Nice Cop-Tough Cop Tactic Paid Off for District Police By Arthur Santana Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 20, 2000; Page B01
The call went out around midnight on Mobilization Radio, the pirate station that aired messages to the activists: Meet in Dupont Circle at 4 a.m. for some street action against the World Bank.
Protesters had hoped to outsmart the police, by starting so early. But when they began converging on Dupont in a driving rain Monday morning, a half-dozen patrol cars were parked around the circle. Unmarked cars staked out adjacent streets.
Once again, the D.C. police seemed to know what protesters were up to before the protesters themselves did.
"Let's go . . .," said a dispirited young woman with a garbage bag for a raincoat, and the demonstrators melted into the soggy dawn.
In the struggle between police and protesters over the past two weeks, that is how it has gone. Behind vivid images of Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey with a rose, or of black-bandanna-wearing activists beating plastic garbage pails, there was a constant current of solid police work, undercover gambits, informants, intimidation, guile and testing the limits of legality.
The tactics used, from surveillance to confrontation to keeping protesters in jail for long hours, kept the city safe and the protesters frustrated and complaining that their rights had been violated or that they had been beaten and bloodied.
The success of police tactics has led to the glow of victory for the oft-beleaguered Metropolitan Police Department and for its chief of two years.
Ramsey and Executive Assistant Chief Terrance W. Gainer know just how different this week could have been. When the same protests hit Seattle late last year, the city erupted in tear gas, beatings and disarray of the police force. Both the chief and one of the Seattle deputies are gone, retired.
"I think [Ramsey] was probably the best prepared police chief I've ever seen," said Gerald Arenberg, a 70-year-old retired police officer who is familiar with D.C. police and is the spokesman for the National Association of Chiefs of Police. "He used the resources of several other police agencies to break the back of the protesters."
It didn't just happen. Ramsey and Gainer said intensive training for 1,500 officers made their force ready. The city ordered gear. The force worked extreme hours. At times, officers shoved and pushed and in several instances beat protesters with their batons. At other times, they blocked streets and let protesters march, or they faded into the background or stopped traffic so the parade could pass.
"This was a turning point for the department, sworn and civilian," Ramsey said. "We're all on cloud nine."
The Dupont Circle incident was not the only one in which police seemed to have superior intelligence. Law enforcement agencies have monitored the group's vast network of Internet sites and pirate radio since Seattle and the group's announcement that the nation's capital was next. Gainer hinted that police had infiltrated the marches. "Not every one of our officers was in uniform," he said. "We didn't have any police officers dressed as trees, either."
He said that police were on rooftops and in helicopters watching protesters' movements and that additional information came from protesters who didn't want violence.
In addition to Dupont Circle, other incidents showed the fruit of the efforts. Last week, seven protesters were stopped by D.C. police intelligence section and charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and possessing up to 300 implements that could be used to block traffic.
On Friday, D.C. police searched a house in the Kalorama section and seized similar devices and arrested three on charges of possessing "implements of crime."
The next day, fire investigators showed up at the protesters' headquarters off Florida Avenue NW. There, they shut down the "convergence center," the warehouse where the protesters had checked in and then gathered to train, to strategize, to eat.
Ramsey and Gainer maintained the raid was not part of their strategy, but was welcome. "When it was brought to our attention that there was serious fire violations, and the fire inspector said they were going to go in there and shut it down . . . we started licking our chops," Gainer said. "It would be helpful to us if we discombobulated the protesters."
That tactic brought criticism from demonstrators and a complaint that police twisted the truth to make the protesters look bad.
"Chief Ramsey and . . . Gainer have been lying to the press," said organizer Han Shan. He complained that police said they had evidence and then backed down, well after the information had been aired.
Shan said that after the raid on the Florida Avenue NW headquarters, police told reporters a Molotov cocktail had been found but later said it wasn't what they thought. Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms later said the device was harmless.
Shan said that after the raid on the protest headquarters, police also claimed protesters were making homemade pepper spray there. They were merely cooking supplies, he said.
The night after the raid on the convergence center, police made a highly controversial arrest sweep, picking up more than 600 people and keeping them in jail and off the streets for up to 23 hours, letting some out just in time to comply with the law.
That effectively kept many off the streets for the beginning of Sunday's major demonstration.
Then, on Sunday, a man wearing a black bandanna was singled out by police in a sea of protesters and found with bottles of gasoline in his backpack, Ramsey said. How did they discover the one person with lethal possessions in the middle of the crowd? Yesterday, they indicated that other protesters had fingered him.
Such pro-active police work is essential to a successful plan, said Robert Scully, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations. "I can only imagine that Chief Ramsey, and probably working with some of the federal agencies in D.C., was successful in infiltrating some of the groups . . . and had firsthand, inside information of who, when, why, and where things were going to happen," Scully said. He said police did an "outstanding" job.
The protests, from the end of the Seattle mayhem, have spawned a network of intelligence on this group. Leaders of the protests were clearly known to officers from Boston, New York, and Canada who were on hand to watch.
On Sunday and then on Monday, police showed off their training. They used a sort of rope-a-dope tactic, rushing into a crowd at one point, backing away and leaving the scene moments later. One New York officer who was observing, said: "The strategy is to contain them long enough that they run out of gas. If they're not doing anything violent, it's best to just let them demonstrate."
When protesters blocked 14th Street and New York Avenue NW, police stood by and watched. When a band plugged in its electric guitars and began playing at Farragut Square without a permit, police just smiled. A beach ball, gently tossed over to police, was bopped right back into the crowd.
This pick-your-battles tactic was one Gainer had urged during training for the protests. "Don't get crucified on a small cross," Gainer had said. Police occasionally even showed brief flairs of humor. Officers at times joined in on the protesters' rallying cry, "Whose streets? Our Streets!"
Reaching out to other agencies aided the department's success, said Arlington Police Chief Edward A. Flynn. One of the mistakes in Seattle, he said, was a lack of coordination with other police agencies. Ramsey didn't hesitate to call upon the dozens of police agencies in the area--even beyond the District.
For the first time ever, D.C. police invoked a mutual aid agreement with suburban police, turning over responsibility for the bridges on the Virginia side of the Potomac to the Arlington police, Flynn said.
To enable county officers to enforce D.C. laws, U.S. marshals deputized about 200 Arlington police officers--about two-thirds of the force--as federal agents.
Dozens of other police agencies were also readied, such as the U.S. Park Police, the U.S. Secret Service, the Capitol Police, and the FBI. On Sunday night, Ramsey called for the D.C. National Guard.
Everyone from city officials, national media and the police union has commended Ramsey. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) wrote to say that she would work to get the city $5 million to defray its expenses.
Not everyone was happy. Shan ridiculed Ramsey's claim that protesters were dressing up as police officers and hitting others. "Come on, you've got to be kidding me!" he said.
Others complained of police abuse on the lines, being hit with pepper spray, manhandled or being clubbed with batons. Yesterday, about 140 were still in jail, and lawyers were negotiating a settlement. Many of those jailed were still refusing to give their names.
A contingent of about 50 maintained a vigil outside.
But the self-assessment of the police department was seen in an unheralded moment Tuesday morning.
At the World Bank, Ramsey and Gainer were removing metal barriers from where they had stood and negotiated. They looked at each other and, as though toasting each other, bumped their fists. "Gainer," Ramsey said, his arm around his assistant, "we've got ourselves a police department now."
Staff writers Petula Dvorak, Cindy Loose, Patricia Davis, Stephen C. Fehr, David Montgomery and Linda Wheeler contributed to this report.