Bay Area immigration
activists
to protest Los Angeles police action
From Globe Staff
East
Bay immigration advocates are heading to Los Angeles
to plan and participate in demonstrations to protest
Los Angeles police violence against demonstrators
during a May Day rally calling for immigration
reforms.
Officers wielded batons and fired rubber bullets to disperse
demonstrators. Authorities said police acted after protestors hurled rocks
and bottles at them. The FBI is conducting a civil inquiry into the incident.
At least three other investigations into the police action are underway.
Among
those denouncing the violence are Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and
police Chief William Bratton. Local Bay Area activists are also critical.
“We
did not see the police act like this in the Bay Area,” said Jorge Cruz. “But
we have to join with our brothers and sister in LA.”
Critics have condemned
what they call the “brazen brutality” the LAPD at what had been
a peaceful and legally sanctioned immigration rights march. Police fired 240
rubber bullets at the crowd according to news reports. More than a dozen police
officers, demonstrators and journalists suffered minor injuries.
“The
brazen police brutality of the LAPD is yet another example of the erosion of
our civil liberties as we slide more and more into a police state, with the
poor, immigrants, people of color, the marginalized and disenfranchised the
targets of institutionalized violence and repression,” said Linda Piera-Avila.
“The
LAPD’s mission of ‘to protect and serve’ seems to only apply
to those who are part of the corporate interests, while immigrants are being
used as target practice. For justice to be served, NAFTAand similar disastrous
foreign policy agreements must be ended abroad while here at home immigrants
must be recognized and accorded human rights,” she added.
“The
LAPD action was outrageous,” said Peter Thottams, a local attorney, who
has offered his help to those involved in the attacks by police.
