This is what free medai

This is what free press/media is supposed to be about!

Kudos to Darland and the IMC for bringing to the people what the corporate newsmedia is trying so desperately to hide, la mera verdad! the real truth. May God protect us and the IMC from further fabricated efforts (like fake-ass bomb threats) by the LAPD to shut down the free press/media down, and may the corporate media

establishment burn in hell for its perpetuation of lies

and ignorance.

excellent video. i think it is important to see older americans voice their opinion on the subject. it helps dispel the view that these are just punk kids up to no good. bravo.

Notice how there was a person in the crowd of concert attendees with a bullhorn or something, yelling loud and clear, "please do not shoot us, we are attempting to disperse peacefully," and "we are trying to cooperate with your orders please don't shoot us," before the cops started shooting. The guy was still yelling when they started shooting, and there was a man who had been wounded pretty badly from the shootings. They acted like their was a bomb threat, or they staged one, that was a crock as usual. What else have they done? This is the LAPD, we all knew this was going to happen. Get fully informed on all issues, and educate yourself, it's good to be prepared. The shit is apperantly approaching the fan.

Peace

This video proves once again that police repression is what is violent, not the protests. The corporate media perpetuates a myth spread by police departments to justify their violent attacks on effective social protest and violate the civil rights of United States' citizens. The myth is that the protests turned violent, but, in reality, police forces used violence to repress peaceful protests.

For example, The New York Times starts its report on the protest as follows:

Los Angeles Keeps Its Eyes on Protesters and the Police

By TODD S. PURDUM

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 15 -- Long before the Democratic National Convention opened, the Los Angeles Police Department was haunted by unhappy images from the past, from the 1992 riots here to the violent protests at last year's World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle...

On Monday night, as a hot day of peaceful protests turned suddenly violent when a few dozen demonstrators flung chunks of concrete, bottles and ball-bearings across a high security fence ringing the Staples Center arena, the police wasted no time firing back with rubber bullets and beanbags to disperse the unruly remnants of a crowd of several thousand.

Comment: The police always use disinformation to "justify" their violence. Two men climbing a fence to hang a flag becomes "a few dozen demonstrators flung chunks of concrete, bottles and ball-bearings across a high security fence" in the hands of police department spinsters. Of course, corporate media publishes the lies from "official sources" and, consequently, endorses the repressive police tactics.

I was one of the people at the monday protest and the day was like a trip to disneyland. I went with my brother, mom and sister for I am just 12 years old. It was eciting atthe begging, even on the metro. The first march, at Pershain Sqare, which I did'nt go on for to long was fun even if just for a few blocks. At that point my family (including me) took the metro from Pershin to staples. I heard it was the last RATM (Rage Against The Machine) song so me and my older brother William ran for the main croud of musical like folk. After they finished, the police seemed to Mobilize, making large lines. My brother and me were seperated from my mom and sister. All night we walked looking around for family.

Toltal # of police vehicles:6 vans, 26 cruisers + a few dozen bikes.

On the news Cmnd. Kalish was interviewed. I still hear the words in my head:

Reporter: Yeah I was run down by 15 motorcycles.

Kalish: Well you should of left when you where told!

The reporters made a impression of the cops overeacted. It seems Karma is taking it's toll. The police are being sued and losing public respect all over America.

This is supposed to be America, Im appauled, disgusted and angry. Justice will prevail. Criminals are giving orders to these police! Wait till all of America finds out the whole story about the CIA and the Crack Cocaine connection. Read it watch the video whatever you can do to get your hands on the truth. Then you'll understand the whole story of whats going on and the FAKE DEMOCRACY we live in and who has been running this country for years. You'll be shocked, I was very scared for awile with the info I learned. But I'm not going to live in fear! United we are unbeatable. The American people are finally Uniting and that scares the hell out of this criminal government!

next time the cops start to charge at us for doing nothing wrong. I won't be running away from the cops. but rather standing up for what I believe in and fight back. It's just like how zapata said It better to dies standing rather then living on our knees. we have to remember that the 1960's have came and going and we are not living in the 1960's today. i feel that we have to make our mark on history now.

