Chief William Bratton Orders Elite LAPD Squad to ‘Stand Down’
Put forth on May 7, 2007 by XicanoPwr
Posted in Immigration, May Day, News/Noticias, Raza, The Press
Police Chief William Bratton has ordered 60 members of an elite Los Angeles Police squad to “stand down” and have been taken off the streets due to their actions at the May Day immigration rally. After examining the videos of the MacArthur Park incident, Bratton said:
“I’m not going to defend the indefensible,” Bratton told journalists during a meeting at a television studio in Hollywood.
“Things were done that shouldn’t have been done.”
Chief Bratton told reporters that those members will not be “returning to the Metropolitan Division, as a result of [their] findings.” Bratton eventually admitted that there were numerous departmental procedures failures as the horrific event was playing out during a peaceful and lawful rally. Bratton also told reporters that 600 police officers, including 100 from the Metro Division, fired more than 240 rubber bullets and beat dozens of people with their batons, without making an arrest.
It is not surprising to see how television has dramatically changed American society. It used to be that not everybody could afford a television, but now it is not that hard to find a house a where there is a TV in every room. Since it first became available in the late 1940s, the TV has become a common household item and the source for up to the minute news. With Americans watching so much television on a weekly basis, it was easy for the mass media to conjure up an enemy that is designed to sway public opinion. It was all fun and games until they too were part of the receiving end of the rubber bullets being shot by LAPD. It is interesting to watch the media trying to distance themselves from the “demonstrators,” by carefully making sure they are identified separately when they describe who were harmed in the incident - “demonstrators and members of the news media” or “protesters and reporters.” What makes it interesting; they were the same people who were reporting that this years protest was a bust because the turnout for the May Day march was much smaller to their liking. Maybe if they were actually reporting about America’s ugly underbelly that is deep-seated with undertones of class and ethnic conflict instead of covering the typical latest celebrity scandal, they would have known why the numbers were small.
Just as Nezua questioned the silence from the mainstream blogs about the lack of reporting on the demonstrations, we too should questions the intent of the mainstream media.
If “members of the news media” were not harmed, would there be this silence when riot police marched in lines and fired from rifles into crowds that had even mothers and children in strollers in it? Would “members of the news media” follow the issue with the same amount of fire as they are doing day after day? Or would they have reported it one because it makes a good human issue story and go one to the next feel good celebrity story of the day?
Given the history of the police department’s racism, especially after witnessing the nationally broadcasted videotape of LAPD officers brutally beating Rodney King, it is not surprising to see this action again. Let us be clear, this is not the first time LAPD have come out using this type of force against immigrant rights demonstrators. Last year, LAPD were also in full riot gear instigating a wave of unprovoked violence on a progressive pro-immigration crowd.
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.
The only difference between last year and this year, the mainstream media were not at the receiving end of the police’s brutality.
Technorati Tags: William Bratton, MacArthur Park, news media
Related posts
Tags: Los Angeles, May Day, news media, William Bratton | 
Print This Post
|
This is a progressive political blog addressing issues of working class struggle, Xicano/Latino identity, and the institutional racism that is currently suppressing the common struggle for dignity and liberation.
Entries (RSS)
5 Responses to “Chief William Bratton Orders Elite LAPD Squad to ‘Stand Down’”
1 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
4 Comments
You can follow any responses to this entry through the
Comments (RSS) feed.
You know, in all my years of activism, I think that just about every major protest I’ve been involved in has been reported by the corporate media as having “a disappointing turnout”. Needless to say, the corporate media as an institution opposes progressive social action, because they’re invested in the current economic and political order. I think a lot of people make the mistake of buying into their hustle, believing that they’re actually interested in “reporting news” and such, when really they simply put on a (transparent) show of “reporting news” in the actual interest of selling razor blades and deodorant and cleaning products and pharamceuticals. Nevertheless, sometimes a convergence of factors allows a real story to slip through and get major airtime in the corporate media despite itself (e.g. Katrina, Rodney King, May Day police violence). I think it’s useful for activists to carefully study the circumstances surrounding such incidents and work this analysis into their tactics and expectations, especially as it relates to political theater.
