Long before the Democrats settled on the site of next week's national convention, LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks had decided whom he wanted to oversee security, if Los Angeles won the right to host the event.
The chief's man had spent seven years running the Police Department's Special Weapons and Tactics unit, an elite group known more for confronting--and sometimes shooting--armed suspects than for community relations. This is a man who has coordinated about 500 local crises. This is a man known to his peers as a quick and pragmatic decision-maker--in other words, the quintessential SWAT officer.
So Los Angeles got the convention, and Cmdr. Tom Lorenzen, 50, got the security job.
Lorenzen seized the challenge, viewing it--as do many officers he selected for his team--as an opportunity to salvage the Los Angeles Police Department's tarnished reputation. These officers know the world will be watching as they respond to the upcoming, potentially violent, street demonstrations.
While protesters facing police in coming days may be fighting what has been called the Battle of Los Angeles 2000, many officers--including Lorenzen and his team--will be trying to redeem the recent, calamitous history of the LAPD.
The 1992 riots were their Vietnam. They won't let it happen again.
"I said then that if I'm ever in a position to change what went on there, I would," Lorenzen said. "Well, here I am."
Several of his handpicked sergeants and other officers strongly echo those sentiments.
"I made up my mind in '92 that I would never be part of anything like that again--I'll quit," said Sgt. Greg Baltad, a former Metro Division officer who worked for Lorenzen and now serves as his assistant officer in charge. "We had become so concerned about public opinion that we failed to do what we were required to do. . . . This is our opportunity."
"My biggest nightmare," added Sgt. Dennis Quiles, who worked for Lorenzen once before, "would be another 54th [Street] and Arlington [Avenue]." He was referring to the site of the '92 riot command post set up by officers: It was woefully short on communications equipment, which hampered their efforts to respond. "I would retire the next day. I couldn't handle that."
A Dark Moment in History of LAPD
What these officers, and others in the LAPD's convention planning unit, can't forget are the hours and hours of waiting and watching as rioters destroyed sections of the city, while no orders came from Parker Center for the police to respond.