I was a part of the D2KLA Security Monitoring teams organized by Don White. Our teams' tasks were to help ensure the proper flow of pedestrian traffic in and around the Pershing Square area as well as during the march to Staples Center. I was in the area of Olympic and Figuerora at approximately 8:30 pm along with a couple of others from the Monitor Team. Pedestrian traffic was going smoothly north on Figuerora St as the police had insisted. The police were behind me facing west on Olympic and were in very offensive posturing as though ready to attack anything that moved. I observed the police put their face-sheilds down all in unison as though they were given the order to do so.

At this point I was aware that the police had been making advances towards the intersection there at Olympic and Figuerora as they continued to exhibit their ready-to-strike postures. At that moment the police then ordered the crowd to disperse as they (the police) had declared this an unlawful assembly and that we all had 10 minutes to clear the area or face arrest.

Within 5 minutes of the order to disperse the police lunged forward into the pedestrian traffic and started shooting. Horse mounted police also appeared and proceeded directly into the crowds of pedestrians as they moved or tried to move out of the area. These mounted police units began swinging their nightsticks batons randomly at pedestrians as the would run ducking for cover from the blows to their heads and upper torso.

At this time the standing police units began to fire into the crowds of pedestrians with those powerful pellet guns, shooting pepper spray and rubber bullets into the scattering crowds.

From where I was positioned at Olympic and Figuerora I was fully aware of the immediate vacinity and was aware of NO REASON FOR THE ONSLAUGHT THAT ENSURED AS THIS APPEARED WHOLLY ORCHESTRATED BY THE POLICE. ANY ACTS OF AGGRESSION ON THE PART OF THE DEMONSTRATORS AND OR FLEEING PEDESTRIANS WAS AND SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN ENTIRELY THE RESULT OF THE PROVOCATIVE ACTIONS OF AND GESTURES MADE BY THE POLICE TOWARDS THE MARCH PARTICIPANTS.

I am available for further comment should any civil suits against the police arise.

This video showed a very different situation that what I saw a little earlier on the ktla 20 video just shown on Yahoo. You would think they were two entirely different events and situations. Talking by phone a little earlier to someone who was there in person, it appears that very little media coverage was released and that it was mostly local.

We need sites like this to get the story out from the perspective of those present NOT just what the media decides we "need" to know.

This footage is amazing to me. None of this made it onto the reports from the mainstream media. I just watched the coverage on television with Jesse Jackson talking about how protests have formed this country. He called for a moratorium on the death penalty. We get that coverage because its inside the convention center.

Where is the coverage of our rights being stripped away outside the convention center? Where are the scary scenes I just viewed above? Those gunshots, rubber bullets or not, are fuckin' scary. Why isn't this on TV? Don't they love sensationalism? Its nowhere. Because if its not on TV, it doesn't exist, right? All the good Americans can sleep safely ignorant of how the police attack its citizens.

Nice job G. Darland, I hope all of Amarica is watching this!

fox 6 san diego has been doing pretty good job showing the pigs in action. Did the police go to far ps one of there guys got shot with rubber buttets keep the good work

Please post this and further videos in downloadable MPEGs so we the people who have poor network connections can view this in a resolution that is comprehandable. Don't support the corporate media of Real video/audio.

I am not involved in any of the protests occuring in Los Angelos this week and am therefore in no position to make any comment. Yet I feel compelled to say this.

From what I have seen and read on this site and elsewhere, all of the protests in LA were, save for the actions of a radical few, peaceful. They posed no threat to the safety of either the police or the public, other than the threat of waking them up to our corrupt system. They were demonstrations of the human right of expression that every one of us should have. And yet they were swiftly and violently crushed by police.

