WASHINGTON — Officials in the nation's capital generally express full confidence in their ability to handle large, complicated events and huge crowds. As Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith recently put it, “We are really the experts in this space when it comes to crowd management.”

That expertise will be publicly put to the test over the next eight days.

The District of Columbia is playing host to massive events on back-to-back weekends. Two wildly divergent events each carry the extra possibility of counterprotests or disruption, adding a layer of anxiety to the usual logistical hassles.

June 7 and 8 brings the peak of the two-week World Pride celebration with two days of mass gatherings — a parade on Saturday and a rally and protest March Sunday. Both days culminate in

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