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.

Today was the day. We – thousands of us – got it on downtown for reals. We got right in the pig’s face…and, predictably, he got right in ours. I myself took a shower in plastic rounds when I raced up on a pile of pigs arresting one of my brothers. Par for the course at a mass protest against police brutality and crimes against humanity. 5,000 or so people in downtown LA all gathered and focused on one issue in our community: bringing the uncontrollable LAPD face to face with reality: No justice, no peace.

So we disturbed the peace. We marched, we shouted, we went right to Parker center – a notorious den of torture and injustice. Families began addressing the pigs on a first person basis and shouting their loss and pain over children gunned down for no reason. Right about that time the cops started shooting. Horses. Teargas. Rubber “non lethal bullets”. The works. It all came pouring out: the exact kind of behavior that takes place when people disagree with the Los Angeles Police Department. I saw young kids who had been hit in the eye; in the face…there was smoke and blood and debris flying through the air for a few tense moments…Its only 5:45 right now. Its probably gotten worse.

When we had taken enough pain, we regrouped for safety. The lot of us made a decision to leave sometime around 5. We had made our point. We took our beatings for our brothers and sisters who had taken bullets. Fair enough. But damned if we let the pigs off the hook in this round: Today was an orchestrated riot. For certain non violent right up until the point when the police started shooting at us like a group of teen jack-offs (who probably tortured animals with their BB guns when they were kids. We all know the type.)

What did we accomplish? We’re still alive. We’re everywhere. Tomorrow we’ll blend right in. And we’ll continue. The people in the street today were not about fucking around – and they were out there for more than just a recitation of well known police atrocities. They were out there calling for revolution. A complete change in the way power is distributed in our world. I’ll tell you something else that happened; it’s a little less cerebral, but it still feels good:

Take a squad car on any given day. Walk up to the ogres inside and call them pigs and tell them what you really think of how it felt to get beat down at the age of 14 by a bunch of grown men. Tell them their time is up. Tell them its revolution time and that someday soon they’ll stand trial for their participation in concentration camp enforcement. Tell them just what you think. Exercise your punk-ass 1st amendment. Try it. I double-dog dare you. You know you’d get the living shit beat out of you and you’ll probably end up missing. Well, fair friends and enemies, today we got to do just that. Strength in numbers you see. We – and there were thousands of us - got to tell them just what we thought about them and their system of oppression. We got to flip them off and look them dead in the eye and tell them that when the revolution comes, their chorizo is cooked. Fuck em. They’re getting exactly what they deserve: a huge fuzzy “fuck you” from the community. From Black people, Mexika people, Asian people and white people. They were bombarded by invisible weapons of spirit and sheer will in retaliation for years of systematic extortion and abuse. Oh yeah, and murder. The names and faces of an entire generation – enough to fill a graduating class auditorium – were everywhere.

Their individual candles were easily blown out. But today there was a fire. And a fire grows when you blow on it.

revengeoverandout

The LA Times web site this morning completely ignores this event. Its does, however, include a rousing article about how the police are NOT prosecuting enough people. I guess they won't be happy until everyone making less than K per year is wearing an orange jump suit.

It took me quite a while to find any mention of the October 22 protest and shootings on the LA Times website. Eventually I did: it was number seven on the AP wire list of "National" stories... two down from the headline about how Baton Rouge should use more green paint.

This AP wire story only quoted one source on what exactly happened -- an LAPD cop. According to the police press release (aka Associated Press) everyone was wearing black clothes and throwing jugs of broken glass, and that's why you were shot.

The LA Times could not be reached for comment on any news of local relevance.



