Security forces set up 'hard zone' at Democratic convention

When the credentialed contractors and media personnel preparing for the Democratic National Convention arrived at the FleetCenter on Saturday morning, they found that an 8-foot-tall perimeter fence had risen overnight. It was something they had expected. What they didn't expect was how tough it would be to get inside the "hard-zone" perimeter.

Credentialees arriving at various points outside the fence got shrugs and "I don't knows" from law enforcement officers to questions about where they should go and how long they would have to wait. Through trial and error, or by following individuals who seemed to know where they were going, people eventually found their way to two checkpoints expected to open at noon -- or 12:30 -- or 1:00 -- depending on who was asked.

Noontime found credentialed crowds of hundreds at the checkpoints, staring through the fence at Secret Service earpieces, Boston police badges, National Guard cammies, and a few unmarked uniforms. Some outside the fence had been waiting for hours. The clock ticked. Thus began the 2004 Democratic National Convention security lockdown.

It was, in another light, the end of the beginning, the 19-month period leading up to the convention in which more than 60 federal, state, and local agencies met, in meeting after meeting, to plan security for the first post-9/11 political convention. The Secret Service and Boston Police Department, the lead agencies, had shepherded the numerous other agencies through every threat scenario -- terrorist or otherwise -- of which they could conceive.

Around 9 p.m. on Friday, Secret Service agents and Boston police patrolled Causeway Street as hard-hatted construction workers began building the flat-black, steel-mesh perimeter fence surrounding the FleetCenter and its neighbor, the O'Neill Federal Building. Panel by panel, the wall rose as Friday night fell. The fence is one of the more visible signs of the year-and-a-half-long security planning. It is joined by the weeklong shutdown of the North Station subway and commuter-rail station underneath the FleetCenter; the nightly closing of Interstate 93, passing north-south just 40 feet away from the FleetCenter; and the appearance of thousands of uniformed personnel in the streets of Boston -- 2,000 city police, 1,000 State Police, 500 Massachusetts National Guard members, and hundreds more law enforcement officers with a variety of emblems on their sleeves.

Unseen, hidden in office buildings and even in a Cold War-style bunker, are several command centers keeping watch over the city and state. Various law enforcement, transportation, and emergency response agencies will have a scattering of such posts, while the Secret Service will host a central Multi-Agency Communications Center in a location officials asked the media not to reveal. With more than 70 representatives of 40 government agencies and private firms, the center is the largest ever created by the Secret Service, said the center's chief, Special Agent James Perro.

In an underground bunker 20 miles outside the city, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and dozens of other agencies are watching over the whole state for security problems. From a command post in Washington, the Homeland Security Department is looking out for terrorist threats across the country. In the skies above, a fleet of Air Force F-16s will be patrolling Boston's airspace.

Coast Guard, State Police, and Boston police helicopters, boats, and jet skis are patrolling the waters of Boston Harbor and the Charles River, keeping unauthorized boats out and escorting potentially explosive natural gas cargo ships through. "While I don't think you can ever say that you have done everything that could be done, I can say that everything we could think of doing, we have done," Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety Edward Flynn told reporters on Thursday.

Some people standing around waiting to get into the hard zone on Saturday, however, thought they had done a bit much. Joan Gallagher, a local caterer under contract to Fox News, was particularly frustrated as her Danishes and cinnamon buns languished on her idled push cart. "How long can a bomb sweep take?" Gallagher asked, shaking her head. "It's a total fiasco. Everyone has their skirts all blown up. It's really embarrassing.... The mayor spooked everyone in Boston. All my Spanish employees are worried they're going to be deported." Nodding to the perimeter fence, Gallagher said, "Look at this -- it's like Checkpoint Charlie here."