The Los Angeles Police were waiving their batons and shooting rubber bullets at protesters at the May 1st Immigration Protest this afternoon in MacArthur Park. The protest was at the stage of winding down when people were caught off guard. Watching on the news, it appeared to me that a large number of police were trying to disperse people who were at the rally with little or no warning. No bullhorns were used to warn the crowd in advance according to local news reports. A TV reporter traced the police strongarm reaction to an incident where one policeman was seen falling off his mortorcycle. Perhaps, they thought this particular officer was thrown or pushed off his riding machine. Whatever the cause, I saw a woman who had fallen to ground threatened by a baton wielding officer; I saw little children with frenzied adults being rushed away from the scene. I saw a young man with a bad looking bruise that appeared to be from a rubber bullet.
I hope Mayor Villaraigosa can straighten this mess out without capitulating to what will surely be a whitewashed police version of the report. I see no excuse for the behavior. It was an blatant example of police carelessness and overuse of force. And what I saw was only a small portion of the action. The reporters themselves said they felt in danger too as they were caught in the middle as this event escalated.
1 comment:
I am glad to see that Police Chief Bratton and Mayor Villaraigosa seem to be taking the police overreaction to the immigration rally on May Day situation in LA seriously. Bratton has already said the action seemed
inappropriate and Villaraigosa is cutting his trip short to come back and look into the issue. Although both men were a little slow on the upbeat at first, playing the careful game, I think things are changing now. I hope so.
Sharon Raphael
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