photos courtesy of J. Lee
The two are out on bail, and the pigs indeed threw the book at them. The charges are felony vandalism (totaling $500+ damage, supposedly) and drug posession. The price of bail alone is beyond the means of any worker, student, etc. unless they plan on cutting food and shelter out of their budget.
Needless to say, the punishment does not fit the "crime", petty spray-can activism and possession (perhaps in the lungs?) of an insignifigant amount of lo-grade smoke... unless the city of hollywood plans on destroying the defiled articles and rebuilding an unsoiled wall (or whatever) in its place.
Any chatter to the effect that the two were cops or in cahoots with them are unwarranted and ridiculous, and in the future one should seriously think before carelessly tossing about such a suggestion on a widely-read public forum such as IMC.
Anyone who reproaches the comrades for "breaking the law" condones the police and ultimately shows too much faith in the state...the ruling class makes the law and the ruling class breaks the law. Wafting clouds of potsmoke should be familiar to anyone who frequents these demos, and the worst charge we can level at the accused is reckless light-mindedness.
The LAPD effectively infiltrated this demo, and we need to update our tactics in order to show who's really in charge. We can bleat all we want about non-violence but the pigs bring the violence, consistently, either when they feel threatened or when they sense our weakness. We need to shake off their scrutiny, revoke their fucking control, and ADAPT.