by Geraldine Sealey
ABC NewsJanuary 8, 2002
Security for the Salt Lake City Olympics, with a price tag exceeding $300 million, was a top priority even before Sept. 11. But international terrorism isn't the only threat: Officials are bracing for a potential record number of protesters and that some might take advantage of the world stage to make mayhem. While Olympics and city officials say they have no evidence of unruly demonstrations planned for the 17-day Games set to begin on Feb. 8, they are preparing for them. About 1 million visitors from around the world are expected to descend on the city next month along with an undetermined number of demonstrators.
One official strategy for controlling demonstrations seems to be accommodating peaceful protesters as much as possible. So many demonstrators want to come to Salt Lake City to support their causes that officials are providing demonstrators seven official protest zones — believed to be a first for the Games. The city is also issuing official permits for groups that want to protest in Salt Lake City during the games.
By providing safe zones where demonstrators can exercise their free speech rights, city and Olympic officials are hoping to prevent the kind of violent and disorderly protests that have marred such recent international events as the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle or last year's G8 summit in Genoa, Italy.
Mapping out protest zones and certifying legitimate Olympic demonstrators is helping the Games organizers keep tabs on who is showing up, officials say. The organizers clearly have learned lessons from recent violent demonstrations. They're also tuned in to radical environmental and animal rights activists, active in Utah, who have turned to violence in recent years to spread their message.
"The demonstrations that have gotten out of hand like at the WTO seem to be a fairly recent phenomenon that we want to be prepared for," said Josh Ewing, a spokesman for Salt Lake City.
Not All Protesters Created Equal
In the new era of globally organized protesters and violence-prone anarchists, not all protesters are created equal. The protest groups who have signed up for permits to set up camp near the Olympic events are peaceful groups and are not expected to incite unrest.
"[Games planners] are preparing for the worst, but animal rights have the intention of organizing non-violent protests," said Sean Diener, director of the Utah Animal Rights Coalition, which is helping to organize protests against the Olympics-sponsored Rodeo. "We have no expectation for anything to turn out like the things in Genoa or Seattle. There will be non-violent but effective protests," he said.
As of late last week, 10 groups had received official protest permits from the city, including homeless activists, supporters of the banned Chinese spiritual sect Falun Gong , disabled rights advocates, and a church group critical of gay rights.
Even though Olympics protests so far are expected to be peaceful, security officials are concerned that demonstrators interested in violence or general lawlessness could infiltrate those protesters who are coordinating their efforts with the city and Olympic officials.
Officials have investigated the Web site of a group called Build Underground Resistance Not the Olympics, which claims to be devoted to agitating and educating demonstrators for the Games. The site reads: "BURN the Olympics has been initiated by radicals who are not resigned to sit back and watch our city turn into a playground for the rich. We plan on using our diverse skills and tactics to tackle the multinational death machine that is killing the planet."
BURN says the Olympics are too corporate, too money-driven, advance globalization and nationalism, and ruin the environment. Another group, Citizens Activist Network, is also opposed to the Olympics on similar grounds, but has signed up for a legal permit to protest in an official zone, where BURN has not. A spokeswoman for BURN, who only goes by the name of "Sabrina," said her group would not apply for a permit because by doing so, "we would be recognizing the authority of the state to grant or deny freedom of speech."
Intelligence Operation Against Anarchist Infiltration
Further, she said, many globalization protesters would likely demonstrate at a meeting of G8 finance ministers scheduled for Feb. 8 and 9 in Ottawa, and so turnout among globalization protesters is not likely to be comparable at the Olympics as at other international events.
It is difficult to tell how many demonstrators the BURN group legitimately represents. Salt Lake City officials believe the BURN site might only be run by the spokeswoman, with no extensive organization backing it. But still, officials are preparing for anything. To head off violent protests, law enforcement agencies have conducted years-long intelligence operations in an attempt to figure out whether potentially disruptive groups are headed to Salt Lake City.
The security effort also will include handing our educational pamphlets to protesters with permits to warn them about the possibility that radical activists who would incite violence could infiltrate their ranks.
While officials are doing everything in their power to allow demonstrators to have a voice during the Games, "People have been oblivious to other people infiltrating them and it's gotten nasty," Ewing said.
Olympics planners will warn demonstrators that if police ask them to disperse for any reason and they do not, protesters will be arrested.
Hoping for Crowd Control
Stephen Clark, legal director of the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union , said he hopes security officials have learned how to control crowds more efficiently after past clashes with demonstrators got ugly.
"There seems to have been two models: Seattle, where there seemed to be a total lack of preparation, and then the other extreme is the Republican convention in Philadelphia in 2000," he said, "where police seemed to apply a program of preventive detention by rounding up usual suspects and placing them in jail with million-dollar bails so people couldn't cause chaos for the convention.
"I hope the organizers have appropriately planned for spontaneous protests, or even people who might want to cause mischief, and not overreact."
The threat of violence at the Olympics is not a new phenomenon, of course. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, the bombing in Centennial Park killed 1 and injured 111, reminding Olympic organizers how vulnerable the Games could be.
Terrorism also struck the Olympics in Munich in 1972 when 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian gunmen.
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