LAPD brutality targets immigrant rights movement

On Saturday, July 8, the LAPD showed its true racist and reactionary character when it viciously attacked immigrant rights activists who were protesting against the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project in Hollywood. More than 300 pro-immigrant protestors gathered in a militant demonstration - led by the ANSWER Coalition and other progressive immigrant rights organizations - to counter a Minuteman hate march down Hollywood Boulevard. Hollywood Boulevard is the traditional route for anti-war and other progressive demonstrations. The Minutemen march was an open attack on the immigrant rights movement that has gripped the nation over the past four months. In addition to beating anti-racist demonstrators and at least one passer-by the LAPD arrested six activists.

Take action now - send a letter demanding that all charges be dropped against the anti-racist demonstrators falsely arrested by the LAPD...

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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.

LAPD and Minutemen collaboration

The police arrested around six people without cause while the fascist Minutemen chanted “L-A-P-D,” cheering them on. It was a naked display of police and fascist collaboration. The outraged anti-immigrant crowd stood their ground and defended their demonstration while chanting “Cops and the Klan go hand in hand!” Carlos Alvarez, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, then gave an impassioned speech to denounce the LAPD's brutality and defend the rights of the protestors to demonstrate against the Minutemen.

Hundreds of cops escorted around 150 Minutemen down Hollywood Boulevard in their racist march, which was followed by progressive pro-immigrant rights demonstrators. Despite the efforts of the LAPD to impede the several hundred progressive demonstrators, including another wave of police violence, protestors outlasted the Minutemen and held a brief victory rally before marching to the ANSWER office less than one block away. Activists felt a sense of accomplishment and struggle after fending off police violence and maintaining an organized, successful action against the Minutemen.

Organizing to fight back

The ANSWER Coalition has vowed to respond swiftly to this vicious police attack. Along with its partners in the National Lawyers Guild and Latino Movement USA, ANSWER will host a press conference on Tuesday, July 12 (see below). Featured speakers will include immigrant rights organizers, ANSWER organizers and lawyers, victims of police brutality at the protest and others. There will be video footage shown that depicts the outrageous brutality of the cops that day. ANSWER and the NLG are vigorously defending the rights of the anti-racist protestors and plan to file a civil suit against the LAPD and the city - helmed by pro-police mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - because of this flagrant assault on people’s civil rights.

Muna Coobtee, member of the ANSWER steering committee in Los Angeles said: “This unprovoked, terrible assault on a peaceful protest violates our civil rights and is aimed at the heart of the immigrant rights movement. The police came to this demonstration today, in an alliance with ultra-right-wing elements, to try to beat back the struggle for equality. We can’t look at this incident in isolation from the overall political climate. We know that it is related to the racist raids launched by the federal government targeting undocumented workers. It is related to the bigotry being whipped-up by the immigration hearings happening all over the United States . Because these connections are clear, we can be clear in saying that these intimidation tactics won’t work­they will backfire. The immigrant workers’ movement will remain stronger and more united than ever before.”

The independent people’s movement will not tolerate the LAPD’s criminal behavior. Police repression and the Minutemen are part of the right-wing's ploy to defeat the just struggle of immigrants for amnesty and full legalization. All charges leveled at any anti-racist protestor must be dropped immediately. The LAPD and the city must be held accountable.

 

Sorry FUA, but this time I have to call you out for some rather bigotted and historically inaccurate comments.

FYI, many of our "ancestors" who came to our shores were just as similarly called scum and foreign invaders and indeed not only took the law into their own hands but also introduced much of the systemic, institutionalised political corruption we have inherited to this day.

I would remind you of Tammany Hall (NY) and the decades of Irish immigrant lead corrupt backroom politics and inside deal making for which Chicago too is famous.

Your attitude and that of far too many fellow Americans is the product of smug whitebread group exceptionalism which has - through too many decades of self-indulgent, self-absorbed suburban comfort and complacency -forgotten its roots in the deprivation which brought our forebears to our shores in search of a better life.

The mexican population deserves no less of chance and we would do better to side with them against the only real threat, that of elite corporate serving authoritarians and profiteers, which eliminates our opportunites and our freedoms. Shame on you, for all the truth that you speak on so many subjects, that you adopt such a redneck position on the basic human rights of so many hardworking, shit-paid present day immigrants.

