Illegal Protest

For those of you who don’t know the lingo here are some definitions———-ADW—assault with a deadly weapon; PO—police officer; PR 24—Baton with a handle; 37MM— large barreled device that fires foam or plastic, less lethal, projectiles; Code-4notification that the situation is OK

FIRE MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA AND HIS LAP DOG CHIEF BRATTON FOR PUNISHING THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS AND NOT THE ANARCHISTS!

MacArthur Park

Although I am not Metro, I was involved in clearing the park…Here’s some of the things I observed. I stood around with the rest of my unit for 7 hours as the crowd grew. I observed many families, food vendors,reporters, etc inside the park. I also observed several people with bandanas around their faces. A sure sign that there were people who wanted to start trouble. The rally was peaceful most of the day. There were a couple of incidents I heard over the radio involving small groups of people causing problems. Officers took care of it without force.

Toward the end, I heard several radio broadcasts stating officers were getting bottles, bricks, etc thrown at them. Thankfully, this time, it only took a few minutes for the commanding officers at scene (whom I support) to make the call that this was now an unlawful assembly. Of course we all knew that most of the crowd was peaceful. Of course we knew there were families in the crowd. We also knew there were approx 75-100 suspects involved with throwing dangerous items at officers. (For all of you who think we should have just dealt with that group of 75-100 people, you try grabbing 100 people at a time, sealing them off from the rest of the crowd. Add into the equation that they are already combative and aggressive. You can’t capture those people. They will run back into the crowd like the cowards they are. It doesn’t work.)

I was there and I clearly heard several warnings for everyone to clear the park. Don’t tell me there was no warning, I was there…I also heard several warnings in Spanish. We waited a good 25-30 minutes before we even started clearing the park after the warnings were given. That’s a long time to be pelted with rocks and bottles. But we’re professionals, we will take that abuse to give families time to leave. I personally stood at the end of a skirmish line with no less than 5 people with cameras pointed at me. They yelled insults at me, called me a pig, told me I was a racist, told me they could find out where I lived, would advance toward me then suddenly stop, remind me that Bratton’s election was coming up and that I better not because then Bratton wouldn’t get re-elected. (It was hard not to grin at that last comment when they yelled that.) All the time they sat there with their cameras in my face hoping I would lose my cool and do something stupid they could catch on tape. These were just the 5 people in front of me making an attack on one officer who wasn’t saying or doing anything other than standing in a skirmish line that wasn’t moving. Countless other officers had to deal with the same thing and gave no reaction just like me. These people weren’t even the agitators who were throwing rocks and bottles.

After several more warnings and 25-30 minutes we started clearing the park. There was plenty of time for people to leave the area. We were ordered to move forward and start a coordinated advance to move people west out of the park. We didn’t run, we didn’t chase after people. We walked slow. Tactics and training do not allow us to let ANYONE through our lines. This includes the media. If one person who isn’t a police officer gets through, then the line is compromised. There are no exceptions, unless you can’t physically move. If that is the case then we will request an ambulance for you.

As I moved forward in my skirmish line, I was continuously taunted by the same people daring me to hit them or act out. They at least had the common sense not to get too close to me. Make no mistake…I would have struck them with my PR-24 if it had been warranted. Luckily, for my agitators, they kept walking. They decided not to just stand there as the line got closer. They moved and kept their distance. In the end the park was cleared and no one was seriously hurt. If you look at the video shown over and over again by the media of the metro officers and the camera man, you will notice that out of the estimated 50,000 people attending this event, there are only a handful in the picture. I see a good 20 feet of space between the officers skirmish line and the left side of the picture. That tells me that 99.9% of the crowd had the common sense to move out of the way of the skirmish line. Again, we do not let anyone through our lines. If he got hit with a baton, pushed, or kicked a couple of times to get him to move then he should consider himself lucky. We don’t have time to slow down and let him get his act together. If he isn’t already moving he is wrong. Media or not, if I see a wall of blue in riot gear moving towards me I’m going to think it’s time to leave. Shame on you if your dumb enough to stand there.

As for the 37mm’s and the foam projectiles. They did exactly what they were designed for. People move when we use those. If the people who remained in the park after the warnings were given had just left, they wouldn’t have been struck with the foam. Too bad. The media is completely irresponsible in this, just like in Rodney King. They choose to edit and saturate the channels with videos that get them ratings. Except for May 1st and 2nd, I have yet to see anymore video of the rocks and bottles being thrown at officers. Hmmmm….I wonder why not. Try showing the other side.

I thought I heard Bratton say he was going to wait until the investigation is over, yet in 1 week there have been 2 high ranking officers (who had the guts to make the right call)reassigned, 1 who was also demoted. 60 metro officers are now assigned to their homes pending the investigation. (By the way, Bratton was bragging 2 weeks ago how the LAPD now has just over 9500 officers deployed. The first time above that mark in years. With 60 metro officers at home were back below that, fyi.) The mayor and Chief have already stated on national TV that the LAPD was wrong. Bratton may have chosen his words carefully, but most of us can see through them. Chief, this department was GREAT before you got here, it’s GREAT while your here, and it will continue to be GREAT after you are gone. It’s GREAT because of the hard working men and women of this department. It’s GREAT because there are still some supervisors in all sorts of positions that still care about the troops. Since your re-election is the least of your concerns, maybe you should think about how you could support this department instead of throwing your troops to the wolves. Good Luck!

Maybe you should investigate this…Toward the end of the “melee” officers requested back up for 2 ADW on PO’s with suspects running. The airship was assisting those officers, flying low to the ground as they always do in a tactical situation like this. Someone actually had the nerve to get on the air and tell the airship something close to this…”Airship, once again I’m going to request you gain some altitude because it’s too noisy down here.” The pilot replied that he was in the middle of a tactical situation and could not fly higher at the time. The same person stated “we need you to fly higher because we are having a MEDIA INTERVIEW”. The airship repeated that officers were in foot pursuit and he could not comply with that request. Instead of staying off the air for the emergency, the same jerk-off told the pilot “isn’t there a code-4? We are doing this interview”. The pilot responded by saying there is one in custody but they are chasing a second suspect. You are going to have to stand by on the interview sir, officer safety first.I hope there is an investigation into that. This is unacceptable. Let me be the first to say that we line officers are sorry that your interview was interrupted. All I know is that tomorrow I will be back at work, chasing suspects with guns, arresting people for beating their wives, fixing the problems between you and your neighbors, and all the other endless things we do for the citizens of LA.

To all of you citizens who support the LAPD, thank you, it means more than you know. To blogger “midwestgal” America is spelled A-M-E-R-I-C-A, not AMERIKA, welcome to the USA if you are not actually from here. B-platoon, enjoy your vacation and keep your heads up, the rest of us know what happened. To Bratton and Mayor V, if I happen to die in the line of duty protecting the citizens of LA, my wife knows you two are not welcome at my funeral. My brothers and sisters in blue you are still my heroes, stay safe. LT De La Torre thanks for keeping this blog going and posting all of these comments that are controversial. Citizens of LA, no matter how you feel about us we are still going to respond to your cries for help, assist you every way that we can, and be there when you need us. We have too much honor and pride to let the real criminals take over this city.
-P