Police prep for protests over biotech conference at Hynes by Jose Martinez, Saturday, March 4, 2000   Boston police, bracing for protests over an upcoming biotech conference, are looking to Seattle for pointers on how best to keep demonstrations from getting out of hand. But no one - not police, the organizers of BIO 2000, nor the organizers of the counter-conference dubbed BioDevastation 2000 - expects the Boston conference to draw anywhere near the 50,000 protesters who tried to shut down the World Trade Organization's meeting in Seattle last December. ``Seattle was here to brief us this week. That was very helpful,'' police spokeswoman Sgt. Detective Margot Hill said yesterday. ``They explained what they faced in Seattle, what we should do to prepare for demonstrations of that ilk here - but we aren't expecting anything of that magnitude.'' Seattle's 1,200-member police force faced off against a veritable army of protest groups ranging from unions to environmentalists who converged on the city to disrupt the WTO meeting. The fracas left behind some $30 million in damage, but no serious injuries on either side. Seattle officers used the Boston Police Academy to demonstrate the tactics they used, as well as the tactics and tools used against them, including chunks of concrete, BB guns, wrist rockets and large capacity squirt guns loaded with bleach and urine. WTO protesters also drenched streets with olive oil and ball bearings to counter officers on horseback and lined up peaceful protesters ahead of their rowdier cohorts, Hill said. Mark Pelletier of the People's Earth Network, which is helping organize a two-day teach-in at Northeastern University and a rally to coincide with the March 26-30 biotechnology conference at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, said police can expect plenty of puppetry and street theater but none of the violence seen in Seattle. ``We hear the police are in training, preparing for the worst case scenario and that's their job,'' Pelletier said. ``We're trying to let people know we are not preparing anything of a violent nature. People should feel free to come down to enjoy the events.'' The group has pulled a permit for 1,000 people to hold a rally at Copley Square March 26 that will end with a march down Boylston Street to the Hynes and the opening of BIO 2000. Dan Eramian, spokesman for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, said he expects the gathering of 7,000 scientists and industry leaders to come off without a hitch despite the controversies surrounding genetic engineering of foods and medicines. ``We've done this 14 years in a row. Last year, we had the meeting in Seattle. We had 150 young people who had a band outside. They were a very well behaved crowd,'' Eramian said.