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1670-22 Politics, 1928-68'MEW AMMEMEMEMb SUN JUL 1 1988 ED: FINAL SECTION: FONT PAGE: 8A LENGTH: 22 . 06" MEDIUM ILLUST: pho • : Rocky POMERANCE SOURCE: FRED GRIMM Herald Staff Writer DATELINE: ATLANTA MEMO: DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION CONTROLLING CROWD IS A ROUTINE STINT FOR EX-BEACH CHIEF The streets of Atlanta will soon be swarming with thousands of hippies, Klansmen, animal rights activists, peaceniks, homosexuals, druggies, anti- abortionists, feminists, tax rebels, politicians, black militants and religious fundamentalists, all mingling with 4 ,212 delegates, 1 , 170 alternates, 15, 000 guests and 13, 500 newsmen. It sounds like a too insanely volatile stew to classify as routine. Except for Rocky Pomerance. By now, Pomerance can very nearly sniff the preconvention air and know that it will not soon stink of tear gas. He knows Atlanta will not be like the hellish Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968, nor even much like the tense but relatively peaceful days of the two Miami Beach conventions, Republican and Democratic, in 1972 . That was the muggy summer when a witty Miami Beach cop named Rocky became maybe the most famous police chief in America, defusing talk of revolution with restraint, humor and meetings with the radicals. Atlanta, for all its diverse characters clamoring for attention, looks like a routine convention to Pomerance, now a security consultant. It ' s his eighth national political convention. Tenth, counting the two nonelection, midterm conventions he has worked. Rocky X. Pomerance, 60, has an office in Atlanta' s sprawling convention complex where he and partner Jim McDonnell gently offer advice to the Democrats and the plethora of city, county, state and federal law enforcement officials, most of whom are neck-deep in their first national political convention. "There ' s never a question -- the police chief has responsibility here. We try, in as nonpresumptuous a way as possible, to offer our experience. " That experience has been gleaned from conventions in cities like San Francisco, Kansas City and New York where he worked as a consultant for both political parties. But it was as police chief on Miami Beach, host of the 1968 Republican convention and the two crazier conventions of 1972, that Pomerance altered the philosophy of law enforcement at such gatherings. By 1988, it sounds trite. But in 1972, Pomerance ' s approach ultimately made him almost more revolutionary than any of the would-be revolutionaries marching down Collins Avenue. "It was a very difficult time in the history of this country, " he said. "There was Vietnam. The Watergate scandal was very, very prevalent -- it had happened only a month or two before. We still had the residue of the civil rights years and the way the police operated in the South in the 1960s. " Pomerance said his philosophy was simply to protect the citizens of the community, to make sure the delegates could conduct their business and to protect the rights of dissidents. The latter made him a law enforcement revolutionary in the hot days of 1972 . Atlanta police were undergoing "sensitivity training" last week. Routine now. Not when Pomerance started it on Miami Beach. He will always be remembered as the cop who defused the tension as thousands of anti-war protesters descended on Miami Beach. Pomerance met with them. Not only that, he out-maneuvered Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, who had threatened to lead 10, 000 protesters marching naked down Collins Avenue to the convention site and disrupt the proceedings. Pomerance, in a crowded meeting of protest leaders, turned to Rubin and said, "If you can get 10, 000 people to walk naked down the asphalt on a hot July day, I ' ll lead the parade. And wait until you see what I use for a baton. " The room burst into laughter. There was no nude protest. He was born Arnold Pomerance, a Jewish kid from the Bronx, but officially changed his name to Rocky. His law enforcement career began on the Beach in 1950 . He worked his way up through the ranks (with two terms elected as constable along the way) until finally he was appointed police chief in 1963 . He retired in 1977 . Between conventions, he lives with his wife Hope on the Beach. Since then, he has become this big, easygoing man gently nudging local law enforcement folks into making these wild national political conventions nearly routine affairs. And, secretly, he ' s still waiting to lead Jerry Rubin' s nude parade. ADDED TERMS: Mh interview pomerance biography END OF DOCUMENT.