by Gary Rumor
Sunday, Feb. 16, 2003 at 9:31 PM
Garyrumor@aol.com
Black Block Breakaway attacked by LAPD. At least 4 demonstrators clubbed by police that this reporter witnessed. 1 or more arrested. Police charged breakaway marchers.
Today's massive march against the war in Hollywood was the scene of a brutal police asault on breakaway marchers. Anarchists, Communists and other anti war protestors who intended to participate in a breakaway march down Sunset Blvd. to sites for peaceful die in's were attacked by LAPD officers on foot with clubs and by motorcyle cops using Psy-War tactics blasting sirens at deafening levels and charging en masse on the 200 or so demonstrators in todays Black Bloc Breakaway.
Earlier in the march Black Blockers joined by Not In Our Name marchers performed die in's on Hollywood Blvd. After reaching the end of the official march at Sunset and La Brea, those who had planned to breakaway had some dificulty gathering together due to the awesome size of the crowd estimated at 100,000 by the ANSWER Coalition organizers and at at least 50,000 by Steve W. an old time anti Vietnam war activist. This writer found the crowd to be at some points almost as dense as those at the Durga Festival in Calcutta, where the crowd grows so thick that one is literally lifted off ones feet.
After some initial cross communication, the Black Bloc marched up La Brea from Sunset, cut across on a side street and marched back down Orange in force to Sunset with locked arms chanting "No War But Class War", "What do we want, Revolution, When do we want it, Now", and "1 2 3 4 what do we want Class War".
As one of the demonstrators put it, "The state is the source of more terror than any so called terrorist group and what we need is to realize that it is the Capitalist class backed by the police/military state that is the enemy, not some dictator in Iraq. Let us unite as a world of under classes and overthrow all the dictators, whether they hide behind the facade of so called democracy or are more blatantly dictatorial".
Demonstrators then marched down Sunset chanting "Whose Streets, Our Streets". They kicked down street barriers, but otherwise were entirely peaceful. Locked arm in arm rows of masked Anarchists dressed in black, with flags,and banners reading "Anti War Action", "Breakaway Die-In" among others, soon were confronted by lines of cops. Many others had joined the Anarchists, including a large contingent from the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade and Not In our Name project. They joined together to confront the police.
The cops began jabbing the front lines of protestors with clubs, the demonstrators line held and then to avoid injury reformed in the middle of the block. Seeing that they were surrounded, they went to the side walk where they passed through the police lines in small groups reforming at Las Palmas where a group were pinned against a car and some were clubbed by cops, others were succesfully unarrested and others may have been arrested. At least one is thought to have been at that point.
The police had formed line of motorcycles blaring sirens at ear piercing volumes to intimidate demonstrators. Although the locked arm lines had been broken, groups of demonstrators stood their ground against this intimidation, only yielding under the pressure of superior force.
After several more charges, reinforced by truck loads of police in Riot gear, the demonstrators dispersed. The police in a show of force backed by violence, was a typical display LAPD overreaction. Nothing new in this city of police corruption scandals and the notorious beatings of persons of color, in this case Black by choice. - Gary Rumor.