In the fall, the organizers of an annual summit meeting for the world's economic, political and academic leaders decided to move the conference from its usual site in Switzerland to New York City as a show of solidarity [actually because the swiss police said it would cost too much to keep the venue secure - TG] in the aftermath of the terror attacks. Security, the organizers were told by city and police officials of the Giuliani administration, would be little problem for a force accustomed to dealing with large- scale demonstrations.
City and police officials of the Bloomberg administration have not backed off that pledge. But they acknowledge that the demonstrations expected during the World Economic Forum, to be held at the Waldorf- Astoria from Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, could be unlike any seen before in the city.
While demonstrations that have drawn thousands have indeed been little problem for the police in the past, as Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani told the conference organizers in the fall, the police this time could face protests that are more sophisticated — and more violent — than in recent years.
If the chaos that accompanied last year's summit meeting in the quiet, snowcapped mountains of Davos, Switzerland, or the violence that swirled at World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle and Genoa, Italy, and at regional World Economic Forum meetings in Salzburg, Austria, and Melbourne, Australia, are any barometer, city officials will have to be prepared to respond to radicalism of every stripe.
In those places, and at similar events, demonstrators protested an array of issues, from a globalized economy to the impact of businesses' practices on living standards. Some protesters, often drawn from distant places, have clashed with law enforcement officers, in some cases using diversions to allow them to cause disruptions elsewhere, a former city police official said. In some cases, property was damaged, tear gas was sprayed and people were injured or killed.
Even if protests at the New York conference are less chaotic, the demonstrations are likely to test the new administration's ability to keep order. "Based on past economic global economic forums, we know there is a potential for demonstrations," the new police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said yesterday through his chief spokesman, Michael P. O'Looney. "We feel that we are better prepared than any other city to deal with any contingencies."
Many people noted the irony of moving the conference, and the attendant protests, to New York as a show of support for a city that suffered such destruction and heartache. Clearly, Mr. O'Looney said, "in the wake of Sept. 11, New Yorkers are in no mood for any kind of serious disorder."
Mr. Kelly, who is making counterterrorism a priority, has already spoken of the need to deploy many officers for the conference.
While the commissioner would not offer specifics on how the forum would be policed, other law enforcement officials said the Police Department's response would have to include almost military-style tactics. All of the department's tools and the lessons learned about security since Sept. 11 will have to be put to use, officials said.
"Clearly, the protesters nowadays are much more sophisticated than they were 25 or 30 years ago," said John F. Timoney, the former Philadelphia police commissioner who, in the summer of 2000, dealt with protesters there during the Republican National Convention.
"They do a lot more planning ahead of time and they use a variety of tactics, including using some legitimate protesters as cover," said Mr. Timoney, who was once the first deputy police commissioner in New York. "They did it in Seattle, and they did it to us in Philly. They don't view property damage against corporations as a crime."
As part of his planning for the event, Commissioner Kelly met yesterday with several federal law enforcement officials, including representatives of the State Department and the Secret Service, and with James K. Kallstrom, a former assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who advises the state on terrorism. Part of any comprehensive plan will be to control the flow of traffic and to create a huge frozen zone around the Waldorf-Astoria, which will involve closing portions of Park Avenue and nearby side streets, one official said.
Not coincidentally, the theme of the forum is "Leadership in Fragile Times: A Vision for a Shared Future." Topics like security and assessing vulnerability will be discussed by the attendees, among them 1,000 world business leaders; 250 political leaders, including about 20 heads of state; and 250 academic experts, media representatives, religious leaders, Nobel Prize winners, artists, writers and scientists.
The conference organizers decided in late October to shift the meeting to Manhattan from Switzerland after an agreement with Mr. Giuliani and with Gov. George E. Pataki, said Charles D. McLean, a World Economic Forum spokesman.
The shift was undertaken primarily to show solidarity with New York in the aftermath of the terror attacks, but also to provide an economic boost to the city, whose hotels and restaurants have suffered from a falloff of tourism. The conference was announced the day after the election of Mr. Bloomberg, who supported the decision. His financial information company, Bloomberg L.P., is a member of the World Economic Forum, Mr. McLean said.
Yesterday, Beka Economopoulos, who has been involved in globalization issues and who joined the protests in Seattle and Philadelphia, criticized the decision to hold the conference in a city where, she said, money to finance it could be better spent on aid to victims of terrorism or on recovery and cleanup.
No one can say exactly how many demonstrators will converge on the city. Protesters said they would plan only peaceful demonstrations. Eric Laursen, a member of Another World Is Possible, an umbrella organization for many antiglobalization groups, put the number in the tens of thousands.
Lori M. Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, the globalization division of the consumer and environmental group founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, said: "There are a lot of people who are passionately upset about the damage status quo globalization is doing to their lives and our world. And we are doing our best to make sure that this message is heard through peaceful and nonviolent protest."