Why? Because THE POLICE ARE AFRAID OF US. Not because we have a stash of molotov cocktails in our trunk, but because we have freedom in our minds. We have become aware of the injustices of a system where you must choose between two representatives of the aristocracy to rule a nation where 30% of our children are born into legal poverty. The injustice of a sytem where ownership of a badge and a blue uniform mean you're free to bash the shit out of peaceful protesters until their blood runs onto the pavement of their own streets. The injustice of a system where you are free to protest, but only if you're prepared to accept the blows of a pig's baton, the bites of his/her dog, the rubber bullets fired from police shotguns.

As I watch this video, I realise that it is they that are afraid, not us. We are prepared to die for our freedom. But they take arms and execute their state-ordained violence out of fear. They wear sheilds over their faces, keep in close ranks protected by full riot gear, grip their bean-bag-filled shotguns, confront a crowd of unarmed civilians while led by a pig atop a horse that weighs half a ton because they are afraid -- afraid that we will overturn the system of corporations and corrupt politicians that gives them a paycheck and pats them on the back, afraid that we will take the power back, afraid that we will strip them of their guns and their shields and finally rule ourselves. And when we do make true their deepest fear, then, to quote Malcolm X, "there'll be one hell of a hot time in the old town."

We are coming into the majority. The odds are against them, and they know it. Support your local radicals and get involved in protests. We must not let the blood that flows in America's streets go unsatisfied.

Tierra y libertad and peace be unto you.

If L.A. Blows, lets show city to city solidarity.....the flames around the moat are begining to grow high. No more hiding behind electric fences....Dumb Dumbocrats. The problems the Republicans will not face.....you won't face either. Remember 1968!!!!! This is nothing new. Fly the black flag and run fast. Peace I'm out.

My reaction to the visual account captured on video of the police state at large was unnerving. I'm in utter shock at how "keepers of the peace" shot at a crowd that begged to disperse peacefully, and cried out to not be shot at. It brings tears to my eyes to see our nation fall into such disgrace. What kind of military training does the LAPD teach their police?

When I spoke to my wife on the phone Monday night- before I saw any media coverage of any sort- she told me of what she witnessed at the Rage concert. She said the parades and protests had been wonderful, with police amiable and even supportive- much different than she witnessed in DC in April. But she was disgusted with behavior at the Rage show, where she said that she was absolutely surrounded by kids who had not attended any demonstrations and didn't even know about the issues. She told me that "a bunch" of people started tossing "handfuls" of the concrete pieces at the cops over the fence, and very few of them stopped when she spent all of her time trying to stand in their way. She said that organizers with microphones on stage never said a word to rally a commitment to nonviolence. So I don't defend the trigger-happy LAPD, but having a crowd full of juvenile ego-trips (regardless of one's age, and I'm not accusing everyone there, obviously) who just want to Fight the Power, is walking right into a repressive response- a response that will be supported by the millions of TV minions in this country who remain apathetic to fascist tactics in our country. More importantly, it IS violent, and we will not defeat any kind of violence or injustice that way. I like Rage and their messages, but I think the location and timing of the concert seems intentionally provocative- if so, it worked.

I attended the protests on Monday, August 14th. I drove to the Staples Center to see Rage Against the Machine play (on 11th Street and Figueroa). I got there at 6:30p.m., just in time to hear Zach de la Rocha exclaim "Brothers and Sisters, our democracy has been hijacked!" What followed was a blistering set. Everyone in attendance (about 1,000 people and comprised of both men and women) was really enjoying the music and having a good time. In between songs people from the crowd would chant "Fuck Al Gore! Fuck Al Gore!" But, other than that, the crowd was enjoying the music peacefully.

After Rage was through a woman from the United Farm Workers came up onstage and made a speech. She asked us to praise Cesar Chavez (his portrait was hanging on a building that was directly behind me). Then another woman (an Asian-American woman named Ms. Kim) went onstage and spoke out on the death penalty. Everyone in the crowd (about 500 to 600 people (many had left after Rage completed their set)) applauded their speeches, and waited for the band Ozomatli to come onstage and play.

