Guild Practitioner:  Volume 63 - Winter 2006, pages 47-55 THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION PROTESTS INLOS ANGELES: AUGUST 12-17, 2000 by PAUL VON BLUM Paul Von Blum teaches in the African American Studies Program and Communication Studies Program at UCLA and has taught at the University of California for 36 years. He is also a lawyer who served all week as a NLG legal observer during the August, 2000 demonstrations and numerous other protests since that time. For almost one week in August 2000, thousands of demonstrators of all ages and backgrounds converged on downtown Los Angeles to mount massive protests against a wide variety of social, economic, and political problems in the United States and throughout the world. They came not only from the Los Angeles area but from across the country and around the world. Young, middle-aged, and old, these activists represented a striking multicultural and multiracial coalition. The demonstrations were planned around the Democratic National Convention (DNC) that nominated then- Vice President Al Gore and Senator Joseph Lieberman to run against Governor George W. Bush and Former Defense Secretary and Halliburton Corporation CEO Dick Cheney, who had been similarly nominated a few weeks before in Philadelphia at the Republican National Convention. An appreciation of these dramatic demonstrations and their implications five years later is valuable in refining strategies for contemporary national and international protests against the war in Iraq and other retrograde policies of the second Bush Administration. The effective role of National Lawyers Guild legal observers in protecting demonstrators’ constitutional rights, which intensified during the Democratic Party Convention actions, has also become a major factor in restraining police misconduct in Los Angeles and elsewhere following the August 2000 protests.  Reflections from that time also provide useful insights for those who have taken to the streets to offer vigorous opposition to the war, corporate rapaciousness, environmental degradation, racial profiling, diminished housing, education, and health care, and far too many similar consequences of the present regime in Washington, D.C.  Likewise, it is desirable more generally for present-day demonstrators to understand and appreciate the long and honorable history of social protest and dissent in America. Even fairlyrecent experiences augment such historical consciousness, encouraging contemporary progressive activists to link their own efforts to the deeper legacy that informs all actions designed to build a more just political and social order in the United States. [page 48] These DNC protests in late summer 2000 continued an internationally visible series of agitational actions starting with the massive World Trade Organization actions in Seattle in November 1999, followed by the protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington, D.C. in April 2000, and the protests at the Bush/Cheney Republican Convention in Philadelphia in late July and early August 2000. They continued with such events as the demonstrations in Miami against the Free Trade Area of the Americas in November 2003 and many mass demonstrations against the U.S. war on Iraq. In each case, the overriding theme of corporate domination of the global economy set the tone for the specific grievances expressed. Although many of the individual marches and other protests from August 12—17 had specific agendas, most participants were well aware that the Democratic Party and its presidential and vice presidential nominees were inextricably linked to global capitalism and its horrific human consequences. Coordinated by the D2K Coalition, the Direct Action Network, and several community labor, political, immigration, environmental, and other groups, the Los Angeles protests centered around these interrelated themes: opposition to NAFTA, GATE, and the WTO; repudiation of sweatshop conditions in Los Angeles and elsewhere; outrage against police brutality and misconduct locally and nationally; support of universal health care, quality education, living wages and workers’ justice; environmental protection; and the rights of immigrants, women, gays and lesbians, and people of color. Above all, the participating groups and individuals sought to inform the Democratic Party that they would no longer tolerate business as usual. Reflecting months of careful planning, protest organizers made every effort to ensure that the various protest marches would remain orderly and peaceful. All participants were requested to respect the following principles and action guidelines: (l) no physical or verbal violence towards any person, including police officers; (2) no weapons; (3) no alcohol or illegal drugs; and (4) no destruction of property. Throughout the protests, all but a minuscule minority of demonstrators adhered to these standards. In the vast majority of cases, furthermore, organizers obtained formal parade and stage permits for the specific rallies and marches throughout the week of the DNC. Participants made many of the logistic arrangements and visual creations, especially huge puppets and banners, at a four-story building called the “Convergence Center” at nearby MacArthur Park. Even before the Convention formally opened, the protestors mounted various events and large-scale protests throughout Los Angeles.  On Saturday, August 12, for example, the Southern California Ecumenical Council sponsored a Peace and Justice Prayer Service and the National Alliance for Positive Action organized the Independent Black Leaders National Press Con-[page 49] ference and Rally.  A Mexico/California Border Memorial, consisting of 545 crosses in remembrance of people who died trying to cross the Mexico/California border during the previous six years, was erected at the First United Methodist Church downtown.  