The Los Angeles Police Department and L.A. city officials are expecting around 37 different protest groups ranging in size from three people to some 15,000 strong to demonstrate during the Democratic National Convention. And how peacefully, or violently, those protests turn out will have significant consequences for the local business community. Many downtown businesses have already decided to curtail operations or shut down completely this week. And any rioting, broadcast worldwide, could hurt L.A.’s image as a place to do business. This week’s largest protest group was also the first to enter the fray: the protesters who held a march and rally downtown on Aug. 13 on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on Pennsylvania’s death row after his conviction for killing a Philadelphia police officer. “It has the ability to be quite vocal,” said Joe Hicks, executive director of the city of Los Angeles’ Human Relations Commission, a few days before the rally. “It will be the first out of the gate.” The Abu-Jamal group, part of a bigger organization called International Action Center, estimated last week that anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 people would attend the march. IAC’s Los Angeles branch chief John Parker said at least 30 busloads of protesters would come to Los Angeles from all over the United States for the event. He said he has been deluged with phone calls from would-be volunteers. “I think a lot of people are going to come in on Sunday and then go to the rest of the demonstrations,” Parker said. Aside from the Abu-Jamal demonstration, the IAC which Parker says “is the largest single entity” demonstrating during the convention is also heading up a 6,000-strong march decrying police brutality on Aug. 16, and a 2,000-strong Save the Iraqi Children demonstration on Aug. 15. The group split up its protests to avoid diluting the separate issues the group is trying to call attention to. “There are a lot (of groups) having various issues on one day,” Parker said, “but we felt we wanted to concentrate on one issue (per day).” Other large protest groups include Service Employees International Union Local 660, which represents Los Angeles County service workers, and United Teachers of Los Angeles. The county workers’ group is expected to be several thousand strong, while the teachers’ group has estimated that anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 people will participate in its “pilgrimage to save public education.” Police and city officials are relatively unconcerned about the union demonstrations, despite the large numbers involved, because these organizations have held largely peaceful rallies in the past. “They play close to the rules,” Hicks said. “Police don’t perceive any difficulty coming from these unions.” But one labor-oriented rally that could prove more troublesome is a protest against the World Trade Organization and corporate globalization, a march starting at 4:20 p.m. on Aug. 14 with a rally expected to last until at least 9 p.m. The WTO was the subject of major unrest during its November convention in Seattle, and some of those protesters are expected to attend the L.A. event. In anticipation of unrest, Alice Callaghan, director of Las Familias del Pueblo, was busy posting flyers in downtown last week, warning residents about the dangers of tear gas. “There are hundreds of impoverished families in that (protest) area,” Callaghan said. “It is residential, and if police use tear gas, they will be gassing babies.” D2K, a loose network keeping contact with various protest groups via the Internet and through Los Angeles meetings, is helping to coordinate much of the demonstration activity during convention week. The group is an outcropping of R2K from the Philadelphia convention, with many of the same people involved in both events. Another group that expected to be vocal during the convention is the Direct Action Network, which gained fame during the Seattle WTO protests. LAPD and city officials have been at some of the meetings held by these groups and Hicks said officials have had “a series of low-key meetings” with leaders of certain protest organizations. The meetings have accomplished little, except to open a line of dialog between the groups. They also helped the LAPD and the city gain a sense of how many people will be out in the streets during convention week.Hicks does not anticipate more than 8,000 demonstrators at any given time. “Some of these people you will see over and over again,” Hicks said.

Much of the marching will be from Pershing Square to Figueroa and 11th streets, with the police following right behind. Two public-address areas one at each end of the main parade route will be set up with microphones. Groups and individuals have been encouraged to sign up for their turn at the public-address stands, with each speaker given up to an hour to express their views at the mike. Groups that have registered include Homophile Justice, the Veterans Advisory Board and American Atheists Inc.