Personally, the most dramatic protests I’ve been involved in organizing was the anti-WTO protests in Seattle in 1999. I was amazed at the amount of coverage the protests got because of the dramatic images of confrontation between protesters and police. After that experience, I pretty much decided that the only way to get mainstream media attention was to organize street protests that would flirt with the possibility of violent clashes. I know it sounds cynical, but I’m being brutally honest. When Gandhi sent thousands of activists to get beaten by imperial police, he knew what he was doing: he stripped away the moral authority of the empire, exposed the lie of their benevolence. For 2 years following Seattle, I was involved in a string of electrifying protests, every single one of which involved some violent clashes (always initiated by the cops; but we organized to bait cops into such action). I actually started getting used to dealing with tear gas; in Quebec City, anti-FTAA protesters came out in full hockey gear and slapped tear-gas cannisters back at the cops using hockey sticks; in Genoa, a protester was shot to death, which was a harsh reality-check for all of us. But truth is, these protests were very effective and, despite the misinformation in the mainstream media, activists largely controlled the visual narrative and applied tremendous pressure on our targets.
Then, after 9/11, we all pretty much ended that vein of protest. Many activists felt that the political climate made such protest inappropriate. I no longer agree with this decision; we should have pressed on, despite the climate. Fortunately, these days the immigration marches are restoring some progressive backbone. It’s unfortunate that people have to get hurt in this process; but progressive struggle is necessarily painful. Power is never conceded without a fight; those in power cannot be intellectually persuaded, they must bo coerced and forced into right action by making all other options even more costly.
As for the LAPD, I’ve been watching them beat people up since high school. I remember when the Rodney King video surfaced, I simply thought, This happens all the time. The LAPD are an incredibly dirty police force, and I mean full-on gangsters running prostitution rings and dealing drugs and weapons. Beating up a few dozen brown folks is nothing to them; I bet many are confused as to why this story has blown up. I admit to being surprised (and impressed) by the high number of officers being disciplined. I think it really helps having a Latino labor-organizer mayor. Maybe there will be some real reform because of this. Then the pain will have been worth it. In any case, this immigration movement has generated a great deal of momentum; I’m excited about the possibilities of building on it.
Anyway, those are just some random thoughts triggered by your post, XP. Thanks for all your amazing writing and research. Keep up the fight.
Peace.
Kai - it was starting to get to me to see how all these reporters were acting like martyrs in reporting their own version of the truth. Fuck that shit, when I start seeing them report the truth or come out in the open and say that their industry is bought and own by the corporate elites, maybe I will ease up on them, but for now, I will call them out.
I know you are being honest in your assessment on how to get news cover any type of protest. Like it or not, violence sells. Unless there is a possibility of violent clashes, it won’t get covered. I would imagine that it must be heartbreaking to know as a leader of a non-violent movement to know you are sending the sheep to the slaughter, all for the greater good.
I do admire your courage and at the same time envy you for attending and organizing these type of street protests. How did you get involve in that?
The only radical protest rally I attended was pre-9/11 and that was a protest organized by UNITE, which involved going inside a rich people’s mall to and chanting as loud as we could to protest against Gap Jeans. Since it was my first one, it was both exciting and frightening at the same time, especially when the cops came in to escort us out.
um, damn kai. that’s a lotta prolific protesting. did you hear about the new movie coming out about the battle of seattle with charlize theron? talk about protests becoming mainstream…
XP,
I think you are right about the mainstream media’s decision to only cover this because they were in the trenches for once. as someone who has never been beaten by the police, i cannot imagine the horror of those folks in the coverage. my family tells crazy tales of the LAPD in the sixties when my relatives would get beaten during every BBQ or birthday party. they would joke that that is why they drank so much–because soon the police would come and beat them and they wanted to numb the pain.
As a semi-member of the semi-MSM (getting by on donations to the MexFiles and part-time reporting for the Marfa Tx weekly newspaper (hey, we ARE the biggest circulation paper in Presidio County!), I can afford to be semi-cynical.
How much of any protest, or social movement do WE relate to until it involes US? Coverage of Oaxaca’s protests cenetered on their superficial resemlance to the 2000 U.S. Presidential election in Flordia, and no attention was paid to the real, Oaxacan issues UNTIL a U.S. journalist was killed. And even then, his not being one of the “real” journalists (and I’ve had people tell me I’m not really a journalist, because I don’t get a regular paycheck from anyone for my coverage of Mexico, and I’m not “accredited” by anyone) we’re writing off the witnesses and particpants.
Yeah, maybe a little violence is necessary. My favorite movie about journalists, “Under Fire” shows the huge U.S. reaction after an American reporter is killed. As his colleagues are grieving, a Nicaraguan woman says, “40 years of civil war and now this. We should have killed a gringo sooner.” Maybe she’s right.
Speak your mind
Comment Policy: First time comments are moderated. Please be patient.