A short personal report from the demonstrations.
After a long march through downtown LA, demonstrators gathered in front of Parker Center, LA's largest police station. Riot cops surrounded the station, recreating the eeried police state atmosphere of D2KLA this past August.
The threatening atmosphere would, very quickly, deliver on its promise.
I was heading back to my car, to get home, to file a quick story about the events, when a phalanx of mounted riot police were firing rubber bullets at protestors westward on First Street, which runs on the south side of Parker Center. Demonstrators were attempting to secure First, which was part of the announced, origial plan to surround the station. The plans were cancelled by the LAPD when they revoked that part of the permit earlier last week.
As the crowd got pressed closer and closer together, the cops attacked the activists, firing rubber bullets and pellets. The LAPD were testing their recently invented program of "pain compliance", and it seemed to be working. People were suffering minor injuries, and with each shot, demonstrators got anxious or afraid, and ultimately, many got angry.
Ultimately, the police "contained" the crowd on Los Angeles street, blocking people in on all sides, with one exit, so that the demonstrators could exercise their "free speech" rights, to a shrinking crowd of committed activists, while everyone else in Los Angeles was intimidated away from the event. (This reporter thinks it will be hailed by the LA Times as another "successful" application of this repressive tactic.)
I left just before 5:00, before the event concluded. Followup reports are appreciated.