Posted on 07/11/2006 1:26:51 PM PDT by upchuck
Poster's note:
This past Saturday, July 8, 2006, there was a pro-illegal alien/anti-illegal alien protest in LA. Some of the protesters were arrested and a LAPD officer was injured.On Saturday, July 8, the LAPD showed its true racist and reactionary character when it viciously attacked immigrant rights activists who were protesting against the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project in Hollywood. More than 300 pro-immigrant protestors gathered in a militant demonstration - led by the ANSWER Coalition and other progressive immigrant rights organizations - to counter a Minuteman hate march down Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood Boulevard is the traditional route for anti-war and other progressive demonstrations. The Minutemen march was an open attack on the immigrant rights movement that has gripped the nation over the past four months. In addition to beating anti-racist demonstrators and at least one passer-by the LAPD arrested six activists.To fully understand the context of the email I've posted below, go to this link first and read the original article and the FReeper comments. Then come back here and read this email from ANSWER.
And now, for something completely different, ANSWER's version this event:
After nearly two hours of peaceful protest, dozens of LAPD police in full riot gear instigated a wave of unprovoked violence on the progressive crowd. They pushed protestors, struck them with batons and wrestled several people to the ground while beating them brutally. Several ANSWER activists were brutalized and one was arrested because his friend was attempting to take photographs of riot police slamming a bystander against the back of a truck and hitting him with a baton. Top police brass later tried to justify their violence by saying protestors provoked the beatings by “crossing police lines" - an outright lie.
A Spanish-language media reporter from KPFK radio was shoved to the pavement, smacked hard and arrested for attempting to document the repression. The cops were attacking so wildly that even an elderly woman getting of a Metro bus was clubbed for being too close to the protest.
People from the surrounding neighborhood stopped and shouted at the police to stop their rampage against the protest.
LAPD and Minutemen collaboration
The police arrested around six people without cause while the fascist Minutemen chanted “L-A-P-D,” cheering them on. It was a naked display of police and fascist collaboration. The outraged anti-immigrant crowd stood their ground and defended their demonstration while chanting “Cops and the Klan go hand in hand!” Carlos Alvarez, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, then gave an impassioned speech to denounce the LAPD's brutality and defend the rights of the protestors to demonstrate against the Minutemen.
Hundreds of cops escorted around 150 Minutemen down Hollywood Boulevard in their racist march, which was followed by progressive pro-immigrant rights demonstrators. Despite the efforts of the LAPD to impede the several hundred progressive demonstrators, including another wave of police violence, protestors outlasted the Minutemen and held a brief victory rally before marching to the ANSWER office less than one block away. Activists felt a sense of accomplishment and struggle after fending off police violence and maintaining an organized, successful action against the Minutemen.
We need your help to defend free speech and assembly rights and the rights of immigrants. Around the country the ANSWER Coalition has worked in support of the immigrant rights movement and to openly and directly challenge the rise of neo-fascist movements like the Minutemen. [Per FR rules, shameless request for cash deleted.]
Organizing to fight back
The ANSWER Coalition has vowed to respond swiftly to this vicious police attack. Along with its partners in the National Lawyers Guild and Latino Movement USA, ANSWER will host a press conference on Tuesday, July 12 (see below). Featured speakers will include immigrant rights organizers, ANSWER organizers and lawyers, victims of police brutality at the protest and others. There will be video footage shown that depicts the outrageous brutality of the cops that day. ANSWER and the NLG are vigorously defending the rights of the anti-racist protestors and plan to file a civil suit against the LAPD and the city - helmed by pro-police mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - because of this flagrant assault on people’s civil rights.
Muna Coobtee, member of the ANSWER steering committee in Los Angeles said: “This unprovoked, terrible assault on a peaceful protest violates our civil rights and is aimed at the heart of the immigrant rights movement. The police came to this demonstration today, in an alliance with ultra-right-wing elements, to try to beat back the struggle for equality. We can’t look at this incident in isolation from the overall political climate. We know that it is related to the racist raids launched by the federal government targeting undocumented workers. It is related to the bigotry being whipped-up by the immigration hearings happening all over the United States . Because these connections are clear, we can be clear in saying that these intimidation tactics won’t workthey will backfire. The immigrant workers’ movement will remain stronger and more united than ever before.”
The independent people’s movement will not tolerate the LAPD’s criminal behavior. Police repression and the Minutemen are part of the right-wing's ploy to defeat the just struggle of immigrants for amnesty and full legalization. All charges leveled at any anti-racist protestor must be dropped immediately. The LAPD and the city must be held accountable.
Tuesday, July 11, 10 am
National Lawyers Guild Office at the Peace Center
8124 W Third St, Los Angeles
(Corner of Crescent Heights and Third)
Join the National Lawyers Guild, ANSWER Coalition, Latino Movement USA and other progressive organizations for a press conference to denounce last weekend's attack by the Los Angeles Police Department on the immigrant rights movement. Speakers will include Jim Lafferty and Carol Sobel, National Lawyers Guild; Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA; Ian Thompson, Attorney, ANSWER Coalition; victims of police violence at the protest and other guests.
Shocking video footage will also be shown of anti-Minutemen protestors being brutally beaten by LAPD officers without provocation. The video shows a deliberate, violent attack on peaceful protestors exercising their First Amendment rights. Please come to the press conference to show solidarity with the immigrant rights movement and people who were brutalized by the police attack. Take a stand for civil rights and free speech.
ANSWER is also putting out a call to all progressive people who attended Saturday's anti-Minutemen protest for video footage, photos and eyewitness reports of police brutality. Please contact us at [phone number and email address removed] to find out how to get us your video, photos or witness statements. This will help those who were unjustly arrested. In addition, ANSWER and the National Lawyers Guild are planning to file a lawsuit against the LAPD and the city for their despicable behavior against the demonstration.
I wonder how long the police are going to put up with it before they have a mass retirement?
Don't know, but it would make me angry to see my chief on TV talking about how "we're going to investigate this" and other PC blather.
Just because the event drew so much press, now they will be under the microscope. Sound familiar?
Yeah. Funny they forget cops belong to unions...
You're traveling through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.
Exactly!
The more I read the sicker I get... Answer will probably be next up for Rove to pander. This is all becoming like a really really bad episode of Twilight Zone... and it never ends.
Good point. Just yesterday, a 16-yr-old girl was shot in the head and killed, less than a mile from where I live. She was walking home from her high school at 1:30 p.m.
News reports say it was done by one of 4 "individuals" in a white SUV. However, Fox TV reported 4 Hispanic males in that vehicle.
and they wonder why LA is 1000 officers short of recruitment goals....want me to post the video?
Or, actually, what was your point?
That ANSWER does not address drive-by shootings?
Or that LAPD does not?
The latter assertion would be ridiculous.
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/167640.php
Video of the "brutality"
they already are having mass retirements....one asst chief just took the job in Mesa, Arizona...a lot of the middle management is leaving LAPD
Barbaric! Not the LAPD, but the ANSWER goon who apparently attacked some girl. Did I see that right?
Wonder who thought that strategy up?
Especially considering a healthy percentage of Los Angeles police officers are Black.
I'm not suprised. From my vantage point across the border here in Arizona it appears that since Villarosa was elected the LAPD has really been cut off at the knees. Guess they haven't learned a thing from the crime and corruption in Mexico due to a poor, corrupt, police.
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