Reporter: \"What's the police's excuse going to be?\"
\r\n<\/i>Witness: \"Besides racism?\"<\/i><\/p>\r\n
MACARTHUR PARK, May Day 2007--Police stormed a workers' and immigrants' rally\r\nat 5:30 p.m. this afternoon in MacArthur Park, sending thousands of families\r\nrunning in terror as they cleared MIWON Immigrant rally and festival with foam\r\nand beanbag bullets, batons, and, according to some observers, tear gas. The cops marched through the\r\npark in riot gear, indiscriminately clubbing down people in their wake. \r\nYoung people formed the front line against the onslaught, running in retreat for\r\na few yards at each thud-like explosion and then turning\r\nback to the cops, while older and younger people ran through the single open\r\nexit in fear that it, too, would be barricaded.<\/p>\r\n
A few moments before, children had been playing on the hillside and dancing\r\nwith puppet dragons. A drum circle was beating out a rhythm, hot dog and\r\nshaved ice vendors strolled through the crowd, and speakers at the north end\r\nstage called out for solidarity among immigrant and and non-immigrant workers.<\/p>\r\n
According to a witness, the melee began when someone in a crowd gathered on\r\nAlvarado Street between 7th and 8th Streets hurled something toward the police,\r\nas the Aztec danzantes performed for a group gathered on Alvarado. The\r\nwitness reported that the motorcycle cops nudged the audience, then cops on foot\r\nsplit the crowd in the street and stormed them. <\/p>\r\n
A National Lawyers' Guild observer, Sanjukta Paul, was beaten repeatedly,\r\nincluding a blow to the kidneys, as she attempted to separate the police from\r\nthe crowd. She had demanded that she had the right to be there as she\r\ntried to move people off the street, but a cop replied, \"No, you\r\ndon't,\" then clubbed her with his baton.<\/p>\r\n
From inside the park, the first warning was a single thud. Then a line\r\nof squad cars, sirens wailing, raced down 6th Street and turned onto S. Park\r\nView to 7th Street. Crowds from the street began pouring into the south\r\nend of the park, as parents scooped up children from impromptu wrestling matches\r\nand pulled them out of trees where they had climbed. Finally a helicopter\r\noverheard blared out the dispersal order, telling the crowd to leave the park\r\nand return to their cars. Another round of cop cars tore down the crowded\r\nstreet.<\/p>\r\n
\"I've been in protests in the '50s, the '60s, '70's. I've never\r\nseen anything like this,\" an elderly woman reported. She had been on\r\nAlvarado when the cops had charged. The people had lifted the woman over a\r\nfence onto private property, where the owner offered her sanctuary. Her\r\ndaughter, frantically seeking her child as she retreated, was batoned in the\r\nstomach three times by a pig who said she wasn't moving back \"fast\r\nenough.\"<\/p>\r\n
As the police entered the park, vendors at the entrance frantically tried to\r\nescape with their carts. Organization members desperately tried to clear\r\ntables and literature in the path of the incursion. Roughly eighty pigs\r\nformed a diagonal line and marched across the park, sweeping everybody into a\r\nshrinking semicircle. <\/p>\r\n
The police used foam and bean bag bullets against the people in the\r\npark. At least one guy left with blood soaking through his white T-shirt\r\nand a massive bruise already forming. Foam bullets carry the impact of a\r\n95 m.p.h. fastball or a baseball bat. Last month, David K.\r\nMaxson from McHenry County, Illinois died in a \"justified\"\r\npolice shooting with a beanbag gun.<\/p>\r\n
IF tear gas was used, a slight breeze wafted much it away, but those in the park felt\r\nwelling eyes and difficulty breathing. One woman complained that the\r\nfracas had triggered an asthma attack.<\/p>\r\n
The police arbitrarily fired on and beat those within range. Several\r\nreporters were beaten, and at least one was taken in away in an ambulance for a\r\nwound to his leg. One white-haired guy reported that his wife had been\r\nshot in the chest.<\/p>\r\n
A few stray rocks from the park did little to slow the advance of the armed\r\nand firing pigs. Someone in the retreating crowd smashed a brick on the\r\nsidewalk so that others in front of him could hurl the shards at the police, but\r\nno one picked them up. For a few moments some of the ralliers\r\nreorganized in a march on 6th Street and stopped traffic, but the cops ordered\r\nthat they leave the area. The marchers threw the rocks in their hands onto\r\nthe asphalt in frustration as they left. A number of people circled around\r\nthe clock and came back down to the park on 6th Street, but the cops kept them\r\nat a distance, and a legal observer convinced them to leave the area.<\/p>\r\n
