When Venice stopped a (police) riot by stopping a parade
By Carol
Fondiller
The Establishment Parade vs.
the “People’s Parade” but first, background. Background is
all. I remember the parade that didn’t happen in Venice.
Those nasty un-patriotic beer swilling pot
smoking coffee drinking hippies and Beats and Commies as Werner Scharff and the
Venice Civic Union used to call them, and if one indulges in E-mail, that
vicious, crude and lying effluvium, the same swill slightly recycled still
eminates from some flea ridden hound’s master’s website.
“Anti-Progress” they bark un-American they whimper Aging Hippy
Commie Dope Smoking Beats they whine, as they cower in their lairs wishing they
could afford to live in Malibu but absenting that, these rabid whelps will
endeavor to move disagreeable elements out of Venice, i.e., patrons of Los
Trocas on Rose Avenue, clients of the Venice Family Health Clinic. (Many of the
nouveau hip donate money to St. Joseph’s and the Venice Clinic. They love
poor people just not in their backyard, the street they live on, the libraries
they patronize, the shopping centers - you get the drift. They love you in
Biafra just not on San Juan Avenue.)
In 1968-1969 the threats Venice faced were the same as now. People who had been
paying their mortgages and their rents for years were faced with what were
called improvements – and to be fair, some of the improvements would have
been beneficial – street lights paved sidewalks, etc. But most of the
improvements centered on getting rid of small cottages and hotels that were part
of Venice since it’s inception. And in the improvements the casualties
would be low income people. Folks who bought the little houses to live in, and
renters who looked on Venice as their
home.
But they were soon told by the
powers that be, the City of Los Angeles, the banks who acted in collusion with
property owners who owned large plots of land, that the property owner and
renter alike, were expendable. they were to be displaced for a better use of the
land, Werner Scharff’s vision of Miami Beach West.
The Venice Survival Committee, and the
Free Venice Committee, one of the first groups to advocate secession from Los
Angeles, fought back. These groups were organized by the Peace and Freedom
Party, and despite red baiting, police and F.B.I. harassment, these groups
managed to rally people to fight for the right to live where they were. It
wasn’t as if these rich people were happily doing whatever rich folks do,
and suddenly all these ground apes, knuckles dragging on the dirt, invades their
mansions, peed in their fountains and their Perrier, it was the other way
around. Low income people living by the ocean! Much too good for them -- and
money, honey, could be made. As one of the mini speculators, Alan J. Radford,
developer of the unsuccessful Washington Square project said, “Water and
poor people don’t mix”. The city saw tax dollars and the speculators
saw more -- the only barrier to wealth were those annoying people who already
lived there.
In ‘68-69 this pot
had been boiling for years. Confrontations with the, at that time, the lackeys
of investors and banks, the LAPD, and the Venice residents were common and
sometimes brutal. Protests against the war in Viet Nam were savaged and spied
upon, the F.B.I. was trying to infiltrate the Peace and Freedom Party. And as it
is today, people question loyalty to cover up their own lack of commitment to
the principals of the government’s contract with the people - the Bill of
Rights and the Constitution.
The Free
Venice Survival Committee and the Peace and Freedom Party decided to take back
America. It was also discovered that in 1905 Venice was officially opened. What
better way to say Happy Birthday America and Happy Birthday Venice than with a
parade? -- Indeed, it was thanks to the Free Venice Beachhead years later, that
Venice’s Birthday was taken note of by the establishment.
So this “unamerican” bunch
of hippies of every color and persuasion, radicals aging and otherwise, bikers,
librarians, poets, drunks, REALLY SQUARE homeowners, and churches got together a
parade committee. We worked on it for months.
Parade permits were applied for and
denied. So, we decided to walk our parade route. We hadn’t counted on
parade horses or motorcyclists but the motorcyclers, most of whom hung out in
the pagoda by Breeze Ave. So, we through we’d just walk, obeying all the
traffic signals and allowing traffic and pedestrians to pass without being
blocked. We leafleted and planned, and met. The meetings were open, and, for the
limited resources of P and F the publicity was pervasive.
The police started warning people to
stay away from the parade.
As the 4th
of July neared, the police were more present than usual. Police rode motorcycles
up and down the Ocean Front Walk. Portable booking stations were installed in
the oil holding facilities by Windward and O.F.W. Police cars sirened up up and
down the streets.
I was living at
Westminster and West Washington Blvd. (Now Abbot Kinney Blvd.) opposite
Westminster School. I was awakened several days before the Fourth by something
flying overhead. The police were practicing landing and take-off maneuvers with
their helicopters on the school playground.
People were told by Councilman Marvin
Braude’s office to stay away from Venice. I believe the the newspaper, the
Evening Outlook, even printed cautionary tales regarding the forthcoming July
4th radical-led riots in Venice. Did I neglect to tell you that we had
children’s groups and the Israel Levine Senior Citizen Center signed up
for the parade? We also had a boom box contingent.
As the 4th got closer as in 2 days
before, we began to hear rumors of a “Police Action”, that is, being
clubbed by a baton wielding L.A.P.D. officer for just being there. The day
before the parade, we faced the reality that an un-armed peaceable joyous
celebration with flags children dogs and PEOPLE would be clubbed and beaten for
just walking celebrating their town’s and their country’s birthday.
We sat up all night debating. I remember crying because we really had to call
off the parade. We called, explained, re-leafleted walked and got the
“walk” cancelled.
Ah, but
the cops had their fun anyway. It seems some hippys took responsibility to save
lives and stood on entrances to the beach with signs saying, “Stay away
from Venice Beach! Police Riot Planned!” “Free Venice!” These
people were trying to save lives. They were arrested and roughed up by the
police. We were also castigated by a group of self proclaimed radical
documentary filmers called NEWSREEL for not going forward with the parade so
they could film the confrontation between the cops and the citizens. They missed
the drama of people being driven out of their homes and prevented from partaking
in a celebration.
Subsequently, the
Peace and Freedom Party and the Free Venice Committee and the Free Venice
Survival Committee sponsored other parades. They were fun, they were funky and
anyone could join. No charge. Eventually the City even signed our permits.
So excuse me if I feel a bit out of
sorts when I see “my” parade being co-opted by profit makers. Listen
I hope the Venice Centennial Committee has a great time. I’m really happy
about my Centennial calendar, and I want a Centennial T shirt (XXXL) but I miss
the sight of Happy Jack ex-biker riding a car down the O.F.W. with a beer and a
broad YES! a broad on each arm, the low riders, and the fife and drums led by
John Haag holding the Don’t Tread on Me flag.
So, it’s interesting to me to
see that the same issues are still here in Venice, only bigger and meaner. And
one other anecdote from the parade that never was.
July 5th, I was walking down the
O.F.W., when I was stopped by a white haired woman. “Thank you”, she
said “Thank you for cancelling the parade.” She pressed $5.00 on me
for the Beachhead into my hand.
So, I
don’t begrudge the City sponsored Venice Centennial, with it’s masks
and cars. I just want some of the new arrivistes to realize if it weren’t
for us ol’ rads cranks and socialists there wouldn’t be, as Ruth
Galanter said, anything left to fight over.
Posted: Fri - July 1, 2005 at 11:04 AM