(One thing in their defense -- that LA Times story about prosecuting more people was about prosecuting more *cops*. Apparently there are so many bad cops, they don't even bother with charges against most of them).

my brother in law john jordan was MURDERED 9/3/99 by the long beach pork department. i attended last year's demonstration with our family and friends and decided to take my son again this year. i was outraged when he pigs started shooting and charging into a crowd of peaceful demonstrators and CHILDREN. i had to put my 3 year old son, my 4 year old niece and 8 year old nephew into the truck that doubled as a stage... i was furious they were 20 feet away from my family my children and tyisha miller's family. WE HAVE BEEN BRUTALIZED ENOUGH BY THE PIGS YET THEY CONTINUE TO DO THIS TO OUR CHILDREN.

doesn't surprise me that the la times would write that article, it's bullshit.

i just got back from the police brutality protests in LA last night.. it was such an amazing experience! the march was really cool, everyone was united and fired up, etc... the cops were pretty much leaving us alone, and everything was fine.. then we got to the police station, which we had a PERMIT to surround, but the cops decided that we couldn't.. needless to say, we did it anyway.. because of this, the cops decided that they were justified in shooting us with rubber bullets and beating us with their batons.. i can tell you (i don't know what the media has said yet..) that we did NOTHING to provoke the viscious attack that was deployed onto us.... after we got back to the rally site, the cops proceeded to endanger the lives of small children who had to be rushed out along with an elderly woman. as they were trying to het her out, an independent journalist was hit in the face with a baton, which caused it to bleed EVERYWHERE.. during the rally, the cops stood watch over us with their horses and batons, but we didn't back down: after the rally, we marched down our original course back to olympic and broadway.. on the way, cops on bikes blocked the way for a truck carring numerous protest organizers.. when we demanded that they let the truck pass, they busted out their rubber bullet guns to shoot us AGAIN.. we backed down, and eventually the cops forced the truck to leave the march... i personally saw many acts of police brutality today (inflicted on not only myself, but friends, children, the elderly, ect) and it HAS to stop.. today, the LAPD tried to quiet our voices with their brutality, but we overcame them to get our messages across... we need to keep fighting if we ever want to see anything done: we can't just protest one day a year.. i urge all of you to spread the news of this brutality along with any other violence that occured at other marches today so that we can get something done about this travesty of justice instead of just bitching about it....

i just got back from the police brutality protests in LA last night.. it was such an amazing experience! the march was really cool, everyone was united and fired up, etc... the cops were pretty much leaving us alone, and everything was fine.. then we got to the police station, which we had a PERMIT to surround, but the cops decided that we couldn't.. needless to say, we did it anyway.. because of this, the cops decided that they were justified in shooting us with rubber bullets and beating us with their batons.. i can tell you (i don't know what the media has said yet..) that we did NOTHING to provoke the viscious attack that was deployed onto us.... after we got back to the rally site, the cops proceeded to endanger the lives of small children who had to be rushed out along with an elderly woman. as they were trying to het her out, an independent journalist was hit in the face with a baton, which caused it to bleed EVERYWHERE.. during the rally, the cops stood watch over us with their horses and batons, but we didn't back down: after the rally, we marched down our original course back to olympic and broadway.. on the way, cops on bikes blocked the way for a truck carring numerous protest organizers.. when we demanded that they let the truck pass, they busted out their rubber bullet guns to shoot us AGAIN.. we backed down, and eventually the cops forced the truck to leave the march... i personally saw many acts of police brutality today (inflicted on not only myself, but friends, children, the elderly, ect) and it HAS to stop.. today, the LAPD tried to quiet our voices with their brutality, but we overcame them to get our messages across... we need to keep fighting if we ever want to see anything done: we can't just protest one day a year.. i urge all of you to spread the news of this brutality along with any other violence that occured at other marches today so that we can get something done about this travesty of justice instead of just bitching about it....

The LA Times article on the Police Brutality protest angered me a lot. They made it sound like the police's violence was a response to the violence of the protesters. In reality, the protesters only became violent (if you consider throwing water bottles, rolling over trashcans and burning paper, violence) after the police started to push us back. We were told that we could surround the building. We tried but the police had the back of the building blocked off with cars and horses. Without warning they just came at us and started shooting. You'd think they'd ask us to move or at least declare that it was an unlawful assembly or something before charging at us. But in the article it sounds like a few violent protesters provoked this attack from the police. And the article also states that 2 people had bleeding minor injuries and 8 other people had bruises or welts. I didn't know they were counting! Everyone I came with got hit by rubber bullets- I didn't know we were supposed to report our bruises and welts!