By 8:00 p.m. the park was clear, but the Pico Union district was filled with\r\npeople in the streets, sitting on stoops, and hanging out on street\r\ncorners. Last year's May Day march also ended with police violence in\r\nAlvarado Street. The district was a hot spot during the 1992\r\nRebellion, and Pico Union is the home of the infamous Rampart Police\r\nCRASH unit, which cost the city millions of dollars for lawsuits involving drug\r\ndealing, perjured testimony, and framing innocent people. A federal\r\ninvestigation of CRASH was suspended when it was revealed that the FBI was\r\nlikely complicit in the unit's abuses of immigrants. <\/p>\r\n\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"leslie@radiojustice.net","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","summary":"The police shoot and tear gas families celebrating immigrants and May Day","numcomment":47,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2007\/05\/2007-05-01_police_invasion6.jpgmyfkob.jpg","filesize":"29.1 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2007\/05\/197899.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2007\/05\/2007-05-01_police_invasion6.jpgmyfkob.jpg","small":"\/uploads\/2007\/05\/2007-05-01_police_invasion6.jpgmyfkob.jpgthumb.jpg"}},"attachments":[{"id":197900,"heading":"","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-05-03 11:29:44","modified":"2007-05-03 11:29:44","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/05\/2007-05-01_police_invasion3.jpgm5k4sj.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/05\/2007-05-01_police_invasion3.jpgm5k4sj.jpg"}}],"comments":[{"id":197964,"heading":"Is it true that it was the anarchists...","article":"The organizers of the March were quoted just minutes ago by Lou Dobbs as sayibg that it was the anarchists who were taunting and provoking the police. I wonder if this is true.","author":"Daniel Maldonado","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-03 20:26:59","modified":"2007-05-03 20:26:59","fileurl":""},{"id":197967,"heading":"Who's to blame?","article":"The finger-pointing is happening all over the streets of L.A. Gangs, white anarchists, assholes. Right-wing media is trying their damnedest to blame undocumented workers, just for being there. In our mad fury to find someone else to blame, we are all playing straight into the pigs' hooves. If we keep on like this, they will have a fall guy\/girl. The whole f***ng city will breathe a sigh of relief, and not a damn thing will change.\r\n\r\nThe pigs were brutal, ruthless, violent mofos. Throwing tear gas bombs in the direction of children is not an appropriate response to a water bottle, no matter what. Beating people who were hanging out in the park enjoying the festival is racism at its baldest.\r\n\r\nThe pigs were doing everything they could to provoke what happened. If it wasn't the person with the water bottle, it would have been someone else--maybe me, or you. The pigs were pushing hard; someone would have gotten too close, looked at a pig the wrong way. It doesn't matter who threw the water bottle. THE PIGS STARTED IT. That much is clear, that's got to be the unified message.\r\n\r\nDON'T GIVE THE PIGS AN EXCUSE. They had this planned, it was the same strategy as last year, and if we hand them anyone, they will get away with it.\r\n\r\nThe Big Pig is embarrassed and has called for an investigation. It will be a joke, a circus, but racist police brutality will stay in the news for a few extra weeks. If the pigs pick up a "perp," then it becomes all about anarchists, or gangs, or immigrants (worst choice) or whoever they lock up.\r\n\r\nBTW, my guess is that the pigs are wanting a gangster. They need fresh meat for Villaraigosa's public relations gang-busting strategy, V wants an excuse for being out of the country ("we were already working on the gang problem"). And anarchists are mostly white, so busting one of them won't let Bill and Tony blame the victims--the people of Mexican and Central American descent who's kids picked up a real-life pig encounter yesterday for their collection of childhood memories they can tell their kids about.