Cops attack Occupy LA, arrest 250

Some 1,400 cops attacked the Occupation Los Angeles people and their supporters late on the evening of Nov. 29, eventually clearing the area and arresting as many as 250 that night.

In response to the police attack, the participants in the occupation are working out the next phase of the struggle. Their initial focus will be to challenge the police and city's assault on first amendment rights and the social and economic issues that the Occupy movement put on center stage — the crying need for jobs at a decent wage and the scandalous inequality in the distribution of wealth.

After 10 p.m. on Nov. 29, police began assembling a military "war zone," as a videotaped cop said, around Occupy LA at City Hall. Just after midnight police began moving in, taking advantage of the large perimeter around City Hall park to keep the many hundreds of supporters from getting closer and showing solidarity.

By 3 a.m. police had arrested more than 250 people. Another 70 protesters took refuge in a nearby church. There were reports that five Los Angeles Police Department cops beat a woman after throwing her to the ground and that another severe beating caused serious injuries.

A cop spokesperson was on hand to give the nearly complicit corporate media a pro-police spin and minimize the force used. However, the 1,400 cops equipped with shotguns, teargas, gas masks, and hazmat suits and with many helicopters flying overhead contradicted this attempt to cover up police violence.

Ruth Fowler on OccupyLosAngeles.org described the events: "Facts so far are: a ruthlessly efficient military operation comprised of 1,400 riot cops armed with tear gas canisters and batons was roundly praised by the mainstream media as ‘peaceful.' This ignored the police brutality witnessed, including beatings, unlawful arrests and rubber bullets used on protesters and media, while the legitimacy of the second 'unlawful assembly' called at First and Main, and resulting in numerous more arrests, is still called into question. A media pool was established covertly, citing non-existent penal codes to silence the press, while media in the pool were working for the LAPD."

As of Dec. 1, about 210 of those arrested had charges dropped, with 40 remaining in prison. Solidarity efforts are continuing and the General Assembly of the Occupy LA movement has resumed at City Hall Park, which the occupiers now call "Solidarity Park." There is a large police presence surrounding these assemblies, and cops have orders to arrest occupiers if they remain after 10:30 p.m.

Among the continuing actions planned is fighting for a moratorium against foreclosures. The first one will begin Dec. 8 to shut down an auction and call for “Jobs, not Foreclosures.”