In addition, a UCLA teach-in focused on how the Democratic Party represented big business interests, a mother’s convention on welfare addressed issues of poverty and welfare reform, and a teach- in on genetic engineering reflected concerns about various health and environmental problems. Sunday, August 13 marked the start of more concentrated street actions.  The National Homeless Convention featured speakers, music, and a march to demand a national commitment to relieve the problems of the growing homeless population in the United States. A large rally and march seeking justice and a new trial for Pennsylvania death row prisoner and Black Panther leader Mumia Abu-Jamal occurred in downtown Los Angeles, culminating at the Staples Center, site of the Democratic Party Convention. On Sunday evening, several hundred protestors participated in a workers’ rights demonstration in neighboring Santa Monica. On Monday, August 14, the Democratic Party Convention officially began, catalyzing even more massive demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles. Highlights included a morning Solidarity March with the U’wa people of Columbia, an indigenous tribe threatened by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Company. Thousands participated and a small group of protestors engaged in an act of peaceful civil disobedience culminating in the arrest of 11 activists. During Monday afternoon, an equally large street march against the World Trade Organization and corporate globalization coincided with the routine business proceedings of the DNC. Sponsored by the Film and Television Action Committee, Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, and the Southern California Fair Trade Network, the action also featured Billionaires for Bush/Gore, a satirical, politically critical group calling attention to corporate greed at the expense of human need. Several other protest events also occurred on August 14.  Demonstrations protesting the exclusion of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader from presidential debates and against nuclear weapons and excessive defense spending took place in the afternoon.  The most dramatic incident was at an evening rally and free public concert featuring Rage Against The Machine, a politically oriented rock group at the public assembly area adjacent to the Staples Center. The Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly with more than 10,000 people in attendance.  A handful of individuals in that crowd had gathered near the security fence, throwing water bottles and causing disturbances. The police responded by cutting off the power to the concert sound system and ordering the crowd to disperse.  Although people at- [page 50] tempted to comply, the police attacked on horses, firing hundreds of rubber bullets and beanbags at men, women, and children.  Many injuries occurred, including legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild, media representatives, and innocent bystanders. The heightened tension resulting from this police attack and severe overreaction affected the temper of the next day’s marches and demonstrations.  Several major demonstrations on Tuesday, August 15 generated substantial confrontation between participants and police. Most were verbal, but some involved police force.  In the morning, several thousand people marchel in favor of women’s work and women’s lives. Featuring floats and speakers, this protest event brought public attention to lack of pay equity, the plight of domestic workers, and the special challenges of lesbians, women with disabilities, and older women.  Throughout the day, other demonstrations focused on the needs of bus riders, the continuing struggles against racism, the movement for animal rights, and the pre-war suffering of Iraqi children resulting from American sanctions.  During the afternoon, the bicycle group Critical Mass rode through downtown Los Angeles, with police escorts. As they sought to reclaim the streets and encourage car-free transportation, 71 participants were unexpectedly arrested and booked into the Los Angeles County Jail. Many remained incarcerated for several days, undergoing strip searches, charged with felonies, and held under high bail. On September 2, 2001, the City Attorney’s Office dropped all charges, at least tacitly acknowledging the political misuse of criminal charges during the initial demonstration. On Wednesday, August 16, there were additional marches and protests, primarily in the downtown area.  Two protests with extremely large numbers of participants were a Youth Are the Future March and the March and Rally Against Mass Incarceration, Police Brutality, the Death Penalty, and to Free Political Prisoners. The latter was especially tense owing to the large police presence throughout the center city area. Several arrests occurred when protestors blocked the access to the Rampart Police Station, notorious as the locale of one of the biggest police scandals in Los Angeles history. At the conclusion of this march outside the Democratic Convention at the Staples Center, a tense confrontation between police and demonstrators lasted for more than an hour. Heavily armed officers repeatedly threatened to declare an unlawful assembly and there were minor skirmishes during the standoff. Protestors eventually exited the area, exacerbating the strained, even hostile atmosphere between police and protestors generally on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. The final day of the Democratic Convention was Thursday, August 17, when Al Gore accepted his party’s presidential nomination.  Throughout that [page 51] day, vigorous protests continued outside the convention hall. Among others, protest themes included demands to end corporate control of human life, especially the environmentally destructive impact of the Citigroup Corporation; to stop the U.S. bombing of Vieques, Puerto Rico; to save the Ballona Wetlands in the Los Angeles area and the Yangtze River in China; and to identify and object to human experimentation. The largest demonstration that day was the March and Rally to Stop Sweatshops, For a Living Wage, Immigrant Rights, and Global Economic Justice. Speakers called attention to the horrific conditions of garment and other low- wage workers, linking their problems to the broader theme of globalization and corporate domination pervading the entire week of social protests.  