\r\n\r\nAnd finally, I'm very wary of anyone pointing at gang members, for the reason I just said. I was there, too. I saw people who fit the stereotype for gangsters. Maybe some were. There were tats; I didn't check them out. But there were no waving colors (I saw a Lakers jersey, just like mine, bfd), no signs, no standoffs, no visible dealing, nada. If gangs were hanging, they played it cool, respected the families and the event. No trouble anywhere that would begin to justify what the pigs did.\r\n\r\nDon't believe the hype!","author":"nazis for target practice","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-03 20:50:45","modified":"2007-05-13 04:44:47","fileurl":""},{"id":197969,"heading":"right-wing dressed as left wing","article":"This is an article featured in Der Spiegel today. You dn't have to read it to get the idea. Basically, in germany, Neo-nazis have lately been adopting the characteristic dress of some left wing groups in order to sabotage or infiltrate what they're doing, specifically the 'black bloc' appearance: http:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/schulspiegel\/leben\/0,1518,480241,00.html","author":"spiegel","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-03 21:25:17","modified":"2007-05-03 21:25:17","fileurl":""},{"id":197974,"heading":"Laws that people don't notice till it effects them!","article":"People are marching out there trying to prove a point and that is to show that illegal immirgrants come with peace and want a better life. They seem to find the U.S.A a perfect oppurtunity and it is and i know because i live here. Even though i'm a citizen it still hurt last night to watch how people were treated at the march. If the people of the U.S. are really trying to fine a solution they should start by finding different ways of handling situations.","author":"Niki Belmonte","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/html","created":"2007-05-03 22:54:23","modified":"2007-05-03 22:54:23","fileurl":""},{"id":197998,"heading":"in El Salvador, San Salvador more gangsters","article":"SAN SALVADOR, May 2 (Reuters) - Los Angeles will work with El Salvador to help combat the violent Central American crime gangs that also terrorize the California city, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said on Wednesday.\r\n\r\nVillaraigosa, a Latino activist turned politician, said on a visit to El Salvador the accord included an exchange training program for Los Angeles and El Salvador police and policies to help El Salvador reinsert former gang members into society.\r\n\r\nMany Los Angeles gangs trace their roots to Central America. The civil wars of the 1980s and 1990s in the region prompted a flow of migrants to the United States and the rise in Los Angeles of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, which sought to protect early Salvadoran immigrants.\r\n\r\nThe gang now has an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 members in the United States and tens of thousands in Central America, many of whom are returning migrants.\r\n\r\nCentral American governments have waged a war against the gangs, often seizing anyone with gang-like tattoos in the street to the dismay of human rights groups.","author":"Jim Anarchrist","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 02:41:24","modified":"2007-05-04 02:41:24","fileurl":""},{"id":198007,"heading":"Anarchists","article":"I heard that some kids in black were calling the cops pigs, and others were namecalling from the safety of their masks. It's not clear if they were throwing bottles.\r\n\r\nBy and large, though, the anarchists I know don't really bother to call cops anything to their faces. They don't want to get busted across their heads.\r\n\r\nBTW - "Jim Anarchist" is a fake and a racist. No anarchist writes like him.","author":"second hand","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 04:39:40","modified":"2007-05-04 04:39:40","fileurl":""},{"id":198008,"heading":"Freedom in the park","article":"Its time to show the lapd that the people may take a few blows but we will win the end. Lets return to the park this weekend for a peaceful protest. Let us not run from our attackers but rather sit down joined together in the face of their cowardice. Let the world see that the LAPD is plagued by racists. ","author":"Justice","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"application\/pdf","created":"2007-05-04 04:40:44","modified":"2007-05-04 04:40:44","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/05\/freedom_at_the_park.pdf"},{"id":198020,"heading":"Send these LAPD cops to Iraq!","article":"Send these LAPD cops to Iraq and let the Iraqi resistance deal with them!","author":"Freedom Lover","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 07:32:33","modified":"2007-05-04 07:32:33","fileurl":""},{"id":198055,"heading":"heh","article":"....listen to the LAPD tapes and see for yourself who started the trouble\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.alhambra-insider.info\/radiocintercepts\/LAPD01.mp3","author":"Lord Locksley","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 17:51:09","modified":"2007-05-04 17:51:09","fileurl":""},{"id":198061,"heading":"yeah, so what?","article":"Listened to the whole affair.