The Los Angeles Police Department will deploy 500 officers to wrap the Dolby Theatre in multiple barriers of armed security for the 90th Academy Awards on Sunday night, an event at which several of Hollywood’s most celebrated stars will actively push for more gun control in America.
“We have these concentric rings of security that start in the middle and radiate outward,” said LAPD Cmdr. Blake Chow, the man tasked with overseeing the massive operation. “We have a lot of officers in fixed posts and foot beats keeping an eye on the event.”
Several celebrities plan to wear orange lapel pins on the red carpet and during tonight’s ceremony in support of gun control and the Michael Bloomberg-founded gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
Indeed, there will be road closures to prevent people breaching a security perimeter made up of a wall of ten-foot gates and barricades, FBI agents, and firefighters. Police helicopters will be buzzing above and private security guards from Security Industry Specialists will be inside the Dolby Theater.
“There’s definitely going to be an extensive police presence,” LAPD Officer Luis Garcia told Breitbart news.
A security guard stands in the rain by the red carpet during preparations for the 90th annual Academy Awards week in Hollywood, California, on March 2, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / ANGELA WEISS (ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images)
Security staff beside the red carpet during heavy rain in Hollywood, California, on March 2, 2018.
The 90th Academy Awards will take place on March 4, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Mark Ralston (MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)
Security measures, as they were last year, and the year before that, are expected to be intense in the wake of deadly concert bombings from the suicide bombing last may at Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester, England that killed 22 people and left over a hundred more injured to last October’s deadly mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.
Chow said the Vegas shooting “was something that was kind of new” and has forced his department to rethink its approach going forward.
Oscars setup on Hollywood Boulevard is organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who told Breitbart News that it “does not release information related to security measures.”
ABC late-night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel is set to return to host the 90th Academy Awards, which will broadcast live on ABC at 8 p.m. Be sure to stay tuned for the Breitbart News Oscars livewire, for all the latest news and developments.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson
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