Unhinged Police Escalate LA Protest
If we marched East instead of West, would you have stopped us?
When I think of protests in Los Angeles, I’m reminded that they usually take place downtown, in front of the city hall. The Women’s March was there, protests against war with Iran started there and the recent acts of escalated violence between police and people are somewhat centralized there. But Saturday’s Black-Lives-Matter protest headed in a different direction, one towards the uncomfortable eyes of wealthy elites that are never exposed to the true sufferings of inequality.
Friday night I watched from home the tyranny displayed from police as they cordoned off the downtown area, attacked peaceful protesters, and subsequently arrested over 400 people. I searched for a protest to join to make my voice heard and learned of the BLM protest over the death of George Floyd. At first, I just assumed it would start downtown, but the jump-off was Pan Pacific Park. With that much distance I thought to myself, if we head East, the same thing may happen as a result, but if we head West, we may have a more interesting outcome.
I arrived at the park the next day early, prepped and at first, improperly dressed, (I was wearing a yellow vest and this wasn’t the right march for it). I quickly changed as the crowd grew exponentially to where I couldn’t see where the people ended. Speakers for BLM addressed the crowd, calling the names of the lost while families prayed. They were aware of police possibly in the crowd as well as looters looking for the opportunity to spread chaos. They made themselves clear if they weren’t doing it, they weren’t condoning it, it’s their march and it would remain peaceful. They had two demands that were clear and concise, “Prosecute Killer Cops" and “Defund the Police”. After the Minneapolis School Board announcing the cancelation of their police contract with their city’s police, it seemed like a very reasonable demand.
The march began through the park, slow at first to move that large crowd through small spaces, but we finally made it to the street, and at the intersection of W 3rd St and Grove Dr, we turned West and my heart skipped a beat, we’re marching where people normally wouldn’t see, where the wealthy hide from the problems of society.
It was peaceful, the community was cheering, nothing was being destroyed, we were out for a nice march calling for change, but at Fairfax, only 1 block from where we were, the march stalled. I could hear the organizers speaking from atop a city bus, but only barely. I needed to hear what they were saying, what message were they trying to convey. The crowd at Fairfax and 3rd looked up to people speaking with such hope and fearlessness in their eye’s, people climbed light posts, it was like a scene from the Warriors and then I saw what was ahead, why we had stopped and what they were yelling about, “fuck the police!”
A line of them had formed on 3rd St just after Fairfax, the protest was blocked but not completely. I moved around to the side of the street to get a better angle and noticed the police were standing only as far as the street was wide, they hadn’t blocked the parking lot that was to their flank. So after one conversation with a leader of BLM.
The large group of protesters that had stalled at Fairfax were now being encouraged to march around the police and surround them, or continue marching past them, but the sudden stop by police of the march that barely got underway left so many angry people that they turned their aggression towards to abandoned police cruisers. I had my fill with the police and joined the front line on the backside of the trapped patrol team. I locked arms with other white protestors in defense of the black protestors and spoke as clearly as I could to an Officer standing right in front of me.
I told the officer what I found to be absolutely shameful while serving in Iraq, that police were murdering black and brown men and women back home on a half-step for ROE (rules of engagement) while I’m serving in a warzone, where every home can carry an AK47 and I have 9 steps of ROE before going lethal. I had more self-control and was able to deescalate situations more calmly in a warzone than police could back home. I asked him if he was in a union. I asked him if he could sleep at night. I asked him if he knew who he was protecting, and when I saw his cohorts preparing to rush both sides or collapse upon themselves, I thought serious violence may begin, till then only minor ricochet rounds were being fired at the ground. They probably saw it as the best course of action, because they closed in on their ranks instead and pulled out through the sidewalk, the two protest crowds reunited.
We cheered in an incredible victory, we forced the police back to retreat peacefully, no one got hurt, but the fires of anger were already stoked, every police cruiser was destroyed on that street as we turned around to find a more entrenched police present and another cut off group of protestors that decided to keep moving from the larger pack. Our small victory would be short-lived. The new police line had reinforced themselves with tactical gear, rubber bullets and CS launchers. Every time they fired ricochet rubber rounds on the ground, the crowd would be spooked back.
