----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2000 3:44 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] 3,000 Guardsmen, "Bio-ChemTerrorism" Team Deployed For L.A. Protests STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM National Guard, unions set for LA convention LOS ANGELES, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- The California National Guard has 3,000 troops, including a biological-chemical terrorism response team, ready for riot-control duty in Los Angeles during the Democratic National Convention. The Los Angeles Times said Tuesday that the Guard has three 1,000-man response teams prepared to deploy to Los Angeles and be on the streets within 24 hours should they be needed to help quell any civil disturbance that might be too much for the Los Angeles police to handle alone. "It is felt that they have enough law enforcement personnel available to them to handle any problem," said Maj. Gen. Paul D. Monroe, the Guard's adjutant general. "We would be negligent if we didn't plan for any eventuality." Among the units is a Weapons of Mass Destruction outfit based in nearby Los Alamitos that is trained to respond to terrorist attacks involving chemical and biological weapons. The Guard last saw duty in Los Angeles in 1992 when rioting erupted after a jury acquitted a group of white LAPD officers for the beating of black motorist Rodney King. Police plan a major presence on the streets to keep convention demonstrations under control. There will also be contingents of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers on hand; the county coroner's office has also canceled all leaves during the convention. The Times said the Guard's contingency plan for the convention has warned about the possibility that the hot August weather could lead to a power outage or a heat emergency that could complicate law enforcement efforts. There will apparently be no union trouble to make things more difficult. A deal was signed Monday to ensure that there would be no labor picketing of the Staples Center or the delegate hotels during the Aug. 14-17 convention. Seven unions, including hotel employees and concessions workers at Staples Center, signed the agreement, which convention planners had been seeking for several months. A few Los Angeles unions plan to stage demonstrations, however, either before the convention, or in other parts of town -- including hotel workers in Santa Monica and thousands of city and county teachers who take a strike vote Tuesday at the Olympic Auditorium, not far from the Staples Center. (Reported by Hil Anderson, Los Angeles) ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
