PROTESTORS WERE BEAT AND BRUTALIZED ON OCTOBER 22ND WHILE PROTESTING NON-VIOLENTALLY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY IN THE LARGELY BROWN & POVERTY STRICKEN COMMUNITY OF SANTA ANA, WITH PROTESTORS INCURRING SEVERAL INJURIES, THEN ARRESTED ON FALSE CHARGES, AND ULTIMATELY RELEASED FROM CITY JAIL BECAUSE PROTESTORS REFUSED TO LEAVE THE FRONT OF THE POLICE STATION UNTIL ALL PRISONERS WERE RELEASED.
PROTESTORS WERE BEAT AND BRUTALIZED ON OCTOBER 22ND WHILE PROTESTING NON-VIOLENTALLY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY IN THE LARGELY BROWN & POVERTY STRICKEN COMMUNITY OF SANTA ANA, WITH PROTESTORS INCURRING SEVERAL INJURIES, THEN ARRESTED ON FALSE CHARGES, AND ULTIMATELY RELEASED FROM CITY JAIL *SOLEY* BECAUSE PROTESTORS REFUSED TO LEAVE THE FRONT OF THE POLICE STATION UNTIL ALL PRISONERS WERE RELEASED.
today is friday october 22nd, the annual day of protest against police brutality for victims and supportors of victims. the inner city community of santa ana / anaheim has long had grievances against the santa ana police department, as is typical for largely poor, brown/black/or of color communities. the last couple of years has brought serious protests, complaints, and currently pending lawsuits over the murder of a 17-yr. old boy named elmer bustos who was shot several times and killed while riding his bicycle in his barrio community, courtesy of SANTA ANA PD.
naturally, on this 22nd day of october, this strong community of santa ana organized a non-violent demonstration to voice our continued dissent against the police brutality in our community, as well as in oppossition to all police repression, and the "legitimized" repressive police state many of us live under every day.
these police are obviously extremely distressed when large numbers of folks with brown skin gather on the streets in any sort of a form that promotes power to speak out against the repressive government, and/or to simply empower predominately brown / poor communities. when the young, brown and poor get on the streets to organize and protest in santa ana, the POLICE come out with _dozens_ of police cars, vans, riot gear, video cameras, and more, for these small community protests of less than 50 people.
tonight, several protestors were brutalized with 4 being arrested for "crimes" of essentially standing on their streets, speaking out against police repression.
the details of the arrests and alleged crimes cannot be published until further legal consultation has occured.
all four prisoners were carried around in the van until the protestors reached the police station, at which time the one of the captives was told that they were going to be "examples" for the rest of the crowd and booked and held 6 - 12 hours, then released for various charges by morning.
however, since the protestors *refused* to leave the front of the police station in protest until all prisoners were all released, they decided to let us (their captives) go in hopes that protestors would all just leave afterwords. (this is very important to learn from)
all 4 were released wtih various citations and in significant charges, and now need are seeking funds to pay for medical attention and legal represntation (simulatenously documenting these crimes), and hope to use this incident to continue organizing around police brutality, with an emergency forum being called for next week, most likely be upcoming SATURDAY NIGHT oct. 30th in SANTA ANA at the corner of main and edinger, to reflect on tonight's crimes and related repression, stragize effective means of resisting police repression, including a broad based group statement to present to the santa ana police CITY COUNCIL MTG.
the importance issues here are not just that individuals got brutalized, injured or harrassed by the police department. this incident should serve to highlight a minor glimpse of the common realities of life on the "other" side of the apartheid wall of the united states of amerikkka. tonights' incidents serve to wake people up who feel closely affected by these incidents, and realize that these types of crimes happen exponentially worse to thousands of people every year who do not have the privilege of being observed by dozens of people as we were.
police brutality must be challenged and resisted. communities must continue to find ways to accomplish this by realizing their inherent strength in their own solidarity.
those intersted in supporting this cause further, please stay in touch (email back) for additional info about next week's emergency strategizing meeting.
Original: protestors brutalized while protesting police brutality in santa ana