{"article":{"id":6432,"heading":"Long Beach action","author":"*","created":"2001-05-03 06:34:16","modified":"2001-05-23 02:24:26","last_modified":"Wed, 23 May 2001 09:24:26","article":"

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.<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"what i saw in long beach","numcomment":3,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2001\/05\/6432.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":6435,"heading":"so messed up","article":"many people are still in jail in long beach-- with a small group still not giving their names. bail is anywhere from $500 to $30,000. the jail solidarity phone number is 562 437 4300. i can't believe how messed up all this is, how almost everyone at the march was arrested-- i was told that the police were so crazy-mad that they were even clubbing the banners and posters some people were carrying! and of course, after they had most of the black bloc surrounded, they then went out and arrested observers who were videotaping and taking pictures, etc. ","author":"me","parent_id":6432,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-05-03 13:46:15","modified":"2001-05-03 14:00:01","fileurl":""},{"id":6647,"heading":"re: so messed up","article":"Yeah this was absolutly discusting. I saw police officers literaly, take their batons and swing them like bats as hard as they could at peaceful demonstrators who were even walking AWAY from the cops, peacefuly, nothing in hand, no weapon at all, PEACEFULY, and they were just beaten... This is our \"freedom of speach\". We live in a police state. I shot ALLOT of good footage, but I doubt i'll get it back because the police confiscated everything when they arrested me, \"FOR EVIDENCE\". However if I DO happen to get the footage back, i'll post it everywhere. ","author":"rtf","parent_id":6432,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-05-09 21:42:45","modified":"2001-05-09 22:00:01","fileurl":""},{"id":6926,"heading":"a little sister's account","article":"As the younger sister of one of the Long Beach protesters I feel the urge to comment. I am not an anarchist, nor a capitalist, I remain neutral in my young age and ignorance. What I do feel strongly about is having my mother call me to tell me my brother was not only arrested, but beaten by cops and held in jail for two days. My brother gave me the address for this site, and seeing pictures of him being physically opressed by police is more than I can comprehend. Strangers, people who don't know my brother, have no right to treat him with such a lack of respect. Police have no right whatsoever to treat any peaceful human being with such a blatant display of brutality. In any case, I want you all to stay safe but keep fighting for what you believe in. I hope the belligerant police are punished for their behavior. \r\n\r\nGood luck...","author":"anonymous","parent_id":6432,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-05-23 02:24:26","modified":"2001-05-23 03:00:01","fileurl":""}]}