Freedom has become an illusion. Its watch watch your TV, movies, and play your games. Work your 9-5 but if you do any complaining the man will fuck you up. We may have freedom online still, but our civil rights are eroding faster than you can say "fascism"!

Fascists!

The only good cop is a dead cop.

If you like TJ today

Then you will love LA tomorrow.

I would understand the outrage if they were firing real bullets. If these people weren't in this 'fascist' ( overused and improperly used cliche term ) state, but in another country, there's a really good chance those would have been real bullets, count your blessings...you have it better than you think, there are people in this world with real problems.

Does anyone actually know why LAPD choppers hovering above the park decided it was high time to evict everybody? Who made this decision?

The whole incident seemed to be a completely unnecessary show of combative behavior by LAPD. If someone is down on the ground injured or scared out of their minds, the cops should be helping them up and moving them along rather than beating defenseless people with batons.

For obvious reasons, I'm not sure these are questions that will be properly answered by this 'internal investigation.'

And, as an aspiring journalist, the true eyes and protectors of this supposed 'police state,' the fear of watching cops beat cameramen and TV reporters was truly sickening and shows firsthand the eroding respect for journalists in this country.

All in all, this video shows how distorted the idea of "protecting and serving" has become among America's law enforcement.

A real facist state would have grabbed you up while you were assembling. A facist state would not have allowed 12 to 20 million illegals into their country in the first place. A facist state wouldn't turn a blind eye to a bunch of idiots demanding rights be bestowed up on a bunch of illegal aliens, not this year or last. A state like say..oh i dunno, Mexico? Venezuala? Cuba?

As shown and actaully reported in other news, throwing rocks etc at the facist pigs never works out well. (imagine that)
What part of, "you must leave and dispurse" don't you understand...maybe you're pissed because american cops we giving you the command in English instead of spanish? Here's one for you, why don't the illegals you're marching for go home and straighten out their own government? Exactly!!
Facist, sheesh what a bunch of morons. ICE should be expanded and all illegals deported, thats a job most americans would take!!!

well then legalAmerican, the next time youre at a rally and a motorcycle cop runs into a group of Azteca dancers, which prompts a bottle being thrown at the cop, which somehow suddenly prompts helicopters and hundreds of cops jabbing old women and female journalists around while shooting rubber bullets at all sorts of people (illegal and legal), then you might not want to call it fascist, but you might call it fucked up

which is what that was.

Obey simple laws and this wouldn't happen. ANyone can get a demonstration permit from LA, but they didn't. The police peacefully told everyone to leave the park (the helicopter) and when people approached police (and actually attacked in some cases not shown on the video) the police enforced the law and disbanded a crowd that did not want to leave.

I was there to support the event and to play music with my band fósforo (www.fosforo.net). We were literally on the soundstage playing when the police attacked without clear warning. I happened to have a cam and hid behind a speaker stack to record everything.

For you non-spanish speakers, the music is a cover of Bob Marley's 'War,' itself an interpretation of a speech by Haile Selassie I.

The band is my band Fósforo, the footage is a mix of stuff some shot by me, some shot by Larry Gross (!), and some pulled from la.indymedia.org and from YouTube at 2am.

enjoy the (riot) porn.

download at 43.5 megs
la.indymedia.org/uploads/2007/05/fosforo_mayday_rough_cops.mp4

i dont know anything about what happened at macarthur park, but why would anyone think that illegals should have rights, and then have the audacity to protest about it. the keyword here is "ILLEGAL".

lets see you come to america work in are shops because the pay sucks down there where i live these shops pay good so whats up with that whats really fucked up is your edit bullshit to make the other side look bad your a idiot i lived with the real mexicans that put 15 to 20 in a apartment and worked and sent money home you just made them people like asses you stupid college kid fuck you and join the real world

observations:

i find it odd that many first and second generation immigrants tend to be the most conservative when it comes to immigration.

i find it even more strange that the concept of the natural citizen has been held to be legitimate at all when this land that is the usa was stolen from indigenous americans by european immigrants. how can there be a defense of the distinction between illegal and legal immigrants when the very foundation of the government that makes that distinction was lawless? how can one defend this contradiction without becoming a cultural amnesiac, that is, without forgetting the foundational history of this nation and the constitutive events that have enabled our historical present?

how can one defend the rights of the citizen when what is declared by the declaration of independence are the rights of "man"--or human rights, which do not originate from the power of the u.s. or any nation-state's constitution?

the ironic thing, frank, is that this was a protest with a permit! they had city approval. this wasn't a bust on "illegal" immigrants, this was an action against a peaceful assembly which was "permitted" by the city. the police action was thus not only the city's betrayal of the protestors, but it was also in violation of the constitutional right to assembly, which is guaranteed under the first amendment to the constitution. the cops were not just "doing their job", instead they in violation of constitutional right. and further, it was impossible for any one of those cops to know whether they were shooting at illegal immigrants or at citizens. and in any case, the rights of the citizen can only be founded on the rights of the human. yes, god bless this country and its violent and ignorant police forces. and god bless those who defend this violence and ignorance.

