunks of concrete and partially filled bottles of water littered the area just outside the protest zone. The cops had the area secured and the exits through which conventioneers had to pass were horribly congested. "The protesters are throwing bottles at us," a cop told me, as I complained about the clogged exits on the way out.

The LAPD arrested 152 people Monday. I don’t know if Lowell Fletcher was among them. But I do know that we are no closer to living in a world in which he doesn’t have to work to pay rent.