Honolulu 'medium' risk for violence at bank meet

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

There is a "medium" probability for violent demonstrations during the Asian Development Bank meeting here May 7-11 but Honolulu is better prepared to handle it than Seattle was in 1999, the state's commander of security planning and operations said today.

"We asked a federal agency for a threat assessment and it came back as the possibility or probability was medium," Honolulu Police Department Assistant Chief Boisse Correa said. "The same assessment for Seattle was low to medium.

"We don't anticipate 30,000 to 40,000 demonstrators like Seattle (during the 1999 World Trade Organization riots) but Seattle got blindsided," he added. "I think because of that, we're better prepared."

Correa said today the philosophy of the intensive security training here over the past few months can be described in three words, "preparation, prevention and protection."

"Our job is to secure the streets," he added, "but our people are being trained to stay focused on being impartial.

"We know several (protest) groups will be active at the conference and part of our preparation stage has been to figure out the best way to let them get their messages out safely."

To prepare a strategy, Correa said a group of state security officials observed security at the Republican and Democratic conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, respectively, and spoke with Seattle officials about lessons learned from the 1999 rioting. Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue plans to accompany the group to Washington, D.C., in about two weeks to check out security at the International Monetary Fund meetings, Correa added.

"In Philadelphia, we spokewith Police Commissioner John Timoney and Deputy Commissioner Robert Mitchell and they told us how they were calling everyone 'demonstrators or protesters' at the beginning of the convention," Correa noted. "By the middle of the convention, they were calling some of them 'anarchists' and by the end, that changed to "urban terrorists.'

"The labeling of these groups shows you the scope of what we're facing. You have violent groups that mix with peaceful groups."

There are three types of demonstrators, Correa noted.

"You have the lawful, peaceful groups, which represent the majority," he said. "They are basically the marchers.

"Then you have the unlawful but peaceful groups, who are disruptive. They might stand in the middle of a street, blocking traffic, which is unlawful. The last group is the unlawful and violent. They are the ones who basically tear up a city. It takes a lot of energy and resources to deal with them."

Under prevention, the strategy is "whenever and wherever possible, we will diffuse situations and prevent them from getting heated," Correa said. ""We have been and will continue to talk with protesters about them being able to lawfully get their messages out and the majority of them do not want to see destruction of property or physical confrontations."

Correa, however, added the police will do what is necessary to maintain order.

"We're prepared for peaceful and orderly demonstrations and for less peaceful demonstrations," he said. "But let me stress that we're here to protect everyone's free speech and rights."

Officials expect thousands of demonstrators but are not releasing any figures on the number of groups for security reasons, Correa said.