This was the first violent protest I had ever attended and it was an amazing thing to be face to face with another human being and have them shoot me down as if I were an animal. And the saddest part of all this was that I returned to my college dorm and was surrounded by people so caught up in their own little worlds, that they didn't even know (and probably wouldn't care even if they knew) there was a protest.

About at the same time (october 23) in Montreal, QC, the same tactic was used against protesters of the G20. Go look at the picture:

http://quebec.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=45

I would just like to make it clear that the police started firing and charging at us when we aproched them peacefully. We where completly peaceful. The police rioted on all of us. They kept shooting at us and rushing us with their horses and batons. THEN, people started to throw glass at them, or throw their rubber bullets back at them. It was all we could do when we where being rushed at by an army of pigs. MANY people where shot with their rubber bullets. Of course I was shot in the knee. I can't walk right and it's swollen thanx to the LAPD. People where also hit in the face. They fired at little children. They rushed over people with horses when they sat on the ground. They knocked people down. WE DID NOT DO ANYTHING. THEY ATTACKED US... All of the BULLSHIT that falls into the mainstream is, just what I said, BULLSHIT. The problem is too many people are so dependent upon CORPORATE MEDIA to get their fucking news. So they get brain washed DAY BY DAY.

I took pictures and I have the LAPD caught in the act. They will be on my site, www.raisethefist.com soon.

The police rioted on peaceful protestors... This is not democracy. This is brutality.

The scars, pains and beatings are , however honerable. We stood up to their brutality, got brutalized and didn't back down. Thanx to everyone who faced the militarized police state. This is only the beginning.

These assholes fucked with the WRONG generation.

GO YOU GO,

The only thing to do when you're living in such a FASCIST POLICE STATE is fight back. Wear a gas mask and helmut though. We are with you in your brave attempts to fight this brutal police force. Who exactly is in charge in LA and responsible. I want to write them a nasty letter, it's the least I can do.

Congress is watching!!

police are getting vcrazier every day!One of my good friends got shot 3 times with those rubber bullets.Now he has a bad back and still in pain. They go too far when it comes to protesters. Violence is not the key to acomplising anything.All i ask is for the l.a.p.d. and all the other police in california.If you dont think this is true you domnt have a kind heart, people trying to prove a point and you want to use violence against them....not a good combonation.

we need some padding for rubber bullets, batons and gas masks. everyone start saving for their defense fund.

after all i used to tell myself policemen are just humans, but when i took a trip to the us(i'm from germany) i was really wondering how the police could treat young people and people in general. my friends got arrested for just skating, and another friend of mine got harrassed for jut wearing a "che guevara" shirt. i mean in the us there's this huge problem about police, and here in germany we got the problem that the police cares about dumb shit. you get a hell of a fine if you drive 1 mph too fast than allowed, but if you beat someone and steal their money and you#re just 16 you don#t get shit. but what can normal people like we do to solve problems like that? demonstrations don't seem to work anymore, if the government stays the same their'll be no change.

the way the police acts nowerday reminds me on the shit the gestapo in nazigermany did. shooting demonstrators is just a little step away from silencing people by putting them into camps

When will people learn? Don't let them change the language!

A baton is used to conduct an orchestra. A club is used to hit people on the head.

The story repeats itself throughout the media after every major or even many small demonstrations. Fear gets instilled, at least for a moment. We are struggling, >>

There’s another way of looking at this, I think.

