Police chief: "Protests will provide cover for terrorist attacks"

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 10, 2002; Page B04

The federal government has preliminarily agreed to reimburse the District
for bringing in police officers from other jurisdictions during meetings
of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this month, city
officials said yesterday.

Margret Nedelkoff Kellems, the city's deputy mayor for public safety and
justice, said last night that the agreement still needs approval from the
higher echelons of the U.S. Treasury Department. But, she said, the
District now expects the federal government to "assume the majority of the
cost, if not all the cost" of bringing in officers from other
jurisdictions during protests expected to coincide with the meetings.

Kellems said no exact dollar figure had been agreed upon, but she said she
expected the federal government to pay about $5 million, which would cover
the cost of about 1,700 outside police officers working Sept. 27, 28 and
29, when the heaviest protests are expected.

A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department declined to comment on the
matter last night.

Total police costs during the protests, including the bill for the roughly
1,600 D.C. officers set to work at the event, had been estimated at $8.5
million, Kellems said. She said it was unclear whether the District could
afford to pay all of the $3.5 million that might remain after federal
reimbursement.

Kellems and D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey had worried that, without
a guarantee of reimbursement, they would not be able to persuade outside
jurisdictions to send officers. Yesterday, Ramsey said the preliminary
agreement was "good news," though he was concerned that it came just weeks
before the protests are to begin.

"We'll do what we can to find [officers who] will come," Ramsey said.
"Hopefully it's not too late."

Ramsey said yesterday that he had received commitments for 1,400 officers
from other departments -- some of them local, some of them as far away as
North Carolina, Massachusetts and Ohio.

"We haven't gone to a lot of other major cities" seeking officers, Kellems
said. "Now . . . we'll go to the Chicagos and the Atlantas." Indeed,
Ramsey said last night that he felt the Chicago Police Department, where
he spent many years, would send officers.

The meetings of the IMF and World Bank will be held Sept. 28 and 29 at the
two organizations' headquarters downtown. But the protests, led by a
hodgepodge of groups representing anti-capitalist, anti-globalization,
anarchist and other causes, are scheduled to begin Sept. 25.

For police, the most ominous protest is planned for Sept. 27, a Friday, on
which the District-based Anti-Capitalist Convergence has announced a
"People's Strike." Organizers have said that they will block traffic and
that "businesses, governmental institutions, schools and streets will be
shut down, and in many senses reopened to new uses."

Ramsey said yesterday that if the strike succeeds in paralyzing parts of
the city, it could hinder police and fire crews from getting to
emergencies, or even provide cover for a terrorist attack.

"If some poor [person] has a heart attack, how do you get an ambulance in
there?" Ramsey said. "I just don't think they're thinking about the
consequences of shutting down a major city."