Another black mark for L.A. police
The Los Angeles Police Department has become notorious for beefing up their arrest rates the easy way by planting drugs and closing cases the easy way by coercing confessions.
The sort of people in attendance at the Los Angeles May Day rally (“Top cop criticizes officers’ use of force at immigration rally,” May 3) are exactly the sort of people the LAPD is accustomed to brutalizing with routine impunity — poor, nonwhite noncitizens, lacking the knowledge of their rights, and lacking the financial resources to defend those rights.
And the LAPD would most likely have gotten away with it once again had they not made the mistake of also knocking around a few white journalists for good measure. Were it not for this misstep, the incident in MacArthur Park would very likely have been reported as yet another “Rally turns violent” story making it sound as if victims of police violence were to blame for it all.
C. Dugan, Denver
Dugan...you are so full of it. The LAPD did exactly what needed to be done to control a mob of illegal aliens that got the reaction they were looking for. Real sorry, but if I threw a battery at a cop, I would expect a little reaction from him. What did you want them to do...form a community forum to discuss the reasons fro throwing batteries and bottles at them? Grow up, get out of the house, quit watching so much TV...and come back to reality!
Posted by on May 16, 2007 08:47 AM"making it sound as if victims of police violence were to blame for it all."
Ummm.. they were to blame.
I'll bet Mr. Dugan got a traffic ticket recently.
Posted by on May 16, 2007 08:50 AMThe protester's started the fight. That of course won't be shown on the liberal news outlets.You know damn well if their rights were violated The ACLU would be in court the next day. I haven't heard anything about THE ACLU filing any motions on behalf of the rioters.Again the liberal news slant is trying to make us believe that these protester's were being peaceful and respectful and all of a sudden the Police attacked them.
Next time I hope they use hollow point bullets instead of rubber.
Give me a break!
The protester's started the fight. That of course won't be shown on the liberal news outlets.You know damn well if their rights were violated The ACLU would be in court the next day. I haven't heard anything about THE ACLU filing any motions on behalf of the rioters.Again the liberal news slant is trying to make us believe that these protester's were being peaceful and respectful and all of a sudden the Police attacked them.
Next time I hope they use hollow point bullets instead of rubber.
Give me a break!
A few questions?
Are any of you responders minorities?
Were any of you at the march?
How did you get your information about what happened?
Distrust of authority is healthy, where is yours?
Brad
Posted by flimflam on May 16, 2007 09:10 AMFor the REAL truth, check out www.RogerHedgecock.com
Posted by Rocky on May 16, 2007 09:34 AMAny attempt to get your way by the use of violence is doomed even if it achives some minor sucess at the time of said action. Nothing can last if it's core foundation is based on breaking the law. If you think a law is unfair, and I agree many are, it requires that you dedicate yout time to establishing the wrongness of that law. The only way to get rid of bad law is to expose it to public scrutiny in a just court of law. Any other way can only fail because the remendy is not permanent
Posted by Allen Campbell on May 16, 2007 09:57 AMDid any of you see the actual video footage? I suppose you thought Rodney Alan King deserved to have his head beaten in. LAPD is notoriously dirty and not changing.
Posted by LA Native on May 16, 2007 10:15 AMAfter beating the trash you should have taken it back to the boder and kicked it across where it belongs.
Posted by [Go LAPD] B. Drunk on May 16, 2007 10:30 AMSend Snews OPINION columnist Bill Johnson back to L.A. as he will have a bigger pond of cops to hate and write about.
Posted by QBT on May 16, 2007 10:32 AMI approve of the beating the anarchists received, the reporters and innocent bystanders are a different matter.
Wail away lefties…
I saw quite a few minority police officers in that video. I suppose they were under duress to attack those so-called innocent protesters as well. I notice the writer basically infers that the LA Police are all white and all the protesters were non-white. I would suggest that you take a very close look at the ethnic makeup of the LA Police department. Are you saying that any minority on the LAPD force is a sell out?? If you attack the police, you deserve to have your butt kicked a little.
Posted by I can see clearly now on May 16, 2007 12:28 PM"Distrust of authority is healthy, where is yours?" flimflam
I used to feel that way, until I started paying taxes, owning property, having a vested interest in the success and stability of my society, and in general "growing up". I still have a sliver of my former "hippie self" from the 60s and 70s. I don't trust politicians or cops as far as I can spit, but I trust them more than I do hordes of illegal aliens invading my country and/or a group of Islamos who want to level all of America for their jihad.