The brutal police officers we come in contact with during our protests, we need to understand, they are spiritually very immature beings when they go into a battlefield. They lack confidence, they lack faith, they lack creativity, they lack humor, they lack a lot. Their outfits look stupid. They're the ones not realizing yet that this ship of totalitarianism, of abuse, torture, murder and disrespect for all of Life, is going down because we are the ocean and decide so! They're the ones not realizing yet that we’re growing over, rising above the nonsense of neoliberalism, fear, hate and double-speak because we are one with the towering ancient forests! They do not yet realize and get excited about the fact that we’re going to overcome all of our fears and arise stronger every time they take their fears and trauma from years of brainwash conditioning out on us. Every time they hit us with a rubber bullet, beat us over the head, brutalize us children of this sacred universe, the opportunity to point out to the “peace officers” that what he or she is doing is not peaceful, is not calming the situation, is not making people feel better about the bliss that is Life, that their behavior is just not acceptable at their age, in their rang, whatever. Tell ‘m they’ve come to the point to realize this, time to take the gentle leap into realizing that it is never too late to be present and communicate with your surroundings. Inspire the cops to understand that it is never too late to listen to people’s stories, dreams, hopes, creative ideas to make this a better world, to honor the world we have, and restore the wounds inflicted upon us, upon the Earth and all gifts. The threatening atmosphere is the fear that aches, that emanates from the police, a dark void of ignorance and misguided thought. Try looking at them when you are in jail, after they beat you, after they pepper-sprayed you, stripped you naked and too your belongings, look at them and imagine them as if they were young kids, see the lines in their face, their eyes don’t lie this truth when you learn to see it. You’ll see they are a crazy bunch of traumatized lost spirits, confused and sometimes suicidal, sometimes willing to die to get to a better world. Our brothers and sisters in the police forces, inside the tanks, behind closed doors, in offices, behind the mask, we need to understand that they’re acting the way they are because they haven’t learned yet to be more creative, they haven’t learned to smile in the face of the overwhelming negativity, they haven’t learned to smile in the face of overwhelming beauty either. Friends, do not be afraid, BE CAREFUL. Being intimidated, fearful and outright dehumanized is something we can learn to deal with so we soon will not all feel like throwing stones, flipping the cops off, setting them ablaze with molotov cocktails just because we have a very hard time processing the overwhelming negativity we experienced. I’m sure its good therapy for some, but telling them the way you see it, in poetry, in colors, in music, in theatre, in just simply speaking your mind, while trying to bring about as much compassion as you can raise might be more effective. Rise up, friends of the Earth, rise up friends of all people, rise up to turn the tide! Corporate greed, that dark evil greed masked with layers of advertising, laws for your-not-supposed-to-trespass-here property and great news about quarter earnings, that ignorant daze, the TV-stare, name it, it’s going to be neutralized with love, annihilated with compassion, blown into comic books with information. They can ban our websites, burn our books, assassinate our out speaking companeros, they can torture us, rape and pillage, bomb and smile right after they slam our heads against the cold jail wall, BUT they can never convince me that it’s alright that any person exploits another, they cannot convince me that the way animals are treated in this society is compassionate, that I should vote out of fear for the lesser of whatever number of bad choices, they are living a lie if they think they can stop us from expressing ourselves responsibly. They cannot scare us into oblivion. If you ever feel this way, cherish the moment. Remember it when they are there in their scary gear and the situation grows tense, misunderstanding sparks, chaos ensues, and there you find yourself tasting the latest brand of fascism first-hand. Remember that their pain compliance is not working. Remember that they did not “contain” your activist optimistic spirit, and if you get a moment after days of sleep deprivation remember that the medicine is in the time.

The first thing that came to mind after being beaten down with batons in a surprise attack by Czech police when all I did was take a photo I told the prisoner next to me: “these cops don’t realize they are fighting a losing battle.” He said, “yep”, and smiled at me, right there in hell with people with wrists bleeding from the tight handcuffs, comrades bruised and bloody from violence as the bus took off for what was just the beginning of a full night of brutality, of beatings, forced to sign documents, with 24 people in a 2 by 3 meter sardine can, behind prison doors, far away from the public eye, to be bussed to a Soviet-style concrete building surrounded by barbed wire in the middle of the woods 100 kilometers away from Prague.

