Working Visit of the President of the United Mexican States

WHAT:    
Working Visit of the President of the United Mexican States Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (President of the United Mexican States)

WHEN:
Wednesday, September 21, 2011  
4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
WHERE:
Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles Convention Center and LA Live)

WHO:
The incident Commander for the Department will be Deputy Chief Michael Downing, Commanding Officer, Counter-Terrorism & Criminal Intelligence Bureau

WHY:
To identify Media Staging and Viewing Areas, Pool Camera locations and street closures as defined by the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

MEDIA VIEWING/ STAGING AREA/ POOL CAMERA LOCATIONS:

Media Staging and Media Viewing areas have been designated outside the impacted areas, and are intended to provide viewing within range of the events.  The viewing areas and staging areas take into consideration the needs of the media, public and officer safety.

An LAPD Public Information Officer (PIO) will be on hand to facilitate media coverage and assist the on-scene Incident Commander.  PIOs will be wearing vests that readily identify them as LAPD PIOs.

Olympic Boulevard and Georgia Street, Los Angeles Wednesday, September 21, 2011

 Designated Parking Area will be located on northeast corner of Georgia Street and Olympic Boulevard.  Viewing will be available to Media at the west side of the J.W. Marriott main entrance. This is subject to the hard/soft street closures designated by US Department of State.  Designated pool cameras and interviews will be admitted to the west side of the main entrance area ONLY with designated credentialed media approved by the Communications Officer of the Mexican Consulate, or State Department Personnel.  
  Hard Street Closure on Georgia Street between Olympic Boulevard and West Road, Wednesday September 21,2011
1201 South Figueroa Street:  Wednesday, September 21, 2011
  Designated staging/parking for Credentialed Media will be in the parking lot across from the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueroa Street.  There will be additional parking for Non-Credentialed Media on Pico Boulevard east of Figueroa Street.  Credentialed media will be allowed to enter the Media staging area designated by the Communication Officer of the Mexican Consulate.   

AL CRESPO vs. CITY OF LOS ANGELES, FEDERAL CASE NO. CV 00-08869

These mandates originate from a binding settlement agreement arising out of the 2000 Democratic National Convention, and include the following:

Under the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, it is not uncommon for large numbers of people to assemble for the purpose of demonstrating their opinions.  At such demonstrations, it is the Police Department’s obligation to protect individuals’ First Amendment rights, maintain order, and protect lives and property.  Occasionally, demonstrations become unlawful.  In such circumstances, pursuant to California Penal Code Sections 407 and 409, an assembly may be declared unlawful, and all persons present, including members of the news media, may be lawfully ordered to disperse.

The law provides that police officers may use reasonable force to disperse an unlawful assembly and to affect the arrest of violators.  The Department’s Use of Force Policy applies to such actions.  The Department’s policies concerning interaction with the news media are described in the relevant provision in Volume One of the Department Manual, the Department’s Emergency Operations Guide, and the Department’s Media Guide.

LAPD will recognize that the news media has a right, without interfering with police operations, to cover events that may result in the declaration of an unlawful assembly and order to disperse;

LAPD will make efforts to accommodate the media reporting obligation; however, such efforts will be made consistent with the LAPD’s primary obligation to maintain public safety and order;

When the LAPD develops an operations plan for an event that involves a public assembly, LAPD, where practicable, will designate an area outside of the anticipated impacted area but within reasonable viewing distance and audible range of the event in which members of the media may assemble;

When selecting the viewing area, LAPD will take into consideration public and officer safety, police tactics, input provided by the news media and the ability of the LAPD to prevent the location from becoming part of the impacted area;

To the extent reasonably possible, the LAPD will try to prevent the news media viewing area from becoming part of any area impacted by an unlawful assembly declaration and order to disperse.

The decision to assume risk of danger involved in covering a public event remains with the individual news reporter making such a decision, provided that any such decision does not constitute a waiver by a reporter of any constitutional or other legal rights.

The selection of the news media viewing area will take into consideration public and officer safety, police tactics, input provided by the news media, if any, and the ability of the LAPD to prevent the location from becoming part of the impacted area.  The final selection of the viewing area location will be made by the Incident Commander in charge of the incident.

To the extent reasonably possible and without compromising public or officer safety, the LAPD incident commander will relocate the news media viewing area if, due to changing conditions, the initial area no longer affords the media a reasonable view of the event or becomes a tactical concern for the incident commander;

The incident commander will designate an information officer as part of the incident command system in order to facilitate interaction with the media, and the information officer will be clearly identified at the scene; and

After declaring an unlawful assembly, the LAPD will designate a dispersal route for all persons present, including the media, to use when evacuating the area.

UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY

As was discussed with news media managers and members of the Los Angeles news media committee, the LAPD recognizes the news media’s reporting obligation and will accommodate reporters’ and photographers’ coverage by allowing them to pass through skirmish lines one time.  For officer safety reasons, reporters and photographers will not be allowed to pass through the lines multiple times as was explained and demonstrated for those members of the media who participated in the Department’s Mobile Field Force Training.

Should the event be declared an unlawful assembly, the LAPD will immediately notify the media by issuing a Department news advisory using City News Service, Nixle and the LAPD MRS’ regular email delivery service.  The Department will make every effort to issue this news advisory prior to the issuance of a dispersal order.  In the event this scenario were to occur, media organizations should ensure that this vital information is disseminated to media field crews as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Any questions regarding this news advisory should be directed to the LAPD Media Relations Section at 213-486-5910.