Posted by on May 16, 2007 12:52 PMGive me the illegal immigrants I have met any time over the people posting here to whom the American way and the Bill of Rights have little meaning. You take the poster who says if somebody throws a battery at a policeman, he should expect to be arrested. Right. What the poster's infantile mind seems unable to grasp is that most of those arrested did not throw batteries or anything else.
From Fox News:
"Police Chief William Bratton said Sunday that up to 60 members of an elite squad that swarmed into a park and fired rubber bullets during a May Day immigration rally are no longer on the street. Bratton said he spent the weekend viewing video of the MacArthur Park incident and he said LAPD failures were widespread with officers from the top on down culpable."
If the posters here who favor a police state were "educated" in our public schools, maybe private schools are the answer.
Posted by Truth on May 16, 2007 01:25 PMAm I the only one who has noticed that when the GOP was in control of the U.S. Congress, the Rocky Mountain News correctly identified pit vipers and asps, but now that the Democrats are in control, the RMN is less accurate in snake coverage?
Posted by on May 16, 2007 01:27 PMMore from Fox News:
""I'm not going to defend the indefensible," Bratton told journalists groups during a meeting at a television studio in Hollywood. "Things were done that shouldn't have been done."
Journalists were among those roughed up as Metropolitan Division's B Platoon moved through MacArthur and fired 148 rubber bullets to break up what had been a peaceful and lawful immigration rally.
Police said they moved in after rocks and bottles were thrown at them by 30 to 40 agitators, he said.
The Metropolitan Division is the city's premier police squad, made up of experienced officers who have extensive training in crowd control."
Posted by Truth on May 16, 2007 01:27 PM"Am I the only one who has noticed that when the GOP was in control of the U.S. Congress, the Rocky Mountain News correctly identified pit vipers and asps, but now that the Democrats are in control, the RMN is less accurate in snake coverage?"
Yes, you are. Wonder why that is?
Posted by Truth on May 16, 2007 01:35 PM"Am I the only one who has noticed that when the GOP was in control of the U.S. Congress, the Rocky Mountain News correctly identified pit vipers and asps, but now that the Democrats are in control, the RMN is less accurate in snake coverage?"
That's funny. Really.
Posted by No use on May 16, 2007 04:36 PM
Let's see!
An up and at 'em on site commander, when the rocks and the bottles full of urine started flying!
He reacted NOW and with overwhelming force.
Box score:
NO riot!
NO deaths!
NO serious injuries!
NO burning city!
NO terrified INNOCENT citizens!
NO looting!
NO hundreds of millions in damage!
NO years of rebuilding
NO arrests
Not like in bug-out Chief Gates day and the disastrous riots that followed his inept performance!
Now suck-up Brattan has rewarded his best commander by putting him to "cleaning" toilets. All so he can suck-up to illegal aliens.
Maybe LA needs a "Day without a COP".
Then we can see if a" Day without a Mexican" matters near as much as a "Day without a Cop"!!
There are good cops and bad cops.Just like there are good and bad in all people,no matter what occupation or race.To stereotype all LA cops as being corrupt is as absurd as saying all Mexicans are lazy , all blondes are dumb, or all Dugans are irrational ,paranoid,cop haters .
I hope Mr. Dugan never has to rely on a cops help when he or his family is truly in need.
No matter what the outcome,in his mind, the cops would at vault.
"Send me your illegals"
I'll make of TON of cash cleaning YOUR toiloets.
Posted by rick on May 16, 2007 08:18 PMAgain, the news was one sides..as if the poor,helpless illegals were innocent of everything,even blaming the police for children that got trampled in the melee. These people are really stupid if they put their children and babies in harms way, and then don't expect anything to happen among thousands of protesters. No ones to blame but themselves.They did it to themselves.
Police have to protect themselves..AT ANY COST!
What ever happened to Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, who used to ride around LA in their black and white Plymouth Adam 12? I bet they could have handled this four-fifteen by themselves.
Posted by [Code 3] Running Hot on May 17, 2007 12:10 AMTruth...where do you get your information! From all of your misinformed posts, I'm starting to think you drop acid right before you start typing away!
Posted by Truth is a moron on May 17, 2007 07:32 AMThey should have used hollow points instead of rubber.
Posted by MLK on May 18, 2007 08:09 AM