To hell with the racist minutemen and to hell with the corrupt elitist system they ignorantly and blindly defend.

 

What uninformed people like "vinceneilsgirl" don't understand is that people like Bush WANT illegal immigration and they WANT open borders, because the goal is to eventually do away with borders completely as part of the emerging North American Union that is getting more and more press by the mainstream media. The Mexicans are merely being used as pawns, while the media and gullible bleeding hearts talk about "immigrant rights", which is pure, unadulterated bullshit in light of the agenda they refuse to acknowledge. It's funny how the Minutemen are being called racist hatemongers, when the real racist hatemongering is coming from pro-Aztlan groups like La Raza and MEChA, who are being funded by the corporations and tax-exempt foundations such as the Ford Foundation and Carnegie Endowment.

The violence that happened was indeed brought about by the protesters, though the militarized police were just as responsible for the violent outcome, and we can expect more of this sort of thing. It plays right into the government's hands because it provides a pretext for the furthering of the police state agenda, which partly explains why these radical groups are being funded by the groups they're being funded by.

The bleeding hearts once again prove how easily manipulated they are by embracing the lies the media has fed to them about "immigrant rights". This whole immigrant debacle is the product of rich, white men, who only want to use the Mexicans to move forward their own agenda.

Wake up already!

 

Oh please rat, whilst I do sympathise with a number of your views on American corporatocracy and the encroaching police state, I likewise say shame on you for conflating the very propagandistic perspectives on this matter that you claim to oppose.

The sole source of the PR which villifies all immigrant demands for social justice is the elite statist system and its corporate financiers which you regularly decry. Stop buying into the bullshit and wake up yourself.

The demands of the immigrants (and those of our fellow citizens who recognise their struggle as a common struggle of "we the people" against whom the corporate-serving state system has been mobilised for decades) are more deeply rooted in the founding principles of the Constitution and Bill of Rights than are the claims of the smug, historically ignorant bigots who lash out against them.

This time you are completely off base, I'm afraid.

 

I thinm y'all are missing the fact that the LAPD Used violence to supress a protest, that is the real outrage let alone the validity of the issue being protested.

 

I realise this borwn and it is the very point i most actively decry. The real enemies of us all is the generations-long hijacked federal system and those elitists for whose power and profit the system has been designed. Add to that the brutal state and federal attack dogs (aka the police) - who routinely betray the Consitutional and basic human rights of average citzens and immigrants alike - and the need for realisation, by the bigotted, media-enflamed naysayers, of our true common enemy should be as plain as day.

Sadly the smug suburban whitebread American still hasn't tasted enough deprivation and abuse, as have the vast mjority of immigrants in question (and that on a daily basis), to awaken from its purpose-scripted, media-delivered, PR stupor.

Promoting popular hatred and attacks upon the weakest in our society is precisely what helps to perpetuate the consolidation of wealth and power into the hands of those against whom we should all be united in opposition.

 

Worst article ever written. Filled to the brim with little editorial notes that openly demonstrate bias (no attempt at objectivity was made).

 

The LAPD is showing their true colors. If you look back they have a history of doing this very same type of thing time & again.

 

Bullshit. It's the media that has been giving these protests credence, and it is the media that has been behind these protests from the beginning, which they helped organize. Do you honestly believe those massive protests we saw a few months ago were actually orchestrated at a grassroots level by the Mexicans? No, they were orchestrated by Bush, Vicente Fox and the corporate elite, via the Mexican media (owned by rich white men who couldn't care less about the plight of the Mexican people), who want to use illegals for their own agenda.

Don't be so gullible. Don't be so easily manipulated. You talk about Americans being in a PR induced stupor (which they are), yet YOU'RE ONE OF THEM! I don't know if you're an American, but you're buying the same lie Americans are falling for. And I am aware BOTH sides of the argument, as always, are scripted and controlled, and this is why both are ignoring the underlying agenda.




Don't you get it, the corporations want cheap labor, and the globalists want open borders. These same people own and control the media. How obvious can it be? The pro-open borders, pro-illegal agenda is exactly what the elitists want, and they are using the media in which they control to push this agenda, getting the US people to accept it.