I was there observing. The police broke it up after the fact that the protestors were blocking the flow of traffic, which is illegal. Police repeatly asked the protestors to get office the streets. The protestors answered by turning bottles and cans. Know both sides of the story. They protest was indeed legal, but they breached the law. Again when you ask for something that is not yours is stupid. The claim that the land was stolen is true. But history has always been about one group of people taking something that is not theirs to begin with.
The Babylonians were defeated by the Persians, the Persians bye grecians. So on and so on.
Whites took the land from people here, thats the way the world goes.

Carbo- that's just stupid. Most of the people that are talking about "the civil disobedience thing" which is about your and my first amendment right, is being made by LEGAL citizens. You are taking your opinion about the legality of illegal immigration to detract from the illegality of the LAPD violating our constitutional rights. As has been said above, there's no way the LAPD could have known if they were using their batons or rubber bullets on citizens or illegals...and that fact doesn't, and shouldn't matter. Apparently to xenophobic people such as yourself, it should matter.

No human being deserves this type of differential treatment. The cops abused their authority and overstepped many boundaries. I don't care if you claim to be an American, but as long as you are not Native American, you are an immigrant. White America loves to keep people vulnerable and expoloitable and blame immigrants for taking the jobs of citizens. Bullshit, I don't see White people fighting for jobs that require bending your backs to keep middle and upper class people healthy. You see this racialized brutality will only get worse. FUCK THE POLICE!!! FUCK those who blame the victim and fuck the U.S.

There's an awful lot of "serves 'em right" sentiment here that I find shocking, because I think that it misses the point. What makes any of you think that the police reaction has anything to do with immigrant's rights? No one was asking for green cards before firing or issuing beat downs. They would have done the same to your white ass, and don't you forget it. The police are removing your right to assemble in public. Period.

What you have is an armed, organized, uniformed, tactical force exerting itself brutally against an unarmed assembly and members of the press. I agree that if someone throws a bottle, that person should be dealt with swiftly and arrested. But there is no excuse for the kind of action that the LAPD has taken here. Look back to Kent State for crying out loud, have we all forgotten the past so quickly?

Don't give me any of that "It's a lot worse in other countries" and "rubber bullets and batons aren't that bad", bullshit either. We don't play that lowest common denominator card here in the U.S.A., we're SUPPOSED to have higher standards.

Go ahead though, give them an inch. They'll be back for the rest of the mile. But before you defend the excessive use of force on a crowd, and the police's right to chase people for blocks in an armed cordon, think about your fucking fourth of July block party. Think about your free concert in the park, or whatever. It could happen to you.

My family came here, as immigrants from Italy, and faced discrimination as they got SHIT ON by this country. I recognize that. How can you assholes talk about immigrants in such a malicious way, knowing that your existence in this country is based on immigration? Wake the fuck up.

That was complete bullshit. The cops are to tolerant, after the 5th time the told them to leave the should have started pummeling the with water house. All those waste of space people should be shot and killed,if they don't wanna die don't go you fucking retarded hippie bullshitters.

Why do so many people dart around the issue of the way this demonstration was dispersed by saying "but it's about illegals? follow the laws" ? There was nothing illegal about this demonstration, the city/cops/whoever just decided they didn't like it.

Is it going to take this happening at an anti-abortion or gun rights protest before the other half of this country realizes it is an attack on our constitutional right of assembly? Stand by now while the topics you don't like are crushed if you like, but don't whine when (not if) it is your turn to be victim of the same tactics.

As someone said before me, I don't necessarily agree with the content of the demonstration, but I wholeheartedly agree with their right to have it. PS demonstrators, it would help your cause quite a bit if you would use big US flags as opposed to the flags of the countries you left for this one.

Oh and btw Lilly - stop living in fear. You will never know what is in the heart of your neighbor, and it is best to get used to the idea, instead of insisting the government scan everyone around you in some lame attempt to create a sense of security.

The tactics they are using are for dealing with riots, not taking control over the good people of a city. This is unacceptable and police department should have some of they're riot control funding cut to keep they from being so tempted to use it on the innocent.