I am telling you that all their brutality did not work, not will or can it ever. It is hard to be impressed by their beauty. Better next time.

WE ARE NOT AFRAID AND WE ARE EVERYWHERE.

Inner-strength to all! In defense, love and respect,

Rising Ground

Northern California

The story repeats itself throughout the media after every major or even many small demonstrations. Fear gets instilled, at least for a moment. We are struggling:

>>

There’s another way of looking at this, I think.

The brutal police officers we come in contact with during our protests, we need to understand, they are spiritually very immature beings when they go into a battlefield. They lack confidence, they lack faith, they lack creativity, they lack humor, they lack a lot. Their outfits look stupid. They're the ones not realizing yet that this ship of totalitarianism, of abuse, torture, murder and disrespect for all of Life, is going down because we are the ocean and decide so! They're the ones not realizing yet that we’re growing over, rising above the nonsense of neoliberalism, fear, hate and double-speak because we are one with the towering ancient forests! They do not yet realize and get excited about the fact that we’re going to overcome all of our fears and arise stronger every time they take their fears and trauma from years of brainwash conditioning out on us.

Every time they hit us with a rubber bullet, beat us over the head, brutalize us children of this sacred universe, the opportunity to point out to the “peace officers” that what he or she is doing is not peaceful, is not calming the situation, is not making people feel better about the bliss that is Life, that their behavior is just not acceptable at their age, in their rang, whatever. Tell ‘m they’ve come to the point to realize this, time to take the gentle leap into realizing that it is never too late to be present and communicate with your surroundings. Inspire the cops to understand that it is never too late to listen to people’s stories, dreams, hopes, creative ideas to make this a better world, to honor the world we have, and restore the wounds inflicted upon us, upon the Earth and all gifts.

The threatening atmosphere is the fear that aches, that emanates from the police, a dark void of ignorance and misguided thought. Try looking at them when you are in jail, after they beat you, after they pepper-sprayed you, stripped you naked and took your belongings, look at them and imagine them as if they were young kids, see the lines in their face, their eyes don’t lie this truth when you learn to see it. You’ll see they are a crazy bunch of traumatized lost spirits, confused and sometimes suicidal, sometimes willing to die to get to a better world. Our brothers and sisters in the police forces, inside the tanks, behind closed doors, in offices, behind the mask, we need to understand that they’re acting the way they are because they haven’t learned yet to be more creative, they haven’t learned to smile in the face of the overwhelming negativity, they haven’t learned to smile in the face of overwhelming beauty either.

Friends, do not be afraid, BE CAREFUL. Being intimidated, fearful and outright dehumanized is something we can learn to deal with so we soon will not all feel like throwing stones, flipping the cops off, setting them ablaze with molotov cocktails just because we have a very hard time processing the overwhelming negativity we experienced. I’m sure its good therapy for some, but telling them the way you see it, in poetry, in colors, in music, in theatre, in just simply speaking your mind, while trying to bring about as much compassion as you can raise might be more effective.

Rise up, friends of the Earth, rise up friends of all people, rise up to turn the tide! Corporate greed, that dark evil greed masked with layers of advertising, laws for you’r-not-supposed-to-trespass-here property and great news about quarter earnings, that ignorant daze, the TV-stare, name it, it’s going to be neutralized with love, annihilated with compassion, blown into comic books with information.

They can ban our websites, burn our books, assassinate our out speaking companeros, they can torture us, rape and pillage, bomb and smile right after they slam our heads against the cold jail wall, BUT they can never convince me that it’s alright that any person exploits another, they cannot convince me that the way animals are treated in this society is compassionate, that I should vote out of fear for the lesser of whatever number of bad choices, they are living a lie if they think they can stop us from expressing ourselves responsibly. They cannot scare us into oblivion.

