AINFOS NEWS: Police Battle Protestors In LA

AINFOS NEWS: Police Battle Protestors In LA
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A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
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1) Solidarity against the police state:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/p/ap/20000814/us/dnc_convention_ebv.html

A police lines moves past a prone protestor as a member of the Black Bloc anarchist group, right, reaches out to help during crowd dispersal near the Staples Center, Monday Aug. 12, 2000 in Los Angeles. In their first major confrontation with police, hundreds of chanting environmental activists blocked a busy downtown intersection then clashed with officers in riot gear as the Democratic National Convention opened Monday. Police arrested 10 protesters.

2) >From the IMC - Los Angeles website (

http://la.indymedia.org/

)

Breaking News 8:30pm - Four paintball rounds were fired at a Black Bloc member at the Rage Against the machine concert. The juvenile attempted to climb the fence to hang a flag (which he succeeded in doing). He sustained large bruises. 8:28pm - 3rd and Figueroa. Cuncussion grenade are launched at crowds and rubber bullets are fired.

3) Breaking News 8:58pm - The ozo motley concert was shut down by police. After an order of dispersal, about 200 refused to disperse. Police stampeded a crowd on horseback firing rubber bullets provoking a stampede of the panicked crowd. 8:56pm - Vandalism at blue line station accross from Staples Center. Vandal's identity unknown. 8:54pm - Mass actions throughout area -- need more details. Three main groups: anarchists, concert goers, and non-violent protesters. Police claim initial instigation and continued problems by anarchists. Proclaimed an "unlawful assembly" by police.

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The police have just declared a "city-wide tactical alert."

Police say they are dispersing groups of 2-300 people. Lots of calls to dispatch (on police scanner) for "less lethal" forces.

Dispatch just said that the "A Force" will be held over == overtime

Cop just called in and asked for mobile field forces to reinforce the "skirmish line."

Cops making jokes about having "8 billion police officers" on the scene.

4) Night Protests Turn Violent

Associated Press at 11:48 PM

LOS ANGELES -- Protesters clashed with police Monday night outside the Democratic National Convention, with demonstrators throwing chunks of concrete at officers in riot gear who responded with pepper-spray balls, rubber bullets and finally a charge on horseback.

Police herded the protesters to the far end of a designated protest area and away from the convention hall.

Gates on one side of the convention complex were closed as the Democrats' opening night ended and delegates began heading out.

The altercation began in an area designated for protests near the Staples Center convention hall as thousands began to leave after a concert by the edgy rock band Rage Against the Machine.

Speeches by Hillary Clinton and then President Clinton continued inside with delegates generally unaware of the trouble outside.

Protesters threw pieces of concrete and water bottles, sprayed police with

ammonia and fired steel balls and rocks from slingshots.

"We're deploying en masse," said California Highway Patrol Assistant Chief

Stan Perez.

Protesters with bandanas over their faces lit several fires in the concert

area. The ground around the officers was littered with rocks, broken bottles, sticks thrown over the fence from the crowd.

The confrontation originally involved about 300 people out of the crowd of

8,000 but then spread as more officers rushed to the scene.

One of the protesters, holding a black flag in one hand, clung to the fence about 8 feet up as police barraged him with balls of pepper spray, some striking him directly in the face.

A second man made it to the top of the fence, grabbed the large black flag

and waved it. Both men waved the flags from the top of the fence, pelted continually with pepper spray.

The clash came at the end of a day of protests that were largely peaceful.

Nine people were arrested in an earlier clash after several hundred protesters blocked a downtown intersection.

The post-concert confrontation took place beneath a huge TV screen on the outside of the Staples Center carrying live video from the speeches inside. Hillary Clinton had just finished speaking, and the president was starting.

Hundreds of police in riot gear had lined up between the crowd and the convention hall.

Rage Against The Machine, known for its hard-driving sound, is anti-authoritarian and has campaigned in support of such figures as Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former radio reporter on death row for killing a Philadelphia

police officer in 1981.

Before the trouble, the mood had been festive, with the Fire Department spraying a cooling shower of water over appreciative crowd members.

People in the audience threw empty water bottles and fake dollar bills --left over from a protest against corporate greed--into the air. Some near the stage jumped up and down to the music and others carried upside down American flags. Marijuana smoke wafted overhead.

Earlier Monday, police confronted demonstrators upset by Vice President Gore's ties to Occidental Petroleum Corp.

That group stopped at a busy intersection about six blocks from the convention hall. Police warned them to leave and then, minutes later, charged with batons and pushed back about 200 protesters. About 400 others watched

from up the street.

"This is what a police state looks like!" a protester shouted at the police.

During his campaign, Gore has been dogged by protesters over his connection to Occidental. His father, the late Sen. Albert Gore Sr., had served on Occidental's board, owned stock in the company and served as chief executive of a subsidiary. His family inherited as much as $500,000 worth of Occidental stock when he died in December.

Critics have urged Gore to divest his family of that stock.

5) I just heard a snippet of crowd noise on the police scanner. Sounded like lots of people. The police "A Watch" is being held over and the city is on

"tactical alert."

All anarchist media relations people should be on alert tomorrow because they'll try and pin all of this on us again.

Cops are sounding a bit frazzled on the scanner.

Breaking News 9:14pm - There are rampant reports of police abuse, pepper spray, beatings of youth at the Rage Against the Machine Concert 9:11pm - Metro Vandal suspect taken into custody. 9:09pm - 300-1000 people (probably on the high end) in Pershing Square surrounded by police with paddy wagons.

6) Subject: FC: Los Angeles police move in on protesters, break up concert Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 21:03:05 -0700 From: Declan McCullagh To: politech@politechbot.com

About half an hour ago Los Angeles police moved in on an activist-concert that was taking place just outside the Democratic convention. Using horses

and motorcycles, a massive group of police successfully broke up the crowd

of thousands.

The excuse was that protesters were setting (small) campfires on pavement in the designated protest area without permission, but the real reason seems to be that President Clinton was about to finish his speech inside the Staples Center. Delegates would then presumably want to walk to their nearby hotels without hassles.

According to a preliminary report from an LAPD spokesman, police used beanbag rounds, pepper powder in paintball rounds, and "stinger" rounds that are essentially plastic pellets that skip along the ground. Foam rounds in metal canisters and flash-bang grenades were also apparently used.

Photo of one of the nonlethal guns used: http://www.mccullagh.org/image/950-12/dem-protests-5.html

Another nonlethal gun, with (apparently) foam bullets in metal canisters: http://www.mccullagh.org/image/950-12/dem-protests-7.html

I also have some photos from a march and police preparations earlier: http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/dem-protests-00.html

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