Shortly after the rally, as the crowds began to head out of Mc Arthur park, the police came into the park and began hassling local vendors, many of them unable to run away from the police in time. (Police and wanna-be cops in purple have been doing this in downtown for sometime now). Hundreds of riot cops rushed into the park, just as the march as left, I heard from some people that there were several people arrested.

Later, as night set in, people all over the city continued walking the streets, driving in their cars with flags hanging out of their windows, and honking. In Pico Union, the protest became more militant, some small fires were set along sixth street as well as some glass broke on one of the bus stops.

I arrived late, after someone had told me that there was a riot going on in Mc Arthur Park. When I arrived I saw the police state in action. Trucks filled with police ran up and down the street, pointing tear gas guns at the apartments and on lookers above them. Smoke filled the air and Ghetto birds circled above. “Get out of the street!” one of the cops ordered over a megaphone as I videotaped them from the sidewalk.

As we got to 6ths street we saw more lines of trucks all packed with riot police hanging off both sides. I joined with other on lookers and protesters on the corner, and all of the sudden two police cars pulled up and started watching us, telling us to move along. We walked down sixth and saw a man being arrested, when we tried to stay and make sure that he was alright, more squad cars came up and pushed us back.

At this point two squad cars began following us as we walked down the street. As we turned on to Alvarado, they turned as well. And when we turned again on Wilshire there were two other cars waiting for us. They were trying to pin us in. At this point our group tried to figure out what to do seeing as we were vastly outnumbered and worried that they would soon arrest some or all of us. A cop car sped up to the corner where we were at and the cops pretended to jump out of the car and yelled racist comments at us. Then, from behind us a group of cops started charging, “get him!” they yelled pointing to one of the more outspoken people in the group. Suddenly cops began running after the man (who was not doing anything but standing on the street). As they chased after him, one of the cops slipped and fell, dropping his baton and sending his walkie-talkie flying through the air. When one of the protesters started laughing, the cop who fell attacked the man who was laughing, ripping his shirt off his chest. At the same time twenty or so cops had thrown the man they picked from the crowd to the wall. Residents looked on from their apartments as the cops told the onlookers and people in the streets to disperse.

When the corporate media arrived they didn’t take any footage, they would listen to witness’ story of the police officer who attacked someone for laughing at them, or of the unwarranted arrest. They left and then later reported that a police officer had been injured in a fall as protestors through rocks at police. And that was the story that was reported over and over again by the racist corporate media.

This isn’t new, this is what happens everyday in communities like Pico Union, Watts, South Central, the list goes on and on. But the message that the police made is clear, “you can march in the street, you can wave American flags, you can plead to be a part of a racist country that exploits you, but don’t think about taking control of your own communities.” So until we move from marching peacefully in the streets to actually taking over our communities, we are still in occupied territory, and the police are an occupying army.

*Update on the person arrested: He has been released, but had to post $2,000 for a 20,000 bail. I’m pretty sure we was abused by the police while in jail as well. Stay posted for ways to support this soldier.