I was watching T52 Telemundo, one of the Spanish language stations for Los Angeles, and saw this unbelievable footage of the LAPD Riot Squad forcefully driving thousands of people out of MacArthur Park during the May Day march. Telemundo ran footage of their news crew being swept out of the park along with everyone else - driven out by lines of riot police with batons at the ready and toting 12 gauge shotguns as well as tear gas launchers. The shotguns supposedly fire “non-lethal” rubber bullets and bean-bag loads, munitions that were used against the crowd at close range. Telemundo footage showed one shirtless male protestor with a huge bloody welt/abrasion on his mid-section, being led away by comrades after cops shot him with such “non-lethal” munitions. Telemundo footage also showed tear gas canisters being fired at the fleeing crowds.

Telemundo’s footage showed a peaceful crowd being terrorized and threatened by the police. I don’t have the technology to make a video, or even to make a proper screen capture - so I used a hand held digital camera to shoot a screen capture of my TV screen as I played a video tape of the news.

The resulting picture shows one of the peaceful protestors in the park, holding an American flag mounted on a pole and being driven backwards by a line of cops. On the left you can see one of those cops pointing a shotgun directly in the man’s face. It’s a stunning image - a riot cop shoving a loaded shotgun in the face of a peaceful protestor holding an American flag.