If you ever feel this way, cherish the moment. Remember it when they are there in their scary gear and the situation grows tense, misunderstanding sparks, chaos ensues, and there you find yourself tasting the latest brand of fascism first-hand. Remember that their pain compliance is not working. Remember that they did not “contain” your activist optimistic spirit, and if you get a moment after days of sleep deprivation remember that the medicine is in the time.

The first thing that came to mind after being beaten down with batons in a surprise attack by Czech police when all I did was take a photo I told the prisoner next to me: “these cops... these cops don’t realize they are fighting a losing battle.” He said, “yep”, and smiled at me, right there in hell with people with wrists bleeding from the tight handcuffs, comrades bruised and bloody from violence as the bus took off for what was just the beginning of a full night of brutality, of beatings, forced to sign documents, with 24 people in a 2 by 3 meter sardine can, behind prison doors, far away from the public eye, to be bussed to a Soviet-style concrete building surrounded by barbed wire in the middle of the woods 100 kilometers away from Prague.

I am telling you that all their brutality did not work, not will or can it ever. It is hard to be impressed by their beauty. Better next time.

WE ARE NOT AFRAID AND WE ARE EVERYWHERE.

Inner-strength to all! In defense, love and respect,

Rising Ground

Northern California

If the pigs intend to keep shooting at us with rubber bullets, etc, we need to do the same to them. A simple weapon available to anyone is an improvised pepperball launcher: get a paintball gun and paintballs. Get a hypodermic syringe and some pepper spray. use the syringe to remove the paint from the paintballs, spray the pepper spray into a bag(wear you gasmask!) and use the syringe to refill the paintballs with it. When the pigs are masked, simply replace pepperballs with solid wood or rubber balls and RETURN THEIR FIRE!

It also is possible to blend LSD with DMSO to make a hallucinogenic solution that can be absorbed through the skin. In paintballs(if they stand up to DMSO) this would be a powerful weapon indeed. It would take a cop off the street for the duration of the battle(until the LSD wears off).

Both counterforce and countervalue targetting are possible. Counterforce means shooting back at the shooters. Countervalue means shooting at, say, Convention delegates instead, to exact a price for what their security is doing.

Actuallly i Beleve that Los Angeles Is Very Beutiful City with the best atmosphere and the best everything, but the state of California has to watch out for invaders (jealous states) such as Texas New York illinois and alot more that want to be like a city that they can never be, so If you ever watch the news from those states or talked to anyone from those states they may indeed to you alot of lies about california in order to try and change your mind from going their only because they want to be more popular and more bigger although they can never be, but one other thing ive noticed California does NOT try and fight back or anything they really dont care , and thats another good thing about california, But they have been lieing on that one state over and over an over again from the past 40 years. but the thing is that They make a huge deal out of something small that happens in california for instance A storm , a storm hits california and it goes all over national news (especially all the jealous states) if they did taht t o texas or anything to un attract tourist They would have gotten a law suit, Im Saying California Fight Back, and they should get alot more tourist attractions of the kind, however if you are planning on leaving california you are leaving the Best , the Very best you may regret it.. Also About the Power Crisis NOTICe if not The Stae Of New York And PA are under the same exact type of crisis notice they are not all over the news wonder why?,, your not alone. And Again If You Are Thinking Of moving To the State Of Tennessee i suggest you think again , The State of TN is FULL of Lies And Lies I Dont think its any other state in america taht lies about the way they really are like Tennessee does ,, Notice on teh news Tennessee Had to put this little slogan over in californie quote "The Lights Are Always On In Tennessee" Now That is a Pure Lie The Cities in Tennessee have roling blackouts every single month and yes they last alot longer than 7 hours, i have been in tennessee , and everything is a lie. You may have to exuse tennessee , That State Only Wants People. They Only want to be Big And Have Traffic, And News, And Stores like Other states . so exuse tennessee also they have one of the worst climates AND Earth Quakes Beleve it or not.. Thanks..