Los Angeles Daily News

LAPD starts quiet probe of activists
Animal rights group eyed

By Mariel Garza
Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 25, 2003 -

The LAPD's new anti-terrorism unit quietly opened an inquiry into a local animal rights activist group that publicized the home addresses of Mayor James Hahn and the city's animal services chief, the group charged Wednesday.

LAPD officials would not comment directly on the charge, but the mayor's office confirmed police are "closely monitoring" the group.

The incident involving the Animal Defense League, which calls itself a "militant, grass-roots animal rights organization," delves into the murky area of what is considered terrorism since Sept. 11, with authorities having far more power to investigate potential threats.

Implications of the LAPD's probe are troubling, said Liz Schroeder, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

"It's something certainly we have been concerned about since the passage of the Patriot Act and Patriot Act-style laws," Schroeder said.

"From the very beginning, we've been saying the laws were written in such a way that domestic groups not connected with terrorism can be subjected to terrorist investigations.

"This is a particularly egregious example to use the LAPD terrorism unit to poke their noses into the affairs of a nonprofit organization that in fact advocates nonviolence."

The Los Angeles chapter of the Animal Defense League posted Hahn's and Animal Services Department head Jerry Greenwalt's home addresses, home phone numbers and photos of their houses on its Web site and on fliers passed out all around the city Tuesday. The Web site gives directions to Greenwalt's Santa Monica home and encourages activists to "stop by and politely let him know your view of someone gratuitously killing our companions."

"We're not the terrorists," said Pamelyn Ferdin, one of the core members of the Los Angeles chapter of the group. "We are peaceful people demanding that Hahn do the right thing. If anyone's the terrorist, it's the people who are killing the animals."

What the group wants is for Hahn to fire Greenwalt and replace him with someone who has experience with a "no-kill" department such as the one in San Francisco. The group's literature accuses Greenwalt, who was unavailable for comment, of killing up to 44,000 animals at city shelters.

Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said Hahn has confidence in Greenwalt and has no intention of firing him. He acknowledged police have responded to the group's tactics.

"The LAPD is aware of this and closely monitoring the situation," he said.

The LAPD's Terrorist Threat Assessment Unit is part of the new Counter-Terrorism Bureau created earlier this year by Police Chief William Bratton.

Marcus Wolf, another core group member, said that in mid-June, just about a week after the Web site with Hahn's and Greenwalt's information was posted, officers from the terrorism unit inquired about who was renting the box where ADL-LA got its mail, and listed as its headquarters.

The officers identified themselves as being with that unit without knowing a member of the animal rights group was also there, who said they tried to get access to the mailbox and find out who rented it.

LAPD officials wouldn't comment on whether there was an investigation, and department spokesman Sgt. John Pasquariello said only that the department would "probably want to find out what the group is all about."

Animal Services Commission members said they have had run-ins with the sometimes aggressive animal rights advocates and believed the campaign against Hahn and Greenwalt could be setting the stage for some sort of terrorism against the two public officials.

"It very much crosses the line," said Paul Jolly, president of the Animal Services Commission. "It's just not the forum. It's really kind of scary."

"If they would have published my name and number," said Steve Afriat, a political consultant and president of the Animal Services Commission under Mayor Richard Riordan, "I would have sued them, their children and grandchildren and their unborn great-grandchildren, for threatening harm to me and my family. Because not everyone in the animal rights community is sane."

Mariel Garza, (213) 978-0390 mariel.garza@dailynews.com