Protests denounce police terror against immigrant march

In reaction to growing anger over life-threatening police brutality against women, men and children, a police commission hearing was held May 8 at LAPD headquarters downtown, starting at 2 p.m. By 4 p.m. many people were still waiting to speak. Most of them called for the firing of Police Chief William Bratton.

TV camera operator beaten by Los Angeles police.

Outside the hearing, loud and militant chants could be heard from in front of police headquarters. Chanters were calling the police pigs, lackeys and terrorists. The tone of this demonstration was angry and militant.

Cop Watch, a group that videotapes police on the streets, organized the action. At MacArthur Park during the May Day demonstration for immigrant rights, Cop Watch members had been assaulted by police trying to terrorize the crowd.

A Cop Watch organizer addressed the rally, saying: “When the police come to us with clubs we need to meet them with clubs, when they come to us with shotguns we need to meet them with shotguns, when they come to us with a marshmallow we need to beat the hell out of them with a marshmallow.”

Cops had beat and clubbed people and then shot 240 rounds of rubber bullets against a very peaceful demonstration soon after the May 1 Boycott action held at City Hall. Anger against this police terror has been spreading as the video of the incident is shown almost daily on major television networks.

The video shows indiscriminate military-style and humiliating attacks against a crowd in a park that contained many children. Victims of the assault also included celebrity journalists from the Spanish-language news media.

People are also angry at Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was quick to show his support for Chief Bratton despite this racist police assault. On May 7 Villaraigosa implied that his decision over whether to renew Bratton’s contract would not be swayed by these events.

Bratton’s contract is due for renewal this year. It is expected to be approved, although the only action Bratton has taken to discipline the cops has been to reassign two officers. Bratton told the media, “This is not a witch hunt. This is not a feeling of having to ‘hang ‘em high’....Not a single Metro officer at this time has been suspended. There is no rush to judgment by me.”

The video clearly shows exactly what happened and who was responsible for the cop riot, from the commanding officers down to the club-swinging, shotgun-toting cops. It belies the early police excuses that the police attack was a response to “anarchists.”

According to the police, about 30—down from their May 5 estimate of 100—youth are to blame for provoking the cops. But instead of isolating these individuals, who the cops claim were throwing bottles at them, the police pushed the youths into the park a considerable distance until they were forced into the demonstration. The cops then began their racist riot.

Lawsuits have been filed and immigrant rights movement organizers are strategizing as to the next action. Many—including leaders of the March 25th Coalition, whose march of almost 100,000 earlier on May 1 was temporarily disrupted by police interference—believe the attack was a conscious decision made by top city and perhaps state officials to attempt to squash the immigrant rights movement and the rebirth of May Day as a workers’ holiday here in the U.S.

For this and many other reasons, it is vital that solidarity for the immigrant struggle from the progressive and anti-war movement continue to grow.