Thousands of people then marched throughout the downtown area, including the historic garment district of Los Angeles, the site of scores of sweatshops employing immigrant workers, predominantly Latina and Asian women. As the march proceeded, hundreds of these workers waved and cheered loudly from building windows, generating enthusiastic responses from the marchers themselves.  Thursday was also the concluding day of Ariana Huffington’s Shadow Convention, featuring both mainstream and radical speakers discussing issues like campaign finance reform, the failed war on drugs, and the growing income gap between the rich and the poor. Protests continued even after the end of the Democratic National Convention. Although many demonstrators returned to their homes throughout the nation, hundreds carried on in the spirit of the week of resistance. Ad hoc demonstrations against police misconduct as well as other events went on for two days. Local protesters and legal workers endeavored to secure the release of demonstrators still in jail. Community meetings focused on ways to continue the resistance during the rest of the summer and beyond. Throughout the week of protests, the conduct and activities of the Los Angeles Police Department evoked international attention and commentary. All accounts agreed that city authorities planned and implemented a massive police presence during the demonstrations. Thousands of officers from the LAPD and from other local, state, and federal agencies dominated the downtown streets; many were attired in full riot gear with batons, rifles, and other weaponry. Marching and jogging in military formation, these men and women intimidated protestors, delegates, visitors, and residents alike. They shadowed the demonstrators from start to finish, often waving their batons in menacing fashion. Screeching drives through the area by police officers in patrol cars and motorcycles, scores of police on horseback, and ubiquitous helicopters flying overhead intensified the entire spectacle. This overwhelming show of police power had a chilling effect on many people’s exercise of their right to free expression despite the thousands who [page 52] took to the streets in social protest during the DNC. Others, including undocumented immigrants and people with criminal records, feared arrest or even more dire consequences. Los Angeles police officers engaged in intermittent brutality and pervasive harassment each day of the demonstrations.  Although the most dramatic was the egregious overreaction at the Rage Against The Machine concert, numerous other incidents occurred throughout the week. Acts of serious and petty harassment abounded, often precisely documented by legal observers from the Guild, demonstrators, and journalists. The Los Angeles Police Department throughout the week destroyed marchers’ puppets, picket signs, and other physical signs and symbols of political protest.  Young people dressed in black—allegedly dangerous “anarchists”—were frequently stopped and searched. Officers also issued numerous citations for jaywalking and minor traffic offenses to people they identified as resistance participants.  During the largest marches, moreover, they frequently prevented people from joining the protest and closed off streets to disrupt demonstrators’ unity and communication. The Los Angeles Police Department routinely ignored the Bill of Rights.  Violations of Amendments I (free expression and association), IV (illegal searches and seizures), VI (right to counsel), and XIV (equal protection of the law) were legion.  The Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, and many lawyers associated with other chapters in California and elsewhere, worked assiduously to protect the legal rights of all protestors throughout the week of demonstrations. Executive Director James Lafferty and Attorney Robert Myers recruited and trained more than 200 legal observers and deployed them at all the protests downtown and other protests in the area. These observers included lawyers, law students, and concerned citizens alike.  Wearing easily identifiable bright green hats, the legal observers recorded and documented instances of police harassment and illegality, conducted negotiations with police and city authorities about Constitutional and other legal rights of protestors, and arranged for bail and legal defense of arrested demonstrators.  In many instances, their presence and intervention defused potentially violent confrontations; many legal observers also reported success in on-the-spot discussions with police authorities, especially with senior officers with decision-making authority.  Throughout the week, furthermore, hundreds of protestors on the streets of downtown Los Angeles expressed strong gratitude to the observer, remarking that their presence was reassuring and provided a sense of security throughout the marches and other resistance activity.The National Lawyers Guild has had a legal observer program for many years.  The massive protests in Los Angeles, however, catalyzed a more systematic [page 53] effort to train these observers than in the past.  This effort involved numerous volunteers, including several progressive lawyers with substantial experience in dealing with tense confrontations and police provocations and misconduct. Computers and cellular phones added modern technology to the training effort and were likewise helpful in establishing close contact with legal observers on the ground.  In many cases, experienced lawyers were paired with law students and laypersons.  