\r\nNo reason for the cops to riot. No injuries, no riot and the cops were the ones interfering with traffic.\r\nThis is bullshit.","author":"To Lord Dunce","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 18:32:16","modified":"2007-05-04 18:32:16","fileurl":""},{"id":198070,"heading":"heh","article":"....maybe you think I 'photoshopped' this or pulled it out of my ass?....talk about being in denial.....take a look....\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=guHsEX7lOes","author":"Lord Locksley","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 19:50:55","modified":"2007-05-04 19:50:55","fileurl":""},{"id":198075,"heading":"sure there was...","article":"Is that it? Someone in a bus saying "look. they're fighting" and some one blocking traffic? Great video.\r\nI noticed a platoon of nazis, double timing off to the left, but that's all. No projectiles no assaults. Did you mean the fellow holding the trash can?\r\nWas that threatening?\r\nYour investigative powers are underwhelming.\r\nplease go on.","author":"To Lord Dunce","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 20:10:46","modified":"2007-05-04 20:10:46","fileurl":""},{"id":198077,"heading":"heh heh","article":"Sound familiar?\r\n"-and waving that friggin Mexican flag while demanding full rights as US citizens for openers?-\r\n\r\nThat sounds like a 'sure' justification for police violence on a huge over reacting way.\r\nI also understand you;re a Zionist.\r\nMakes perfect sense.","author":"To Lord Dunce","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 20:19:41","modified":"2007-05-04 20:19:41","fileurl":""},{"id":198082,"heading":"chum","article":"Dear me. Think of this.\r\n\r\nFight the poison of Globalism with the poison of Nationalism!\r\n\r\nOh, you two can go on, if you like.\r\nCheers.","author":"Sir Gaylord","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 20:32:32","modified":"2007-05-04 20:32:32","fileurl":""},{"id":198084,"heading":"Awesome Report","article":"You're awesome","author":"Latinos Unidos","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 20:40:57","modified":"2007-05-04 20:40:57","fileurl":""},{"id":198086,"heading":"infiltration","article":"This may sound off topic but in view of the heavy infiltration of such events, we have no idea as to who actually instigated this.\r\nAnd to what purpose?\r\nWhatever the cause, the media is not whipping this dog.\r\nBad press maybe because of specifics about any arrests or lack of same?\r\nTime will tell and it's important to record events such as the radio intercepts.","author":"frank","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-04 20:49:14","modified":"2007-05-04 20:49:14","fileurl":""},{"id":198260,"heading":"ignorance","article":"ok I don't understand what if you have marchers that are protesting against abortion are they going to be treated the same by the people who are for abortion. This is embarassing, I wonder why other coutries laugh at us? Think about it, what if it was your children or mother that was trampled?? \r\nIt is okay for them to do the work that someone has to do right.. you know the jobs you would never imagine doing???","author":"Crystal","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-06 09:56:30","modified":"2007-05-06 09:56:30","fileurl":""},{"id":198332,"heading":"nice try, chum","article":"Don't believe it.\r\nThere is no 'you and us' reality in view of the general economic threat that faces all of us from the same forces that squeeze labor by death squads and inhuman disregard for the underclass. Of which you yourself hold membership.