It's not the heat, it's the irritability.
As they spend long days on hot, shadeless sidewalks next week, Los Angeles police and the demonstrators they will be shadowing face discomfort at best, disaster at worst, while Democratic delegates chill out at Staples Center in climate-controlled comfort.
On the plus side: This is Los Angeles, not Philadelphia, where temperatures in the high 80s teamed up with humidity of 60% and higher during the recent Republican National Convention.
On the minus side: It's August, and any heat wave could not only spread misery among those forced to spend their days outdoors but could trigger rolling blackouts that could extend the distress to some delegates' hotels.
"The one thing we can depend on is the heat," said Los Angeles City Fire Department Battalion Chief Gregory West.
"We will probably have more heat-related problems than anything," said West, who works in the Fire Department's convention planning group. "It'll be the same thing for the delegates, the marchers--it will be hot."
It's actually not expected to be much hotter than usual, forecasters say. Amy Talmadge, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said high temperatures downtown are expected to be in the mid-80s on Monday through Thursday, with humidity at average levels of about 30% during the afternoon.
That's not bad by August standards--the weather was much the same during the 1960 Democratic convention in Los Angeles--but Talmadge noted that it will feel considerably hotter on unshaded sidewalks such as those on the streets ringing Staples.
Los Angeles police officers, once voted the country's best dressed cops, may be feeling like the country's hottest cops once they don their riot gear.
On a routine day, Los Angeles police officers add about 16 to 18 pounds of weight to their bodies by putting on their regular uniform, bulletproof vest and equipment belt.
During the Democratic National Convention, officers who will be outdoors have been told they may wear their Class C uniform--wool trousers, short-sleeved shirt, Kevlar vest, no tie and black ballistic helmet with face shield.
Additionally, most officers typically wear thicker body armor than the department issues and most also wear heavy, steel-toed boots.
Art Bachrach, a psychologist in Taos, N.M., who specializes in the psychological effects of extreme environments, said riot gear, especially helmets, contributes heavily to heat-related problems. But that may be the least of the difficulties facing police.
