I was inside when all I hear are loud thumps, and then people yelling. Some people started spreading the word that the cops were out there trying to break in. It was right about that time I started hearing the helicopter overhead. We closed the door and started organizing. "They can't come in here without a warrant. You have the right to remain silent--and everybody should." Nonetheless there was some confusion. It seems like someone decided that they needed to inform the cops that we knew our rights and refused to be intimidated. They went outside, and people closer to the door said that they were getting searched.

There was some harassment going on at the door and the cops started coming in. Some people started finding other ways out, but most of us just stood our ground. The cops were trying to convince us all to come out. But mostly we just stayed there. Finally they convinced a trusted member of the community that if we didn't all come out with our hands on top of our heads that we were all going to be arrested. Everyone that was still inside filed out with our hands atop our heads and were lined up facing the fence across the alley from the spot.

There were about 12 cop cars lining the alley and the adjacent street. My guess is that there were about 60, maybe 75 of us lined up. I counted 24 cops, and then a couple of bicycle units showed up. And the bird was still on the wing, spotlighting us and our spot. One-by-one, they patted us down. People with bags had them searched. Once they were sure we weren't armed or doped up (they didn't find anything on anyone) they sent us to face the wall a little further down the alley. The one who searched asked me what was going on in the warehouse. "Just a little hip hop," I said. Meanwhile, the cops are realizing not everyone filed out obediently and some people are on the roof of another warehouse. They started yelling at them from the chopper to get down. Our friends smiled and waved.

The cops didn't seem to know what to do in the face of resistance, and kept ordering us to keep out hands on our heads, keep quiet, and keep facing the fence. Eventually they let us put our hands down. After a while, a sergeant identified himself and ordered us to turn around and face him. He said that one of us had been accused of shoplifting and that someone was going to inspect us and identify the thief.

Slowly, a cruiser cruised by, shining bright-ass lights in our faces. Some people said they thought they saw a camera in there. When they got to the end of the line, they stopped and started coming back. They pulled a guy out of line. He looked to be in his early 20s, Latino, with long hair, dressed pretty metal. They searched him and took him away.

Some people in the line-up got mad at that guy, buying the pig line and blaming him for burning the spot. As if someone shoplifting, if he really did it, was justification of the cops' gross violations of our rights.

Then the cops pulled two more people, a man and a woman from the Black Riders, out of the line and took them away. Then they demanded to speak with the owner of the warehouse, or failing that, the organizer of the party. "Somebody needs to step up, or..." the cops threatened. How might things have worked out differently if we all would've taken one step forward? But only one compañero did. The sergeant talked to him and about four cops surrounded him. They talked peaceably for a few minutes, and I heard the pig asking if he had the keys so he could lock the building up. Then I see them handcuffing him and taking him away. They didn't say what he was being charged with.

Next they separated the people who needed to go back in to get something of theirs, and the cops started taking them in three at a time. Then they freed everyone who had come by bicycle.

They asked us where we parked, and we all said "around the corner" and pointed around the corner. Then they let half of us go. Walking down the alley I could see some of the compañerxs in the cop cars and still being harassed. And when I got to the street, I saw cops on foot beside the cars parked there, writing on notepads. They weren't writing tickets, just writing. "Damn they're getting our plates."

Needless to say, everyone was pissed off and very concerned for our arrested comrades. And there was the inevitable questioning and fingerpointing. "Didn't that guy who was here earlier seem a little suspicious? Is there an informant?"

Well, part of the problem is that we had no real security measures to speak of. Maybe we didn't feel like we needed them, because everything we're doing is totally legal. But, knowing the LAPD, and the general political scene, we should know better.

They're sending a message loud and clear: We know who you are, we will harass and try to intimidate you, threaten you with criminal prosecution on trumped-up charges, use force against you, for daring to associate yourself with the movement. Because right now something special is going on. There has been anarchism in LA for a long time, but now we are finally seeing people crossing boundaries, working together, creating alternatives, creating community, and attracting crowds of people to peacefully support those same ideas.

We need to remain strong, not believe any pig bullshit that is trying to drive wedges between us, and strengthen our ties to each other. The only solution to this problem is community.

Since you talk about community why dont you reach out to civil rights lawyers? I know that lawyers are not very vogue with anarchists, and I dont blame you one bit but consider the following...

