Crowd Down, Security Up For LA Pride Parade in Wake of Mass Shooting
By STEVEN HERBERT
City News Service
WEST HOLLYWOOD (CNS) – Attendance at Sunday’s 46th annual LA Pride Parade
was “slightly down” from the customary crowd of about 250,000 and security
increased in the wake of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Florida,
according to the president of the organizing group.
An estimate of the crowd lining Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood
was not immediately available, but it was “safe to say” it was less than
usual, said Chris Classen, president of Christopher Street West, which
organizes the parade.
There were no changes to the parade, which began at 10:45 a.m. at
Crescent Heights Boulevard and continued west along Santa Monica Boulevard to
La Peer Drive, one block west of Robertson Boulevard, Classen told City News
Service.
“We had no intention of canceling any events or altering them, aside
from stepping up security,” Classen said.
Additional Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies, officers
from other Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies and FBI agents were
deployed along the parade route, according to Classen.
“We pulled on every agency we could from across the county,” Classen
said, pointing out there were no arrests or incidents.
A news conference preceded the parade “to show support and call from
strength from the community,” Classen said.
Classen said the most prevalent comment he heard from people lining the
parade route “was the reason they came out today to was to show support for
the victims of the Orlando shooting.”
“That has been a catalyst for people coming out and showing we are a
united, strong community,” he said.
Mark Frey, who said he has attended or participated in the parade most
years since 1989, found it to be “a little more somber.”
“I think because of what happened in Orlando people tuned it down a
little bit,” said Frey, who marched as part of the group organized by his
employer, the integrated managed care consortium Kaiser Permanente.
Frey said he had no second thoughts about participating in the parade
because of the Florida mass shooting.
Allie Munnerlyn, a self-described stay-at-home mother from La Habra,
said she attended the parade despite her mother advising her not to because of
the risk of harm.
“I said to her, `When people tell me they’re worried about me or my son
Cooper, my comment to them is that I appreciate that concern, but sitting in
your chair at home doesn’t make the world safer for people who are
marginalized,” Munnerlyn said.
Munnerlyn said she attended the parade as part of her continued effort
to support Cooper, who game out as gay in June 2014, and held a sign declaring
“Sorry for your pain. U R Loved.”
Classen said he was “devastated” when he learned of the mass shooting
in Florida and “obviously concerned” when he heard about the initial report
of the arrest of a man in Santa Monica on suspicion of possession of weapons
and explosive materials.
Santa Monica Police Department Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks tweeted that
the arrestee — 20-year-old Indiana native James Wesley Howell — told a police
officer about “wanting to harm Gay Pride event.”
“I’ve been in close contact with almost every law enforcement agency
and I feel very confident in their efforts and abilities to keep us safe,”
Classen said.
Seabrooks later wrote on Twitter the man said he wanted to “go to Gay
Pride event.”
The parade has been held every year since 1970, except for 1973 when
infighting over crude displays the previous two years left the organizers in
disarray. The parade was held in Hollywood until 1979, when it moved to West
Hollywood.
The mass shooting in Florida and arrest in Santa Monica “perfectly
explain why we do this every year,” Classen said.
“I think it’s important for everyone in the community to come out today
and show strength and that we’re not going to back down in the face of
fear,” he said.
LA Pride: Smaller, but safe
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