I wonder what LBO-talk subscribers who line up on the opposite sides of the police question will say about the conflict between the cops and the mayor at the Democratic National Convention in Boston:
The New York Times July 20, 2004 Threat of Police Pickets Adds to Boston's Worries By JOHN KIFNER <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/20/politics/campaign/20boston.html>
BOSTON, July 17 - Besides the threat of a terrorist attack at the Democratic National Convention here later this month, the police will have to deal with at least 70 sets of demonstrators, including opponents of abortion, particularly passionate in this heavily Roman Catholic area; Quakers who want to protest the war in Iraq with 800 pairs of empty combat boots and a plowshare forged from 10,000 spent bullet casings; anarchists; Buddhists - and even themselves.
That's right. Boston police officers, along with the city's firefighters, are locked in a long-running contract dispute and plan to picket several convention events, beginning with the 32 welcoming parties for various state delegations given by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Union officials say their pickets will be joined by police officers from other states and off-duty personnel from the suburban police departments called in to help with the convention. They say five state delegations have sent messages saying they will not cross the picket lines.
"The focus is on Mayor Menino," said Tom Nee, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association. "Wherever he goes, we will be there."
The prospect of the police, who will be protecting the convention with measures that include road closings, a huge deployment of bomb-sniffing dogs and random searches on public transportation, engaging in street protests is among the factors that make the security situation here unusual.
Many of those factors stem from the nature of Boston itself. While considered a major city, it is comparatively small, with a population of 589,141 in the 2000 census, but it is the center of a metropolitan area with a population of 3.4 million that stretches for miles.
Boston has a police force of some 2,035 officers (compared with 36,500 in New York). Thus, for the convention, which runs July 26 to 29, the city police will be augmented by other agencies, including state troopers, police from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, suburban police, the National Guard and prison guards.
The Secret Service will be in charge of security because the convention has been designated a National Special Security Event by the homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, at the request of Gov. Mitt Romney. After the March terrorist bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people just before Spain's national elections, the agency ordered stepped-up measures, including the closing of some 40 miles of road because a section of Interstate 93, known locally as the Central Artery, runs just 40 feet from the Fleet Center, where the convention will be held.
More than a year of planning has gone into security measures, said officials, who declined for security reasons to say how many law enforcement officers would be involved.
But it appears that officials here could face challenges different from those in New York, which has a police force that is not only larger but also more experienced in dealing with mass protests.
For one, the Republican National Convention in New York will be mostly confined to a relatively small area of the city around Madison Square Garden, the Garment District and parts of Midtown. Venues in Boston, however, are widely spread, partly because of Mayor Menino's determination to have many of the delegate parties in the city's neighborhoods, at the Sam Adams brewery in Jamaica Plain, for instance, and at the L Street Bathhouse in South Boston. And some delegates and officials will be housed in distant hotels throughout the city and neighboring Cambridge.
The state police force numbers 2,400, according to the agency's spokeswoman, Maj. Marian McGovern, who declined to say how many troopers would be deployed for the convention. Some are from specialized units, like dog handlers or bomb disposal specialists, but most would probably be deployed to handle traffic problems resulting from the I-93 closing. In addition, Major McGovern said, some 120 state troopers from other New England states will be dispatched to help.
The traffic shutdown, affecting hundreds of thousands of commuters, is the central and most controversial piece of a security plan that includes closing the airspace over the city even to traffic-spotting helicopters - who would presumably have plenty to report - and closing a triangle of streets next to the Fleet Center to nonemergency vehicles.
The convention sessions will not start until 7 p.m., but it quickly became apparent that because of the complex nature of the roads that feed into downtown Boston, it could take hours to clear the backed-up traffic. So the traffic ban has been set for roughly 4 p.m. to midnight, with rush hour expected to begin around 2 p.m.
Commuters are not the only people angered by the road closings. Small-business people, like those who operate takeout lunch counters, fear that the city will be nearly deserted except for the 36,000 visitors expected for the convention. State workers have been encouraged to take the days of the convention off, and many businesses have told their employees to do the same or to stay home and work by phone and computer.
And officials in towns just to the north, like Somerville, Medford, Malden, Everett, Chelsea and Revere, are expecting their streets to be inundated with motorists seeking a way home.
"We're the city most impacted," said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone of Somerville. "This is one of the most densely populated cities in New England. The traffic congestion we face poses a real public safety problem. We're preparing for the worst; it's potentially a gridlock situation for our streets. We're concerned about our ambulances, our fire apparatus."
