-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 27, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
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LOS ANGELES:
PROTEST ORGANIZERS NOT INTIMIDATED BY MAYOR, COPS
By Richard Becker
Los Angeles
Attempts by Mayor Richard Riordan and the Los Angeles
Police Department to intimidate protesters and derail
demonstrations planned outside the Democratic National
Convention were met with angry responses at a news
conference here July 14.
Representatives of several organizations that plan to
protest outside the convention Aug. 13-17 condemned an
opinion piece by Mayor Riordan in the July 13 Los Angeles
Times. In the article, the mayor threatened demonstrators
with violence, imprisonment and heavy fines.
The news conference featured speakers from the National
Lawyers Guild, D2K Network, Los Angeles Coalition to Stop
the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, International Action
Center, Service Employees Local 347 and other
organizations.
All of the groups reaffirmed their determination to go
ahead with the demonstrations planned for the convention.
The threats continued July 15, when LAPD cops "visited"
the newly opened Convergence Center set up by the D2K
Network, which is organizing several protests.
Just hours after the center opened, 10 police showed up
and demanded to see the lease for the building in the
Westlake district. The cops forced organizers to leave the
building until they could retrieve a copy of the lease.
In a statement released to the media by the August 13
National March for Mumia, John Parker of the Los Angeles
Coalition to Stop the Execution of Mumia said, "Mayor
Riordan's outrageous threat to use the LAPD against people
expressing their First Amendment right to free speech and
assembly is an attack on the rights of the people the mayor
pretends to represent and everyone who will be here during
the Democratic Convention.
"The LAPD is notorious worldwide for its brutality, racism
and corruption," Parker asserted.
"Even more astounding are the mayor's comments that `we
cannot tolerate non-violent civil disobedience,'" he said.
Comparing the demonstrators to Mohandas Gandhi and Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., Riordan wrote: "Then, like Gandhi
and King, they must be prepared to pay stiff fines and face
arrest and jail."
"Apparently," Parker responded, "the mayor approves of the
punishments handed out to those who have historically
resisted colonialism, racism and other injustices."
`BULL' RIORDAN
Parker charged, "Mayor Riordan, who now threatens
protesters with rubber bullets and pepper spray, aspires to
play the role of the infamous Alabama Sheriff Eugene `Bull'
Connor, who unleashed gas, dogs, water cannon and other
violence on Dr. King and all those who marched against
racism in the 1960s.
"We will not be intimidated by the threats of `Bull'
Riordan," Parker said. "We will be marching and rallying by
the thousands on Aug. 13, demanding a new trial and stay of
execution for Mumia Abu-Jamal and an end to the racist,
anti-poor death penalty."
"We call upon city officials to stop threatening violence
against the demonstrations," said Maggie Vascassenno of the
IAC. "It's the mayor, police chief and other officials who
are responsible for deliberately trying to create an
atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
"But they won't deter us or thousands of others who are
coming to Los Angeles.
"The city should immediately issue the requested permits
for the Mumia march, the D2K activities, the protest
against Iraq sanctions and the other demonstrations
scheduled for Aug. 13-17," she added.
Support for the Aug. 13 national march and rally for Abu-
Jamal is growing.
Preston Wood, a leading organizer for the Los Angeles
Coalition, said: "Buses are coming from as far away as
Seattle. Committees are mobilizing in more than 50 cities
throughout California and the western United States to be
here on Aug. 13 and the following days."
Endorsers of the Aug. 13 National March for Mumia include
former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton of Detroit, Monica Moorehead of Millions for
Mumia/IAC, Service Employees Local 535, the Black Employees
Association, the Rev. Lucius Walker Jr. of IFCO/Pastors for
Peace, Office of the Americas and Workers World Party.
Also the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law,
Black Radical Congress, Committees of Correspondence,
Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador,
Freedom Socialist Party, Refuse & Resist!, National Lawyers
Guild, former political prisoner Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt),
poet Martin Espada and many others.
Readers who want to volunteer or make a donation can call
(213) 487-2368.
- END -
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