Torches, mace, nunchucks, shields and baseball bats are among a list of items that could soon be banned at public protests and demonstrations in Los Angeles under a proposed amended ordinance that was unanimously approved Wednesday by the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.
The motion that led the City Attorney’s Office to draft the amended ordinance expanding the list of banned items was introduced by Councilman Mitchell Englander, who cited the recent violence and protests in Berkeley and Charlottesville, Virginia, as reasons for the city to further limit what items can be brought to a protest.
“As we have seen in demonstrations around the country, these events are becoming violent more frequently,” the motion states. “We are seeing devices such as poles, sticks, signs, as well as certain types of containers including glass bottles and many other items used as improvised weapons thus resulting in injuries and property damage.”
The amended ordinance contains a long list of items that would be banned at any protests, demonstrations, rallies, picket lines and public assemblies, including firearms, knives, swords, shields, baseball or softball bats, aerosol spray, tear gas, mace, glass bottles, axes, ice picks, nunchucks, Tasers, projectile launchers, bottles or water guns filled with hazardous liquid, open flame torches and ball bearings.
The city would regulate signs and banners and the handles they’re mounted on. Signs and banners would have to be made of soft material such as cloth, plastic or cardboard. Metal sticks would be banned, while wood or plastic sticks would not be allowed unless they were 1/4 inch or less in thickness, two inches or less in width or not exceed 3/4 inches in dimension. Plastic sticks under this dimension would have to be hollow and not filled with any material.
Wood sticks of the same dimension are already banned under the Section 55.07 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, which is the section that would be amended. Arguing for the legality of the amendment, Deputy City Attorney Julie Raffish told the committee the ordinance that created the section was approved in 1978 and upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003.
“This draft ordinance that’s been presented to you simply adds to that ordinance additional items for which evidence exists that the items are being used by individuals to commit the type of violence that the ordinance is designed and sought to minimize and curtail,” Raffish told the committee.
Raffish also said the ordinance would allow for a person in violation to receive a warning before being found in violation and subject to a possible arrest.
Melanie Ochoa, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the organization was opposed to the amendment.
“An individual does not have fewer rights when engaged in constitutionally protected activities than when going about their daily business. If a mini baseball bat is dangerous, then it is equally dangerous at a Dodgers game or at a public protest. We question the legality of any ordinance that attempts to strip rights solely from those engaged in protected activities,” she said.
Councilman Joe Buscaino wanted to know why the ordinance did not include a ban on masks or scarves that would cover a person’s face and prevent police from being able to identify them.
“If you look at what is going on during these violent protests, these knuckleheads use scarves and bandanas to conceal themselves and it counters those that are following the rules,” Buscaino said.
Raffish said the items on the list were ones that could be used as weapons, and the amended ordinance is “narrowly confined to the real concern, which is the preservation of public safety and public health.”
At an August protest, tiki torch-carrying white supremacists and neo- Nazis in Charlottesville marched around a statue of Robert E. Lee. The next day, the group squared off against some counter-protesters in a day of violence in which dozens were injured and one counter-protester was killed.
—City News Service