LA Copwatch Statement on LAPD Mayday brutality

May Day 2007

From infoshop: May Day 2007 Statement
Cop Watch Los Angeles

On May Day 2007, our role as Cop Watch Los Angeles was to observe and document police harassment and brutality, and to defend the people in the community who were participating in the march and rally organized by MIWON (Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network) in McArthur Park. When the police began their major attack, Cop Watch LA and other community members acted as a buffer between the police and the people, while directing families to safety.

At no point did Cop Watch LA provoke the mass beating and shooting of demonstrators that occurred on May 1st. There is no justification for the actions of the Los Angeles Police Department. The police were prepared and acted in such a manner that the community had no other option but to be outraged. The people tried to defend themselves, but they were being
brutalized, and had to act on their human instinct of self-preservation.

Many organizations and media outlets have already placed the blame on the youth, saying that throwing empty bottles and trash is enough to provoke a full scale police assault on peaceful protestors and families. LAPD and the SWAT team physically brutalized innocent people with baton strikes, and shot multiple rounds of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. To debunk the accusations that a small group of “young anarchists” provoked this massive attack, video footage can be viewed to see that the police are at fault. There is no way to justify the excessive force pressed upon the people by the police.

Contacts from the Mayor’s office have confirmed that the attack on protestors and the community of Pico Union was pre-meditated due to the desire to test out months of counter-terrorism training and last year’s embarrassment, when the LAPD couldn’t stop the people from taking the streets.

Many CWLA members were videotaped being struck by police batons and bullets, risking their own bodies to help community members out of harm’s way into safer areas which became hard to identify as the police ultimately pushed the people across the other side of the park into the
street.

The attack commenced when the police disturbed a sacred indigenous ceremony by plowing their motorcycles into the participants which included small children.

This is nothing new! It has happened before and will happen again, until we put a stop to it. In communities where populations are predominantly working class people of color, police abuse and harassment is an everyday occurrence. For years our communities have struggled to overcome
oppression at the hands of those sworn to “protect and serve.” Yet, these stories are rarely televised or publicized on the mainstream media, but still the death tolls continue to climb in neighborhoods like South Central, Compton, Watts, Pico Union, Maywood, and Boyle Heights.

Cop Watch’s main goal is to put an end to the injustices that plague our streets and to oppressive institutions like the Los Angeles Police Department.

We stand on the side of the people and always will.

Cop Watch Los Angeles

May 4, 2007

Check out LA indymedia for videos, audio, written reports, etc.

Telemundo tv news coverage
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/197919.php

Video: Police Brutality in Los Angeles May Day Rally: Mac Arthur Park 2007
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/197922.php

Alvarado (between 7th & Wilshire) Video - Police Attack
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/197976.php

Video: Police Attack Fleeing Demonstrators on Alvarado May 1
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/198022.php

Fósforo plays 'Guerra' at MacArthur Park as police riot against immigrant families
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/198039.php

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LAPD chief: Cops who fired at protesters are off streets

May 6, 2007

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Police Chief William Bratton said Sunday that up to 60 members of an elite squad that swarmed into a park and fired rubber bullets during a May Day immigration rally are no longer on the street.

Bratton said he spent the weekend viewing video of the MacArthur Park incident and he said LAPD failures were widespread with officers from the top on down culpable.

"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."

Journalists were among those roughed up as Metropolitan Division's B Platoon moved through MacArthur and fired 148 rubber bullets to break up what had been a peaceful and lawful immigration rally.

Police said they moved in after rocks and bottles were thrown at them by 30 to 40 agitators, he said.

The Metropolitan Division is the city's premier police squad, made up of experienced officers who have extensive training in crowd control.

Bratton said up to 60 members of the Metro's B Platoon are no longer in the field. Additionally, he said, some officers will "in all likelihood" not return to the Metropolitan Division.

"Some of this will be career-impacting," Bratton said, adding that imposition of permanent discipline will await completion of the Police Department investigation.

Journalist organizations asked why officers ignored LAPD policies toward the news media worked out after reporters were assaulted during the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

A 2002 agreement called for designation of a safe spot for reporters covering news events. LAPD spokeswoman Mary Grady acknowledged reporters were not given "a designated safe spot" at MacArthur Park.

"There appears to have been here a failure to communicate," Press Photographers Association local president John McCoy said.

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