Long Beach was one of the more violent police offensives I have seen yet and I hope all the people involved are ok.

When I got there, most of the people were going to march with the black bloc. They all finally joined up and started the move down the street. Once at the end of the street, they turned around and went head-to-head marching against the police in riot gear. A few people were hit, but the police began to back off.

The Bloc continues marching in the streets and the police followed and eventually surrounded them. They reached the front of that building (i forget what it was for) and the police pushed them towards it. I saw people being pushed into the Bloc who were not masked and who were obviously observing.

Once the cops had them cornered they stopped pedestrians and supporters on the sidewalks and then began shooting what I believe were rubber bullets at the protesters.

Everything was very close range and I'm sure people were hurt. Bystanders who had no idea what Mayday was about were very alarmed at the "cops shooting kids for no reason".

One man ran out of the bloc with his hands in the air and was shot at. He was not masked or wearing black. To be honest, he just looked like a scared man trying to get out of the ruckus.

Things just went to shit because the cops went crazy and nearly everyone in the bloc was getting arrested.

From what I understand, the cops made an effort to get protesters into an underground parking garage. Nobody was ok with this (of course) so they stayed up top. Cops outnumbered protesters by at least 3 to 1.

I may not be articulating this all very well but it was all very disturbing and violent. Not many people seem to know about what went on because the indymedia presence was slim and the corporate media was laughing it up with the cops.

There are a lot of people in jail right now who were put there for no reason. A lot of people were hurt today so I would encourage you to spread the word.