Boston's City Hall, which had trumpeted the convention as a boon, has grown somewhat defensive. A new publicity campaign has slogans like "Let's work around it" and "It's only four days." Mayor Menino, who labored to get the convention and to beautify his city for it, is now saying the inconvenience will not be worse than during the Great Blizzard of 1978, which tied up Boston for a week or more.
The mayor and Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole have tried to prevent the police picketing, saying fatigue would be a safety risk for officers already on 12-hour shifts and carrying bulletproof vests, helmets, riot batons and tear-gas masks.
The union has asked the delegations not to cross its picket lines and to walk out if Mr. Menino speaks. Jim Barry, a union spokesman, said it had received pledges of support from California, Maine, North Dakota, Ohio and Tennessee.
[On Monday, a state labor board sent the dispute to immediate, expedited arbitration in an effort to resolve the issue before the convention. That prompted a threat from the union to reconsider its decision not to picket the convention itself.]
There are precautions large and small around the area. Some 600 Coast Guard personnel will patrol the waterways near the Fleet Center. Antidotes for chemical attacks have been rushed here. No bicycles will be allowed on public transportation. Municipal swimming pools in Cambridge and Somerville will close early because they are near likely traffic choke points, and a children's wading pool on the Esplanade will be drained to become part of a state police headquarters.
Even the expected Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, has not been immune. He wanted to stage a "gift concert" for the city on July 28 at which his friend James Taylor and the Boston Pops would perform, but was turned down by officials who feared it would attract up to 50,000 people at a time when security forces were already stretched. Mr. Kerry is now trying to secure a permit for a smaller event on the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts.
Boston Cops' Pay Spat May Be Fixed by Convention Mon Jul 19, 2004 05:47 PM ET By Greg Frost <http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5709974>
BOSTON (Reuters) - A dispute between a Boston police union and the city that threatens to disrupt next week's Democratic National Convention could soon be resolved after a state labor board on Monday ordered the matter into arbitration.
Disgruntled members of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, who have been locked in a protracted pay struggle with the city, had planned to hound and heckle Boston Mayor Tom Menino during the four-day convention, opening in one week.
The union had also planned to make life awkward for many of the more than 4,000 Democratic delegates by forcing them to choose whether to cross picket lines at various convention-related parties and events.
But the Massachusetts state labor management board, acting under a new chairman, voted unanimously to name an independent arbitrator to sort out the matter by Thursday. The arbitrator's decision could be binding for both sides.
Menino, the target of police union pickets for months, told reporters he was pleased with the board's decision. The union, however, called the vote "outrageous" and said it would seek an injunction that would prevent the arbitration.
An indication of the unions' clout as one of the strongest political blocs in the Democratic party was seen last month when Sen. John Kerry, the party's certain presidential nominee, canceled a speech to the nation's mayors in Boston because union members were picketing outside the venue.
ON ALERT
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, is among those who have criticized union members for their plan to picket during convention week while doing their "normal" jobs. Maintaining peace and enforcing laws will be difficult enough as thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Boston, critics say.
Ever since the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago was marred by street battles between police and antiwar demonstrators, the quadrennial meetings have sometimes been more newsworthy for what goes on outside the convention hall than for what takes place inside.
The Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000, for example, was marked by sporadic clashes between police and demonstrators that led to more than 350 arrests.
Many of the big groups planning to demonstrate at this year's Democratic convention say they do not expect protests to turn violent, but authorities are worried about smaller groups and individuals looking to make trouble in the city's historic streets.
The Boston Police Department said it was prepared for the "worst-case scenario" and that thousands of law enforcement officials would be on duty. Authorities are prepared to arrest as many as 2,500 people during the convention, The Boston Globe reported on Saturday, and space has been cleared at area jails. Dozens of lawyers will be on call as needed.
"We recognize the First Amendment right to free speech and we've gone out of our way to accommodate people who feel they have a legitimate gripe. However, we will not tolerate people breaking the law -- either property destruction or violence," said Boston Police Department spokesman Kevin Foley.
Organizers expect at least 3,000 people to participate in the "Boston Social Forum," three days of workshops and cultural events for social justice advocates immediately before the convention. Antiwar coalition ANSWER, which refers to Democrats and Republicans as the "twin parties of the war machine," plans a rally on Sunday on Boston Common. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>