The 1990 Tournament of Roses Parade : Protest by AIDS Activists Halts Procession for a Short Time

Only 10 minutes after it started, the 101st Tournament of Roses Parade came to a momentary halt Monday when 14 AIDS activists staged a sit-down protest on Colorado Boulevard in front of the Spirit of America’s “First Symbols of Freedom” float.

At 8:20 a.m., as several hundred spectators and a handful of network television crews watched, the protesters emerged from the crowd of spectators on the sidewalk and unfurled a banner declaring: “Emergency. Stop the parade. 70,000 dead of AIDS.”

Several members of the crowd booed and jeered the protesters. One television station broadcasting the parade turned its cameras to parade Grand Marshal Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), while another station cut to a commercial.

Pasadena police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies moved quickly on the protesters, dragging them from the parade route to a nearby side street. The protest halted the parade for less than a minute.

The demonstrators had linked themselves together with a single 30-foot chain, and the nine men and five women slid and bounced heavily along the ground as the officers pulled them from the street.

“We’re protesting because people are dying of AIDS,” one male protester said before a sheriff’s deputy pushed his face to the pavement.

The 14 protesters were booked on suspicion of resisting arrest and unlawful assembly, law enforcement officials said. The demonstrators were members of SANE (Stop AIDS Now, Or Else), said Bruce Merkin, a spokesman for the group.

“For 70,000 people, the parade is over forever,” Merkin said. “The government is not doing what is needed” to fight AIDS.

The protest was the only serious disruption of the event, said Lt. Lynn Froistad of the Pasadena Police Department. Overall, police made 235 arrests along the parade route between 6 p.m. Sunday and 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Froistad said 192 people were arrested for such alcohol-related violations as disturbing the peace and driving while intoxicated. Nine people were arrested for assault and about 30 others for “miscellaneous thefts,” Froistad said. More than 100 cars were towed for illegal parking.

“It went very smoothly,” Froistad said. “Except for the 235 people we arrested, everyone had a good time.”