Ozomatli then came on and began their set with the song "Como Ves." Everyone around me was clapping along- they seemed to be having a real good time. All of a sudden an older woman with gray hair came up onstage and interrupted Ozomatli (as they began to play their next song). She told the crowd that if the two people who were on a fence (that separated the protest area from Staples Center) did not climb down then the police would shut off the power. Many people started to shout "Fuck the police!" But the woman continued speaking to us, saying "Get together! Don't let the police stop the concert!" So then some people started shouting "Get off the fence!" Then Ozomatli resumed playing their second song.

All of a sudden (a couple of minutes after the woman came onstage) the power went out (the lights and the speakers were turned off (I saw one musician trying hard to play his instrument but I could not hear it)). And then a voice was heard on the speakers. It was a Los Angeles police officer. He told us that we would be arrested if we did not leave the protest area (we had 15 minutes to leave). Many people in the crowd voiced their displeasure at the announcement. But most peacefully left the area.

I decided to stick around and help a man who was picking up trash off of the ground. Then I passed a couple who were making a sign (they were using paint and writing on a piece of cardboard that someone had left on the ground). The sign said "This is what police st. looks like."

I then noticed a group of people (400 to 500) gathering around two musicians from Ozomatli. One of the band members had a drum and a whistle. They were preparing to lead the group north on Figueroa. I decided to join them.

As we started to walk north on Figueroa we heard police running on the street. They were forming a line to block off access to any streets south of Olympic. Two Latino women asked what was happenig and I said (simply) "It's the police." We continued to walk north on Figueroa with the two musicians from Ozomatli leading the way.

All of a sudden I heard many loud popping sounds. A man shouted "Oh shit!" Many people started running. One woman who was holding a sign was knocked down to the ground by people who were running. I (and another man) helped her up. Others were screaming. I started to run north on Figueroa. I noticed a man to my left holding his right leg in pain. Then I ran past an anarchist (he was dressed all in black and with a bandanna covering his mouth). He was lying down on the ground and holding his stomach. Some people started yelling "Don't run! Don't run!" I was trying hard not to panic but my heart was beating fast (I was incredibly scared- words simply cannot express my feelings at the moment when the police started firing rubber bullets at us). At that moment I thought to myself "These are the sounds of violence."

The police then stopped shooting at us. I did not know if they were following us as we walked north on Figueroa (I did not turn around to see). Then we regrouped and gathered around the band members from Ozomatli. One of the protesters began chanting "Whose streets? Our streets!" All of us began to chant along.

At one intersection (6th street and Figueroa) we passed a line of policemen. They stood on the corner. They wore helmets and riot gear and held their batons across their chests. The man, whose right leg was hit by a rubber bullet, shouted at them "You shot me!" He followed the other protesters, limping as he walked.

We continued loudly chanting "Whose streets? Our streets!" as we walked north on Figueroa. One of the musicians provided a musical backdrop to our chants by beating on his drum. We walked to an intersection and stopped. We gathered around the drummer and danced and clapped along to the beat. Cars that were going west (on 6th street) started honking their horns at us because we were blocking the road. One protester ran to a white truck and chanted (along with the other protestors) to the driver "Whose streets? Our fucking streets!" A Mexican-American sitting in the truck nodded his head and smiled at the protester. Another protester walked to a man sitting in a car and handed him a leaflet. The man took it and then began again to honk his car horn. Everyone (Latinos, Afro-Americans, whites, anarchists, men, and women) was having fun.

We then began to walk east on 6th street. Many of the people were so involved in the protest that they would walk a good distance ahead of the group. When they turned around and looked back they realized that the others had stopped, with the musicians, in an intersection. They then would walk back to rejoin the group. I heard one of the anarchists yell "Stick together!"

We continued going east. We walked past a street that was ironically named "Hope". As I walked with the others I continuously turned around to see if the police were following us (I was hoping that they would not show up again and start firing rubber bullets at us). I was still incredibly scared and I didn't know what was going to happen next.