1) What you have here is a valid class action civil rights suit on first ammendment grounds. Of couse the LAPD will just trump up something like they were following up on some kind of complaint, but a jury might see it your way.

2) A lawsuit, even if unsuccessful, would shed a bad light on any railroading attempts you described which are a real danger and have happened many times in the hands of these criminals.

A Note To The Fascist Traitors (Homeland Security et al):
The reason I am posting this, and you know who this is even though I am at an anonymous library computer and not my home computer that you are in on as well; the reason I am posting is that the light in my vehicle was dislodged to send me a message and instill fear. Piss on these threats! Because I am not disrupted to the point of not being able to continue on my chosen path and because my life and freedom are threatened with inane cowardice and not so directly as those described above, I will not file a lawsuit but Im encouraging these people to in response to the persistance of the domestic terrorism and censorship I have been subjected to of which this latest theft and vandalism, I believe, is a part. If I fail in a lawsuit against my persecutors, I will find and organize class action lawsuits. I will spend my entire time and energy organizing civil rights abuse lawsuits and I promise you, I will find the ones that will stick! You know I can get the word out dont you you fucks! Leave Me ALONE!

Why not reach out to civil rights lawyers if you are trying to build community? It seems to me that what you here is a First Ammendment class action suit. I know that lawyers are not very vogue with anarchists and I dont blame them one bit, but consider the following:

1) A civil rights lawsuit would bring the outrage over this event to a wider area than the mostly radical left that populate this website. That would only make more oportunity for a more substantial legal front to discourage these kind of privations in the future, or at least have an ongoing framework that would offer some kind of challenge to it instead of merely your justified online complaints.

2) A lawsuit would also disempower their threats. They would look pretty arrogant trying to railroad any of you while you were in the midst of a class action civil rights suit with them, no?

Please consider that while the system is corrupt and favors corrupt law enforcement, there have been many victories on the legal front that put the proper official shame on this kind of behavior.

Why would someone steal a beer and then go somewhere with it? Why wouldn't they drink it right away, to get rid of the evidence, and then show up at the show buzzed?

"I know that lawyers are not very vogue with anarchists"

Not at all. It's a myth based upon a misunderstanding of anarchism to say that anarchists don't believe in utilizing lawyers. First of all anarchism is not a lifestyle philosophy concerned primarily with individual lifestyle choices, but is instead a social movement of the oppressed, of the working class. As such, anarchists attempt whenever possible to create the means of social freedom and self-determination, and view the collective defense of individuals and their free associations as a vital part of that freedom and self-determination. Thus, there is no reason to assume axiomatically that anarchists discount the services of sympathetic lawyers or other sympathetic professionals out of some ideological obstinacy on the part of anarchists, because as long as there are no strings attached that would seek to place limits on our individual, organizational, or social autonomy, we do generally accept their services.

Anarchists are opposed to the state system, the police and other authorities for the reason that the authorities seek to protect the prosperity of the state and capitalism into perpetuity and in doing so automatically set themselves against the self-determination and free associations of the people, and especially the oppressed toiling classes. True, the state and the authorities do offer the people their institutional protection but this always comes at the cost of the peoples social freedom and autonomy in that the state and authorities stand as a hierarchy over the people and this is something anarchists find unacceptable.

On the other hand the lawyer that represents one in court is not generally an authority with any institutional power over the one he represents, he can be let go at the behest and will of the defendant at any time, thus unlike the cop or bureaucrat, the lawyer who represents us has no institutionalized power over us. Nor unlike the boss or landlord does the lawyer have the means to set up a hierarchal division based upon economic considerations over society through the denial of free and equal access to the means of production and the necessities of sustenance, which is in large part why anarchists are opposed to the system of capitalism.

One anarchist response to the question of authority that is still relevant today is that of the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin when writes that:


“Does it follow that I reject all authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or the engineer. For such or such special knowledge I apply to such or such a savant. But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. I do not content myself with consulting a single authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions, and choose that which seems to me the soundest. But I recognise no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others.”

Thank you for the informative response re: lawyers. If I am not permitted to live in peace, legal council is far, Far, FAR overdue! I will sue if I am not permitted to find shelter and live a decent life of my own choosing. If that effort fails, I will start a legal foundation to adress these travesties and I will use the full force of my creative talents to spread the word.