News Advisory

THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA

www.cagreens.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Contact: Susan King, spokesperson, 415.823-5524

funking at mindspring.com

Dr. Bob Vizzard, spokesperson, 916.206

8953, thevizz at aol.com

Sara Amir, spokesperson, 310.270-7106

saraamir at earthlink.net

Cres Vellucci, press secretary,

916.996-9170 civillib at cwnet.com





Greens condemn ‘brazen brutality' by police

at Los Angeles immigration rights march, charge

police targeting ‘marginalized and disenfranchised'

LOS ANGELES, Ca. (May 3, 2007) – The Green Party of

California today

condemned the "brazen brutality" of the Los Angeles

Police Department

Tuesday at a peaceful immigration rights march here

where dozens of

demonstrators – and members of the news media – were

clubbed and

shot by

so-called "non-lethal" projectiles.

At least three investigations – including one by the

FBI – are now

underway

to determine the extent of the unnecessary violence

used by police to

disperse a peaceful crowd at a park, although the

organizers of the May

Day

march had an approved permit. Police apparently fired

at least 240

rounds

at demonstrators and reporters, sending many to the

hospital.

"The brazen police brutality of the LAPD is yet

another example of the

erosion of our civil liberties as we slide more and

more into a police

state, with the poor, immigrants, people of color, the

marginalized and

disenfranchised the targets of institutionalized

violence and

repression,"

said Los Angeles Green spokesperson Linda Piera-Avila.

"The LAPD's mission of ‘to protect and serve' seems to

only apply to

those

who are part of the corporate interests, while

immigrants are being

used as

target practice. For justice to be served, NAFTA and

similar disastrous

foreign policy agreements must be ended abroad while

here at home

immigrants must be recognized and accorded human

rights," she added.

Greens in Southern California are mobilizing to

provide any assistance

needed by those attacked by the LAPD on May Day.



"The LAPD action was outrageous," said Peter Thottam,

a Los Angeles

attorney and former Green Party candidate for Assembly

in the 53rd

District, who has offered his help to those involved

in the attacks by

police.