Then a storefront window was smashed. The police had formed a line (that stretched from street curb to the street curb that was on the other side of the street) and were now walking east on 6th street toward us. My heart was beating faster. I stepped up onto a curb and saw a man holding a video camera. He told me that he was from Italy and that he was on vacation. I paused and then pointed to the police line that was slowly walking toward us and said "This is America." "I see," he responded.

One of the policeman then started shouting at me "Turn around and walk!" I said "Please don't hurt me." He responded by saying "Just turn around and keep walking, sir!" I turned around and a woman holding a sign started talking to me (she was walking with me). I cannot remember what she said to me at that moment. Then I heard her saying that it is too bad that certain protesters ruin it for those who are peacefully protesting. She told me that she had just joined the protesters and she was looking for the protest area (the one at 11th Street and Figueroa).

When we reached the end of the street the group headed north. I decided to go south and walk back to my car. While walking back to my car I noticed a group of policeman who were walking south on Flower street. A police officer was loudly giving them orders (as if he were a seargant giving orders to a group of soldiers). Then a group of police cars, with their sirens turned on, sped past me, going north. I stood on the corner and heard a man say to me "Now it's happening in America."

I continued to walk back to my car. As I was crossing a street an Afro-American looked at me and said "Be safe. A lot is happening tonight." I will, I promised him.

That is by far one of the best filmed, best compiled, and most compeling pieces of video I have ever seen in the independent media. Darland, thank you for putting your camera and your ass on the line to get this to us!

I can't thank you enough for this independent (not corporate-cotrolled/biased) footage. THIS is what needs to be

seen - the overwhelming force, the disregard by the police to "please don't shoot," - all because an extreme minority tried jumping a fence. Who was it that said, "If peaceful protest is made illegal, violent protest is inevitable?"

seeing this video, reading other non mainstream press articles on ALL the protests this past year. Having lived in latin america for the past 6 years. The police brutality in those new "democracies" is no diferent than that of police brutlity in this "model" democracy. Latin american countries are still very militarized. Public security forces in latin america are totally militarized and share that national security doctrine. That doctrine the u.s. forced upon those militaries. That doctrine that teaches to smash anything that smells likes socialism, anything that smells like unity, anythiny different. Anihilate it. Where is AIM (American Indian Movement)? where is Black Panthers?

We live in a militarized nation.

Thank you for your film revealing the extent of the police violence in LA. I noticed that a black man was shot. I would like to know what the racial mix of the shootings and beatings was. It was also good to see an older citizen reveal his dismay at what took place. America is indeed in bad shape regarding Constitutional freedoms. Take care, all of you beautiful acivists.

I live in the UK and just watched your media clip. For every good policeman there are twenty bad ones. It's the same over in the states as far as I can see. For the police 2 injure people for expressing their opinions in a peaceful manner is complete bullshit.

DO NOT LET THIS INCIDENT STOP YOU >>>>>>>>>>>>

Institutionalised Fascism MUST BE ERADICATED for the sake of our children.

i am not making excuses for the police and i find their behavior totally inexcusable and quite distressing. yet there is another element in this equation that is also troubling to me. there was an element in the crowd monday night who did pellet the police with various items. knowing ,as i persume we all do, how psycho the l.a.p.d. can be why would any one want to provoke them that way? who are these misguided souls who persist in using the mob dynamic to incite and provoke violence and aimless destruction? i am very worried about a police force who shoots anything into a crowd of retreating people. i worry about police not allowing the public to assemble when they have every right to do so. but i am also worried about the cretins in every crowd who give the police the opportunity to make excuses for their behavior.

I was credentialled media on the opposite side of the concrete curtain. However, I also marched in a couple of the marches as a protester - I have my beliefs, too.

I nearly got hit with a chunk of concrete thrown by the protesters during the Monday protests. I then moved back behind the police lines for safety.