Fox hires lobbyist to sweeten U.S. views on immigration

Bushite Neo-Cons Responsible For May Day Immigration Protests

The Constitution and Bill of Rights says NOTHING about people who enter the country illegally.

No, I think you are. I think you are missing the facts and have been brainwashed by all the propaganda.

I don't blame the Mexican people for anything. I am blaming the people who are exploiting these Mexican illegals for their own gain, while aiding in the destruction of this country's economy and sovereignty. Drop the bullshit about us being bigoted, because it doesn't have shit to do with bigotry if you have your facts together. If you are going to talk shit like that, you might as well join the fucking nazis in the ADL.

Accusing people of being bigots is the same tactic the neocons use to stop people from discussing the neocon/zionist agenda. After all, if you speak against the neocons, you're anti-semitic. So why are you resorting to these same government tactics when you could drop the reactionary bullshit and utilize some facts instead, as I have. Playing the bigot card is an easy way to squash any debate for those who don't have their facts together and are incapable of any real debate.

 

As much as I hate to admit it, I agree with LickHERish.

Admitedly, I haven't heard too much defending the protesters in this situation, but clearly the LAPD does have a really bad history with race riots.

Moreover, the Minutemen do have a racist platfor, or else they'd be guarding the northern border too, for their reasons for being their are to help the border control stop crime and drug traffic. The canadian border is very prevelant for drug runners.

Moreover, this wasn't an issue for most people untill O'reily and a bunch of conservatives from Orange County kept harping it.

You know why it wasn't an issue? Because everyone benifits. The migrants benifit, and the companies which employ them benifit.

And more to the point, we're involved in NAFTA so heavily now, that if we did fence off our southern border, which would be bad for the US and Mexico, it would encourage massive outsourcing for companies which weren't able to gain from the worker pool entering the US. No tax revenue, and moving to places where workplace injustices are not monitored.

If we do want to close off our borders to illegal immigration, which is by itself a good idea, then we have to have a way to control the border which wouldn't be too hard. Increase funding to border patrol and fine companies which pay illegal immigrants.

And more importantly grant unlimited numbers of work visas to latin american, and help expediate the process of path to citizenship.

The breaking our laws bit is ridiculous. Most of these people just want jobs to support their families, and if we have jobs, whcih we do, we should have a legal and reasonable process for them to work in the US and pay taxes. The reason illegal immigration is such a problem is because large corparations are attracting them, they don't check papers, and they often pay them under the table and advertise in Spanish on mexican radio.

We need to allow them this labor pool, and yet not allow them to break laws, so we should allow immigrants here who are working citizenship, increase border security, and grant more visas and expediate the process to citizenship.

Not only will this make us safer and increase our revenue, it will also help us to promote civil rights, further improve our relationship with Mexico, and get the labor we need.

 

Of course the Minutemen are racist. That Gilchrist guy cited the changing ethnic makeup of California as his reason for helping found the group. His positions are strongly anti-legal immigrant as well, and these are also clear in all the protests the minutemen have taken part in.

Their also vigilantes. Having racist vigilantes guard your border is a bad idea, particularly when we have policies which encourage illegal immigration.

 

Funny how you rail against the corruption of our system and then wish to also claim its legitimacy as "the process" when it comes to the most abused segment of our population.

Can't have it both ways FUA, either our leaders AND the system they have in place is thoroughly corrupt and elitist serving (which it is) or it is right and those just seeking any chance to earn an honest wage (which btw the mexican population to the greatest extent does, contrary to bogus PR about welfare scammers and handout seekers) doing the jobs no whitebread American would deign to do.

I suggest you stop listening to the bigotted radio pundits and start looking at the truth of this essentially decent, law abiding (yes you heard me) overworked, underpaid, tax-paying segment of our society.

Otherwise feel free to continue regurgitating the PR and lies drummed into your head by racist organisations all too happy to keep the public deivided and diverted from the only true enemies we share in common, namely the organisations themselves and the criminal government/corporations which fund them.

I would hope you would have the consistency of principle to realise this truth and understand the greater commonality of interest we share with those you have been villifying. Sooner or later the nation will have to understand that we face a class struggle - not one of national identities, ethnicities, nor traceable lineages back to the Mayflower - otherwise we will continue to attack one another verbally and physically whilst the elites drain every last hope of a better future before abandoning us altogether.