A defacto apprenticeship arrangement developed and several law student observers from August 2000 have completed their studies and joined the progressive legal community. Following the end of the Democratic Convention and the week of marches and demonstrations, the Los Angeles Police Department received high praise from many mainstream political officials and media institutions.  Police Chief Bernard Parks and his staff and officers were lauded for keeping order on the streets of Los Angeles.  Dissenting voices, however, severely criticized the media for their uncritical coverage of the police and for their failure to address the substantive political, social, and economic issues that protestors sought to bring to wider public attention. Instead, the daily drama of police/protestor confrontations occupied the vast majority of both press and television coverage during the Convention week, providing millions of newspaper readers and television viewers with superficial and sensational print and sound bytes—yet another manifestation of conventional media irresponsibility. The main alternative to corporate media coverage was the Independent Media Center, where reporters and commentators provided on-site coverage and analysis reflecting the interests and agendas of the demonstrators themselves.  Alternative newspapers, especially the LA Weekly, also provided extensive coverage of the marches and demonstrations. Reporters from that newspaper frequently interviewed individual protestors and leaders from the various activist groups opposing the Democratic Party, its nominees, and its corporate financial backers and supporters.  Above all, the alternative media provided substantial coverage to the specific issues and themes that dominated the entire week of marches and demonstrations.  Throughout the week’s protests, moreover, National Lawyers Guild legal observers provided accurate and detailed accounts to various press sources of Constitutional violations by the police and governmental suppression of legitimate political protest. The momentum of the DNC protests in Los Angeles continued in ensuing months. On October 22, 2000, thousands of people protested against police brutality in downtown Los Angeles. Like many of the events during the Convention week, this also engendered numerous confrontations and instances of Los Angeles Police Department excesses and brutality.  Several police officers clubbed protestors, abruptly terminated, constitutionally protected [page 54] marches and assemblies, used horses and helicopters to interfere with political expression, and arrested people on bogus charges. Both the media and NLG legal observers witnessed many of these violations throughout the day. The National Lawyers Guild documented many of these abuses and less than a year later, on August 9, 2001, joined with the American Civil Liberties Union in filing suit in federal court, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief and damages against the Los Angeles Police Department.  This suit was brought on behalf of several plaintiffs involved in both the August, 2000 DNC protests and the anti-police abuse demonstration of October 22, 2000.  The complaint made several claims based in substantial part on witness statements, including those from many of the legal observers on the scene.  The legal issues in this litigation reflected the deeper principle that the NLG the ACLU, and similar organizations have struggled for throughout their existences: political protest is an indispensable feature of a viable democratic society and must be defended vigorously in both the streets and the courts. Subsequent to the 2000 protests, the Los Angeles City Council sought regularly to effect an appropriate settlement to this lawsuit. After protracted negotiations, the suit was finally settled in 2005.  The terms ensured, at least in principle, that the police department would desist from its unlawful actions that chilled or aborted free expression and political dissent. Among other provisions, the settlement provided that police helicopters would operate at altitudes that would not disrupt First Amendment rights; that demonstrators would be permitted to use public sidewalks; that law enforcement motorcycles and bicycles would not be used to strike or impede lawful marchers or demonstrators; and that much more care and superior officer review would be required when police employ non-lethal but dangerous munitions like beanbags and rubber bullets to effect legitimate arrests or to overcome illegal resistance. The momentum of political resistance has intensified in Los Angeles since the summer and fall demonstrations giving rise to the NLG/ACLU litigation.  On January 20, 2001, for example, thousands participated in a march and rally against the inauguration of George W. Bush as President of the United States, calling him an illegitimate appointee of a partisan Supreme Court. On March 14, 2001, three thousand students and others marched on the UCLA campus, demanding a return of affirmative action to the University of California.  In 2002 and 2003, during the run-up to George Bush’s war in Iraq, tens of thousands of anti-war protestors took to the streets in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the anticipated carnage.  After the invasion, more thousands sought to call public attention to the deceptive rationale of “weapons of mass destruction” and to the horrific human cost to both Americans and allied troops and to Iraqi combatants and many thousands of innocent civilians. page 55 Other mass demonstrations following the 2000 activism supported labor unions and workers’ actions, immigrant rights group agitation, protested against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s assault on education and public employees, and supported many other progressive causes. In each case, protestors included large numbers of participants from the demonstrations at the DNC in mid-August, 2000.  Likewise, each action included Guild legal observers, most of whom were summoned through a rapid and effective e-mail communication network.  