ANDREW GLAZER -- Reporter’s Notebook

Mounted riot police loaded with tear gas canisters, batons and the

fear of appearing too lax or too aggressive, can be ingredients for a

great story.

Add a few thousand protesters distrustful of police and society and

the government’s environmentally devastating, human rights-repressing

corporate structure, and catalyze that with a blazing orange sun and

you’ve got the potential for mayhem.

A powerful front-pager.

I’m talking extra bold headlines and multiple photos of gas masks,

sweating faces twisted and contorted with rage and fear and human

stampedes.

The opportunities for reporters to cover what could have become a real

hellish disaster drew thousands -- including myself -- from the

air-conditioned hotel halls filled with Democrats clinking glasses and

exchanging two-cheek kisses, to the steamy streets teeming with police

and sign-carrying demonstrators.

Together we waited Sunday on the Santa Monica Pier, where a group of

roughly 30 activists calling themselves “Billionaires for Bush (or

Gore),” picketed the entrance to a fancy fund-raiser for the Democratic

Party and taunted stone-faced riot police.

The officers, riding sidestepping horses, cleared a gully in the crowd

for bewildered Democrats being shuttled to the party in a white van.

“If your horses kick my daughters, I’ll sue you!” shouted a woman,

white spittle forming in the corner of her mouth as she shoved two

terrified girls, both no older than 10 years old, precariously close to

the horses.

A half-dozen photographers and camera crews swarmed around her,

illuminating the pier with flashes of bright light.

On Monday, thousands of demonstrators gathered at Pershing Square and

danced to the beats of a drum circle, exchanging fliers.

At about 5 p.m., more than 10,000 people marched peacefully to Staples

Center, where two trucks from the Los Angeles City Fire Department

sprayed the crowd with fire hoses to cool the demonstrators, not disperse

them.

After the march, I checked into a computer terminal at a Kinko’s

Copies on Wilshire Boulevard.

Two other reporters sat on each side of me, turning the normally quiet

room into a makeshift press box. They typed while shouting to their

editors on their cellular phones.

“Change that first paragraph I wrote yesterday,” said one, sounding

slightly disappointed and defensive. “There was nothing major to report.

Hardly any arrests. Everything went really smooth.

“The kids seemed to have fun.”

* ANDREW GLAZER covers the city of Costa Mesa for the Daily Pilot.