Your choice.

 

Because he used the context of the racial makeup of Southern states changing as being the justification for his group. They rarely mention actual problems associated with illegal immigration, like no taxes or unfair wages, but instead they harp on the ethnic makeup changing which isn't an anti-illegal immigrant position, it's an anti (a very specific group of) immigrants.

Invasion means a very specific action. It means a forceful action by a foreign government to take resources or to control territory. Having people come fill jobs from across the border which we ask them to fill (by we I mean companies which hire illegal immigrants) doesn't meet the qualifications for invasion.

This shows a problem with immigration law, not a problem with immigrants. If we revormed our immigration law, we could better enforce our borders. Having vigilantes which also hold anti-immigrant marches sit along the border doesn't meet with our needs for immigration reform.

 

Obviously you dont wish to do more than regurgitate populist opinion FUA. I'm glad you've cleared that up for me.

As for your strange definition of "racist", I suggest you go look it up in a dictionary.The term has nothing to do with agreementor non-agreement with any argument and everything to do with misguided presumption of group superiority as regards the immigrant question and its legacy of association with far right political PR and acts of violence at home and throughout the world.

Thirdly, apprently you are happy to remain smugly rooted (as are so many of our whitebread compatriots) in the dichotomy that our borders must be secure against the terrible immigrant threat, whilst our young can be outfitted to invade countless other sovereign nations and wreak all manner of barbarism and economic disenfranchisement all in the name of "national defense".

To question how the immigrant population is the most exploited and abused segment of our society (as it was with the immigrant waves of past generations as well) is to further demonstrate that you wish to simply shake your fist at whatever slogan is toseed out by the elites to keep you diverted from our common enemy firmly entrenched in our nation's capitol and in countless corporate boardrooms across America. You play right into their hands by refusing to recognise the extensive contribution to the smug self absorbed comfort of our nation's urban/suburban populations made by those you label as "illegal". Without them, dear chap, much you take for granted would cease to be.

But so be it. You go ahead and divide your attention and your rants. Those who have long been profitting from the divide and conquer tactic expect nothing less from you. The money spent on purpose crafted emotive mass-media PR in the K-street offices has clearly been so successfully and deeply ingrained in the popular psyche that its intended victims are incapable of recognising how manipulated they are.

More is the pity and shame we bequeath to the next generation.

 

Perhaps if you had to watch your children going hungry or understand that you would have no prospect at a better future without any source of revenue - sources denied you thanks to Washington orchestrated, financed and even militarily-/CIA-backed corruption by your own government - you would go wherever you could and assume whatever risk, even outright abuse, alienation and exploitation, to provide whatever you could.

To fail to recognise this basic reality which exists throughout central America thanks to generations of hegemonic US interventionism and political manipulation is astounding.

What the hell do you really stand for FUA, because I apparently had you mispegged as an informed and socially astute individual. My mistake apparently.

 

Oh go fuck yourself FUA. I have travelled far more widely, experienced firsthand more negative effects of our US policies throughout the world and been more directly engaged in decrying the ignorant rants of wholly misinformed fellow countrymen than i suppose some small-time radio pundit like yourself.

I suggest you take a long look in the mirror before calling anyone elses posts ignorant and narrow minded. This thread alone demonstrates how narrow minded and jingoistic you are. You and Rush have alot in common.

 

Never supported Bush nor any corporate-serving contender. You obviously don't bother reading so much as the history of people's posts on these forums. That says as much as any rational, principally consistent person needs to know about your level of effort at making informed commentary.

Try again.

 

Lickherish takes teh intarwebz very very seriously.

 

Wanton ignorance and the promulgation of falsehoods such as your rants should rightfully be decried. Given your willful cognitive divergence its little wonder you consider your false assertions funny.

Ignorance IS bliss after all.

 

Ah the lame humour never ceases. Do tell us all about being bent out of shape by written words as someone who in less than 3 months on these boards has only slightly less posts (and the preponderance of those brimming with all manner of emotional rhetoric) than I have managed in over 2 years.

Yes indeed, a true comic!

[edited to add: You might do well to take your own advice and get a life away from these boards, you've clearly spending every waking hour here since you arrived.]