Armies of private security guards search everyone coming or going. But it's not enough for the VIPs. So the City of Angels is a city of bodyguards this week. The president, vice president and Cabinet members have bodyguards. The wives and kids of the candidates have bodyguards.
Foreign diplomats have bodyguards and so do many corporate CEOs.
Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening is not known to rank high on the list of international terrorist targets, given that his most controversial act was, perhaps, waffling on the Intercounty Connector. But he's moving through Los Angeles in the company of three bodyguards. D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams has some people riled up about potholes back home. Perhaps that's why he travels here with a security detail numbering five. Indeed, the L.A. Police Department has spent scores of person-hours handling the protocols involved in welcoming hundreds of cops, troopers, Rangers and Secret Service agents from every corner of the country.