The ground around the officers within the confines of the fencing was cluttered with plastic water bottles, a few glass bottles, chunks of concrete, pieces of rebar, and what looked like fast-food trash.

What started as two people blossomed into ten. What was ten people became twenty. By the time the bonfires were going, the police began to get concerned. They did allow a fifteen minute period to disperse, and when they announced it, I checked my watch.

Sixteen minutes later (they added an extra minute), they moved in. What they did was reprehensible, as they should have just arrested those who started the mess.

However, consider it from their standpoint for a moment, too - You're getting pelted with large pieces of trash and rubble. You've been standing there for four hours, with maybe one or two short stand-down periods if any. You've had people curse at you, scream obscenities at you, and tell you you're worthless, simply because you are working and doing your job.

I know lots of good police officers. Not all officers are bad, and not even all LAPD are bad. Many good cops were there, too. However, because they were in a situation in which they expected a problem, they geared up. This incited some kids to start a problem, and the cycle of distrust continued.

Everyone who was present - whether they be media inside or outside the concrete curtain, protesters or police forces, delegates or homeless - is human. Don't lose sight of that, no matter what you do. Because, at the end of the day, we still have to go home to our families and lives... and we all have things that we believe in.

Todd Purdum in NY TIMES made mistakes in his piece about the bomb scare tactic pulled at Patriotic Hall affecting the Indy Media Center and Shadow Convention. He wrote the building was evacuated, when in fact the Shadows were just told there was no show in the auditorium. They met a couple hundred strong in the lobby, and convener Arianna Huffington led them outside. (Purdum said "down the street")

The police were out to beat people, its as simple as that. A friend and I saw the crowd being shot in the back as they left, so we stood our ground in the lot and held up our hands in peace. While doing that I was shot four times in the back of the legs, hit twice in the head with a baton and trampled by a horse once I hit the ground. Then, once we were able to leave, I noticed that there were 3 ft. tall concrete barriers across the only open exit making it even harder to escape. It is obvious why protestors were given that parking lot.

All I have to say is WOW! The footage was excellent. It sent chills all throughout my body. When I was watching the video all I thought was that it looked like a scene from a movie. A very disturbing scene, but it's the truth. The scene that bothered me the most was when the man in white was lying on the floor with American flag by his feet. It's a scene straight out of a war movie! That's sad!! Thanks for putting out the video. It made me see things through a different light.

Sure, we are all human. I question your logic, however. I am a public school teacher. I have witnessed students turn their anger toward myself and my colleagues in a variety of ways.

Verbal threats, property destruction, physical posturing, and violent innuendo have all been a part of my professional life. If I could not mentally adjust to the environment of uncertainty, I would/should have chosen another occupation.

If I so much as approached the level of haphazard, gratuitous disregard for individual rights displayed by the LAPD last Monday, August 14th, I would be immediately removed from my position. Community outrage would flourish, and I would most certainly face well-deserved prosecution regarding my lack of respect for another human's basic rights.

Perhaps the view finder on your camcorder was smudged and tainted your ability to view the scene objectively. I, however, was shot in the back with a "concussion projectile" as I made my way out of the forbidden area, hands above my head, pleading not to be shot.

It would help alot to get this video out. if you could post it mpg or asf file format so it would be downloadable and clearer quality for us 56k and under.. i personally would like to burn it to cd and show it to alot of people. and i think you share the interest in letting this be known to as many people as we can cause we know the corperate media isnt going to let it. so please i am begging.. please post it in .mpg or any other downloadable file format that holds better quality. thanks and great job.

That's really really really fucking scary. Is anyone else reminded of Star Wars and the Storm Troopers and shit? It's like an army of mother fucking zombies doing exaclty what their bosses tell them too. Please tell me there were at least some cops there who said to themselves "This is wrong." I mean when the guy with the megaphone was telling the cops they were trying to disperse peacefully and they got shot at anyway, fucking shit, this would be all over CNN if it happened in motherfucking Kosovo or some shit like that. Hypocrites and facist shitheads, all of them. Fuck!