Before the events of a few weeks ago, I planned on carrying a sign that read WE WANT A CONSENT DECREE at the Oct.22 action. But now we have it. Los Angeles has turned out a circus of a Police Department, with so many scandals making national mainstream press, it's hard to keep up. What so many Angelenos knew for so long has finally pierced into SUV bubbles and jolted the Starbuck's out of many Americans. But the importance of the consent decree was symbolic of all the problems the LAPD has, and now that the Feds are peeking at the cops, it's time to clarify how deep the problems run. The Oct.22nd march had such a clear message, it seems that only the unthinking wouldn't want to try to understand it. People wore black in solidarity, and that mixed and matched with Black Bloc wear, and what a relief. I don't mind Anarchists, they stand outside the quivering ring of society, and lob in truths. They are not going to flow over the fences of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., so I wish the press would stop demonizing them. There were clear messages everywhere, Abolish the Death Penalty, Education Not Incarceration, every important justice system issue. And there were personal stories, with The Stolen Lives Project educating people about the victims of police violence. And ther were just lots of people, some letting off steam, others there in solidarity. But the edge was crossed at the rally, particularly by a large group of protestors attempting to peacefully march around to the back of Parker Center. There, the LAPD raised tensions to fever pitch by presenting a paramilitary force. Confusion was stoked by poor communication, and nasty violent moments of cops whipping at protestors with batons and angrily shoving them instead of diffusing the situation. The reality is that this was a well-planned action against the police, and the cops should have been cool headed, prepared and realistic about the passions people have for these issues. Instead, the situation escalated. After long tense minutes, plenty of time for a community sensitive police department to cool things down, the LAPD had to ratchet it up in true Cowboy style. They suddenly started firing rubber bullets, injuring, confusing and bewildering the crowd. Everyone knew we were stuck on the East end of Parker Center, but why were the police shooting? Where did they want us to go? They didn't seem to know either. The crowd scattered back, some were injured, and the cops picked individual skirmishes. A mounted officer chased a photographer swinging his baton over his head until the guy put his hands up. The photographer was confused about where the new perimeter was being drawn, as were all of us and the cops didn't seem to know either. They raced to their left and fired rubber bullets at a confused group of teenagers. A very young girl was carried out by medics and friends, her eye bloody. The police seemed to have decided that the crowd should leave this particular street and head West toward the larger group in front of Parker Center. Once again, good policing was as dead as Eisenhower as the cops moved the crowd up the street by picking fights and using terror tactics. It wasn't pretty, and lots of people caught rubber. Rafael Perez is nothing. Rampart is peanuts. The LAPD has a seperate state of mind than that of its citizens, it's not the protector of the people, it is a specific cultural and political state of mind. These guys are political. The LAPD wasn't using acceptable crowd management techniques at the Oct22nd action, they were making a political statement. The LAPD has fastidiously held onto a decaying and self-destructive style. They are so dis-connected from the people that they can only arm themselves to the teeth and hunker down for war. All the problems presented at the Oct.22nd action represent so many diverse manifestations of the same problem. The people of this city have to realize that the Federal governments consent decree will only have a very limited scope and effectiveness. But all the things that made the Feds finally take notice are things that tiny voices have been crying out for years. Now we have people gathering to voice their anger, fears and concerns and they were met by excessive force. Imagine if the LAPD greeted the Feds army of lawyers with the same callous disregard for civil rights? But I guess wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to continue their cover-ups in the courts was the LAPD's pepper-spray in the face of the police commission and the Justice Department. Actions like the Oct.22nd one should serve to remind us that the citizens will have to articulate the real issues, and the city council shouldn't waste all of our time by ignoring us anymore. How humiliating can a police department be to it's people and for how long? It's as if a bizarre experiment in new millenium Fascism was being test run on a vast scale. Can't this city get community policing and an end to bigot cops? And who are the LAPD anyway? They are mine. And yours.