On that line, I witnessed a couple of officers use their steel batons on women, aggressively hitting them in the chest and legs. One protestor shook hands with a Staff-Sergeant on the line, expressing to come from the same world, that protestor ended up getting pushed back with a steel baton not 2 minutes later. I held an umbrella in one hand to block incoming CS canisters and braced the people in front of me, but they charged us viciously firing rounds into crowds and clubbing people in the chest and stomachs. We were slowly being forced back when I heard someone yell out fire, I looked behind to see one of the cruisers ablaze and immediately started pulling people out of there. Our line was not more important than lives, the crowd retreated back as the cruiser exploded. The police, not ones to waste the opportunity, continuously fired rubber bullets and CS into the crowd pushing us back to the original line. We were at a standstill again, but we had lost all the ground we gained.
I got back on that front line, in front of another officer. The fire trucks arrived and the crowd made the necessary hole for the trucks to get through and cheered when the blaze was out. I want to point out that most of the white people in that line were women, not men. Men really need to find their courage to stand against authority, they can’t just throw stuff from afar and expect anything from it. I asked the officer a simple question after the chant “Who are you protecting”? “If we had marched East instead of West, would you have stopped us? We only made it one block, and right across that area over there is Beverly Grove followed by Beverly Hills, so who exactly are you protecting?” Some protestors were agitating the police from the adjacent buildings as reporters nonchalantly filmed us as if we were crazed animals. Reminding me the media perspective will always be on the side of the police and not with the protestors. There was a lull in the fight, we sat down and I could see for the first time how many people from the initial protest were still there. Not a whole lot and I was worried that we had been dispersed too quickly.
Once we stood back up, the police rushed us. They jabbed steel batons into my chest and groin, knocking the wind out of me and causing me to falter. A group of protesters secured me and brought me back to help me with water and meds. I thanked them for their help and generosity. I was just sitting on the curb when I heard screams. The crowd moved back quickly when a maroon coupe, looked like a Pontiac drove into the backside of the protesters at full speed. Police didn’t stop the driver, allowed them to be hit, and then used the chaos to push further into the crowd, firing rubber bullets. I wish someone got footage of it, I haven’t found anything about the car and it seems like no one is talking about it.
Someone from BLM called out for us to move back and start walking North on Fairfax, we weren’t getting anywhere on 3rd and police continued to reinforce their positions, so we started to leave and that’s when I saw the remains of what happened when the rest of the protest had left 3rd street. Police cruisers were destroyed including a planted beat-up cop car. We were on Beverly and Fairfax with no direction, no one from BLM to give us guidance, motorists trying to get through and burning vehicles next to a gas station. There were police lines East and West of us on Beverly, and South of Fairfax, I saw the remaining protesters from 3rd street making their way to us with police on their heels.
The situation was becoming dire for the 200+ people that were at the intersection. We needed more people to stand against those overwhelming numbers of police, but the larger protest had already moved on, I wasn’t aware of it at the time, only through the footage I had seen once home, that the larger section had made their way to Beverly Hills and was unchallenged, we had drawn all the police action to us allowing the larger peaceful protest to continue. They kettled us, a dozen swat trucks arrived with full tactical geared teams. I knew they would rush us from all sides soon or corral us in-between buildings that you couldn’t escape from. They would say disperse, go home, but then they would block you from doing that. I made my way out through an alley that wasn’t being watched and limped down the street to safety.
This experience, though not foreign to me, shows the true story on the ground between an opposition force that wanted to peacefully promote a message by exercising their constitutionally protected rights and an authoritarian force with all the gear and weapons and tactics and freedom to exercise any measures they wish without reprisal or consequences because a corrupted elected body deems it necessary. Or maybe, and more frightening, they can’t stop the police. With continued protests into Sunday and hopefully all week, I hope we can change the narrative that this isn’t a riot, it is an uprising and this is the police vs. the people.