\r\nPut pressure on the system which is driving this migration reminiscent of the North Vietnamese migration of Catholic Vietnamese into South Vietnam that began the Vietnam war. Thanks to the gangsters of the CIA at the directions of Wall Street families who are the real enemies. Just like now. \r\nI hope that wasn't too complex for you.","author":"unorganized?","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-07 12:52:18","modified":"2007-05-07 12:52:18","fileurl":""},{"id":198333,"heading":"the anarchists","article":"the anarchists are just a justification, cop watch and the black bloc (which were pretty much one in the same) were the only anarchists there. prolly a total of 20-25 maximum. according to cheif bratton the anarchists were in triangle formation and were more organized than the police. but having been there, the police were using counter-terrorist tactics and formations, it WAS previously organized. \r\n\r\n@","author":"n\/a","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-07 13:07:04","modified":"2007-05-07 13:07:04","fileurl":""},{"id":198348,"heading":"la lucha el movimiento","article":"what is going on is a national liberation struggle. Euro-Americans see the world according to the eyes of a colonizer even if they are "leftists" what is going on here is an indigenous struggle that is only a small example of what happens when Colonialism subjugates an entire people and tries making them the outsiders in their own ancestral lands! Immigrant rights? Nope. Human rights! Workers Rights! Yes. Look at what happened there it was only a repeat of the Chicano Moratorium 1970, LA Rebellion 92, and the battles fought between Mexicanos and Natives against spanish and US settler colonialism. I doubt any us police force would have shot at AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY THAT WAY women, children, elders unless they where brown or black.\r\n\r\nperiod. \r\nviva aztlan libre","author":"chicano power","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-07 20:31:11","modified":"2007-05-07 20:31:11","fileurl":""},{"id":198349,"heading":"la lucha el movimiento","article":"what is going on is a national liberation struggle. Euro-Americans see the world according to the eyes of a colonizer even if they are "leftists" what is going on here is an indigenous struggle that is only a small example of what happens when Colonialism subjugates an entire people and tries making them the outsiders in their own ancestral lands! Immigrant rights? Nope. Human rights! Workers Rights! Yes. Look at what happened there it was only a repeat of the Chicano Moratorium 1970, LA Rebellion 92, and the battles fought between Mexicanos and Natives against spanish and US settler colonialism. I doubt any us police force would have shot at AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY THAT WAY women, children, elders unless they where brown or black.\r\n\r\nperiod. \r\nviva aztlan libre","author":"chicano power","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-07 20:31:11","modified":"2007-05-07 20:31:11","fileurl":""},{"id":198366,"heading":"ANarchists?","article":"Cop Watch is NOT an anarchist group. claiming the are "one and the same" as the balck bloc is defamatory and absurd.","author":"watchale","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-08 07:14:57","modified":"2007-05-08 07:14:57","fileurl":""},{"id":198653,"heading":"LEAVE IT TO THE LA BRUTAL FORCE?","article":"THE COUNTRY HASN'T CHANGED MUCH FROM THE 60'S RIOTS, AND IF ANYONE HAS BEEN TO THE RAINBOW GATHERINGS, THEY HAVE SEEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS BEING TAKEN AWAY ON FEDERAL FOREST LAND, WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE OUR LAND. NOT ONLY THAT, D.C. IS NOT COOL, EITHER THESE DAYS. YOU CAN'T JUST SNOOZE IN THE PARKS, THE HOMELESS ARE VERY ABUSED, ALL OVER THE PLACE, AND WE'RE SUPPRESSED IN AREAS, WHICH IS NOT NEW. IT'S A SHAME IN A COUNTRY WHERE WE'RE SUPPOSE TO HAVE RIGHTS, BUT THE ACLU HAS CASES BACKLOGGED BY THE DOZENS. IT'S NOT TOO COOL HERE IN BALTIMORE, MD., AND IT IS GETTING WORSER, WITH THE ARRESTS, AND NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THE LOT OF THEM. TAKE CARE OUT THERE, WATCH OUT FOR EACH OTHER, AND USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM, GOING PLACES, LIKE THEY TOLD US TO WHEN WE WERE KIDS.","author":"LINDA SAFLEY","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-05-11 15:14:53","modified":"2007-05-11 15:14:53","fileurl":""},{"id":219108,"heading":"To protect and to serve?","article":"The police never issued a disperse warning to the protesters, and when they did so via helicopter, the beating had occurred. I was there with my family, don't try to be biased but my little brother got traumatized by the police, and I spit at them.","author":"Student","parent_id":197899,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2008-07-26 23:43:18","modified":"2008-07-26 23:43:18","fileurl":""}]}