Six years later, the war rages on in Iraq, Bush Administration policies work relentlessly to roll back the social and political advances of previous decades, and Arnold Schwarzenegger continues a state administration of favoring the wealthy and ignoring the other millions of California residents.  Street protests and demonstrations will doubtless continue, while legal observers work zealously to ensure the preservation of their constitutional and human rights. Political activists should carefully consider the deeper lessons of these mass demonstrations. Contemporary opponents of retrograde and inhumane political priorities should embrace the value of coalition building and intensify this process as an overarching strategy for the early 21st century. In Los Angeles in 2000, groups representing virtually every progressive cause united to bring massive public attention to the complicity of the Democratic Party in causing and exacerbating social inequality and corporate irresponsibility. Never abandoning or even downplaying their specific political and social agendas, they nevertheless joined together in common bause. Many veterans of this action implemented this vision in the November, 2005 state elections in California. With the massive assistance of organized labor, they defeated three reactionary initiatives that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promoted as part of his attempt to reduce progressive opposition to his extreme conservative policies and actions. Some of the successful organizing in this campaign involved street actions and mass mobilization, including year 2000 Los Angeles protestors and National Lawyers Guild observers. The same strategy can and should be applied at the national level. Above all, large coalitions are required to address the continuing horror of a grotesque war in Iraq, the opening of a seemingly protracted pattern of American imperial expansion and domination. Progressive forces should retain their specific visions while simultaneously uniting to strengthen the national anti-war movement. Effective street agitation can, in due course, generate widespread electoral participation and change. More than 20 years ago, Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, in their preface to a book on social protest movements in America, made this point with prophetic effectiveness: At such moments of electoral instability, mass protest movements can play a catalytic role, as the movements of industrial workers and the unemployed did in the ‘30s or the civil rights and anti-war movements in the ‘60s.  Movements sometimes generate such disruptive effects as to break the grip of ruling groups, so that new policies can be advanced from the bottom. The issues generated by masses of defiant people politicize and activate voters; they widen divisions in the electorate and they sometimes attract new voters to the polls who alter the electoral calculus. Neither should the significance of the litigation that resulted from the demonstrations be underestimated. The suit filed by the National Lawyers Guild and the ACLU was not limited to recovery of money damages for the wholesale violations of constitutional rights that have become increasingly commonplace in the United States (though substantial damages were recovered for many). More important, however, was the consent decree which provided stringent guidelines for the use of police force in subsequent demonstrations, thus enabling and empowering more people to more freely exercise their rights without fear of harassment and arrest. The implications for 2006, 2008 and beyond, of the combination of large progressive coalitions and the ability of those coalitions to engage in protest, are nothing less than fundamental for the future of democracy in the United States. REFERENCES D2KLA. Actions and Events, August11, 2000, at http://www.a16.org/losangeles/cal- endarlcfm. Everest, Larry. The Battle of Los Angeles, Z MAGAZINE, October, 2000 Los Angeles Police Department. Parade Permit List, August 11, 2000, Sergeant Lisa Turvey, Uniform Support Division, Emergency Operations Section, Special Events Planning Unit. Myers. Robert M. Q: Are police using inappropriate force on political demonstrators? Yes, INSIGHT, October 16, 2000. Myers, Robert M. E-mail communication to the author containing summaries of the various settlements arising out of the DNC and October 22, 2000 litigation. A Summary of the Work and Experience of the NLG  Legal Observers During the DNC. NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD. L.A. Chapter News, Volume 32, No. 3 (Fall 2000). National Lawyers Guild, L.A. Chapter, Press Release, August 9,2001: James Lafferty, Executive Director, announcement of police litigation. Von Blum, Paul, Park’s Police Shouldn’t Be Lauded for Ignoring Rights, LOS ANGELES DAILY JOURNAL (October 4, 2000). THE LOS ANGELES TIMES also had extensive coverage of the demonstrations in its August 12-18 issues. The LA WEEKLY covered the events in its August 11-17 and 18-24 issues. ------------------------------Guild Practitioner:  Volume 63 - Winter 2006, pages 47-55------------------------------ Dear Reader:   Did you find this article from GUILD PRACTITIONER valuable?  Want the GUILD PRACTITIONER (published quarterly) delivered to your home, workplace, school, or place of detention?   i                                              Members of the National Lawyers Guild are automatically subscribed to GUILD PRACTITIONER.  For information on becoming a member of the National Lawyers Guild, click here.  i                                              For non-members, subscription rates are as follows:  •                                                         Students and legal workers $10.00/year•                                                         Lawyers $25.00•                                                         Incarcerated persons $5.00/year•                                                         Libraries and institutions $50.00 Send name and address, along with check or money order to:  GUILD PRACTITIONER,  P.O. 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