By Joseph Miranda
The editorial “LAPD’s
treatment of protesters is unacceptable“ (Viewpoint, Nov.
30, 2000 ) requested that people present at the demonstration
against police brutality on Oct. 22 give their account of the
situation. Well, I was one of the demonstrators, and here are my
observations.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s attack on the
demonstrators was more a sign of police incompetence than anything
else. During the confrontation at the rear of Parker Center, a
group of demonstrators attempted to march around the building.
Several of the more militant protesters started chanting and, for
some perverse reason, burning their own banners.
The police proved incapable of isolating these militants from
the rest of the demonstrators who were marching peacefully.
Instead, the police attacked the peaceful marchers with rubber
bullets, and then pushed the march back using their batons and
horses. The demonstrators stood their ground in front of Parker
Center, sitting down in the street and continuing the protest with
no small measure of defiance. Meanwhile a small army of heavily
armed police looked on, seemingly prepared to refight the Battle of
Waterloo.
The police action backfired as it radicalized many of the more
moderate demonstrators in the march. Aside from the usual radical
and anarchist groups, also present were constituents from Amnesty
International, the Greens, the Libertarian Party and community
organizations.
The LAPD’s excessive use of force sent the protest
organizers’ message far better than did all the chants,
banners and speakers. If the police can not handle small groups of
demonstrators without losing control of themselves, then how can
they deal with more serious situations?
This incompetence on the part of the police seems to be part of
a pattern. I happened to be at the demonstrations at the Democratic
National Convention in August. The police continually overreacted
to trivial incidents and failed to recognize the gravity of serious
ones.
A case in point was the police attack on concert goers at the
official protest area outside of Staples Center on the night of
Aug. 14. The police again proved incapable of isolating several
militants involved in throwing debris. Instead, they attacked an
otherwise peaceful assembly leading to wide-scale disturbances. The
result? The people creating the disturbances left while innocent
citizens were injured by police batons and rubber bullets. Peaceful
citizens shot with rubber bullets became recruits of the radical
groups thanks to the LAPD.
On the following days of the convention, there were even more
militant demonstrations as protesters demanded that the police be
held accountable. Some of the older police officers who showed a
little more self discipline and handled crowds peacefully were one
exception. But this type of intelligent policing is on the
decline.
Much of the problem is the result of the “war on
crime”, which creates an “us vs. them” mentality,
completely unacceptable in a democracy. It’s becoming clear
that the police, far from being neutral enforcers of the law, are
partisan players, actively involving themselves on the side of the
powerful.
Given the current atmosphere of “zero tolerance,”
“get tough” and “three strikes,” the police
officers involved in these attacks, as well as their commanders and
the politicians ultimately responsible for their conduct, ought to
be arrested and charged with assault, conspiracy and violations of
civil rights. Of course, they won’t be. There are two laws in
this country: one for citizens and another for the government.
Given the trend of the last year, with demonstrations against
the corporations, the politicians and the government growing, we
should be seeing even larger protests in the future. If the police
cannot act professionally in the face of citizens practicing their
right to protest, democracy is in serious trouble.