CharlesinCharge's excellent dairy describes expertly what it was like to watch local news reports of the Raid on the Occupy LA Camp. The "Reporters" were alternately clueless and haughty toward the Occupiers and spent their time essentially giving fellatio to power as the LAPD gradually squeezed the Occupiers out like a slow-motion wave of velvet glove fascism crashing down on City Hall Solidarity Park.
But still some truth leaked out via Livestream Feeds such as those by OccupyFreedomLA and others.
Video streaming by Ustream
I watched until 4am. And it was quite a show.
Some of the best reporting was actually taking place on Twitter. By 1 am #OccupyLA was trending worldwide.
OccupyWallStNYC #OCCUPYWALLSTREET
Wow, elderly woman @ #OccupyLA just gave very cogent argument agnst military spending while riot police enter camp. http://globalrevolution.tv
michellemalkin Michelle Malkin
And vice versa. For the stench. RT @KTLAnewsdesk: Occupiers prepared to face LAPD with gas masks #OccupyLA @KTLA (Note: Park didn't "stink" Michelle, they cleaned it everyday and had Sanitation and Port-o-Potties as shown by the pics I took last Monday)
OccupyLA #OccupyLA
The eviction is no coincidence... #OccupyLA & #OWS has touched the 3rd rail of our political class's venality. guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/… ~pj
UncleRUSH Russell Simmons
Stand up for #occupyLA ! Show up there on Sunday night at 11pm to engage in peaceful, non-violent solidarity
OccupyLA #OccupyLA
All entrances but corner of 1st and Broadway are blocked by #LAPD. Come downtown NOW to peacefully support #OccupyLA during #OLARaid ~XS
blogdiva Liza Sabater
#OLA #OccupyLA RT @njackson1950:Citizen journalism exposes what the mainstream media gets paid to coverup or explain away.
Jason_Pollock Jason Pollock
Local news in LA is total police propaganda right now. They should say on-air, "brought to you by the LAPD." #OccupyLA
MMFlint Michael Moore
#OccupyLA. #OccupyPhilly. Double tap.
MaxBlumenthal Max Blumenthal
Embedded media blocked by LAPD from using cellphones, tweeting or reporting until #OccupyLA raid is over blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/…
TheBradBlog Brad Friedman
@JasonLeopold @bmaz A bus? -> "@InsightOutNews Took pic of picture protester got of homeland security bus. #occupyla http://bit.ly/...
shannynmoore Shannyn Moore
#occupyLA is trending #1 in the United States. You think lawmakers can talk about it yet?
mdl4 mdl4
Wow, they are DNA swabbing arrested protesters at #OccupyLA. No conspiracy theory, it's on camera. That's 1984 material right there.
shannynmoore Shannyn Moore
Top LAPD cop says "free speech zone" - is there an asterisk in the Constitution? #thatssoBush #occupyLA
OccupyLA #OccupyLA
Solidarity Park was closed at the direction of the 1%... but OLA lives on! View #OccupyLA Raid in Pictures Part II http://occupylosangeles.org/... ~pj
JasonLeopold Jason Leopold
LAPD used beanbags fired from shotguns to get three #occupyLA protesters out of a makeshift treehouse
latimes Los Angeles Times
#OccupyLA: Panoramic photos before/after the LAPD sweep http://bit.ly/... #ows @LATimesPhotos
wilw Wil Wheaton
So the LAPD decides which media outlets get to cover the eviction of #occupyla? And the press is going along with this? Shame on them all.
So yes, Homeland Security was present at the OccupyLA raid. Yes, the media was tamed and kettled and directed like little puppies to report exactly what the Mayor and LAPD wanted them to report.
One of the most galling things to me was seeing the LAPD Officers in Hazmat suits, like they were entering a toxic waste site. Like there was a disease and lice problem in the park. I was there twice, I saw no evidence of this.
The park was almost spotlessly clean.
Volunteer Cleanup Crews swept and picked up the trash everyday at 3pm.
There was art such as this giant mosiac of protest signs which were shaped into an American Flag by the local artists Sabre.
There was this giant Mural about the Federal Reserve.
All of this is now in the process of being destroyed, as the City "Rehabilitates" the Park. Destroyed in response to the one true complaint that the City actually has against OLA - the grass is dead
Boo and hoo.
Hey McFly!, I think our Democracy is just about Dead too - watcha gonna do about that? Call Ghostbusters? (And visually, It kinda looked like that's what they did last night)
Those arrested, reports say that includes more than 200 people who essentially volunteered to be "Arrestable", are being held for $5000 Bail for "Failure to Disperse from a Unlawful Assembly". Y'know I'm curious if any of these people wind up being held at the Twin Towers facility longer than either Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan? And if so, why? Things should be pretty crowded as of last night.
And, seeing as the National Lawyers Guild filed a TRO to prevent the eviction, and the camp was originally established with the blessing of both the Chief of Police and the City Council - I would like to see exactly what it is that made the assembly "Unlawful" other than the Mayor simply changing his mind and going back on his word?
Here's the Livefeed of the Mayor's Post Eviction Press Conference at about 2am.
Video streaming by Ustream
Yes, there were indeed "Kids" in the park. They were with their parents and being watched over by people with KPFK at the "Kids Village" which was just 75 yards from your Office Window! One could see directly into the Kids area from SouthWest Windows of City Hall. And this was "News" to Villaraigosa just recently? Can you say Willful Myopic Ignorance Much?
Some have argued that the police deserve credit for their amazing "restraint" as no one was pepper sprayed or beaten to a bloody pulp with truncheons. Ok, yea - but if you kept watching until 4am like I did - as some of the tweeters noted - they did Shoot Four Three Guys with Bean Bag Guns, to get them out of a tree. I would argue that the protestors proved exactly what they claimed all along - They Were Peaceful, and if the LAPD deserve credit for anything it's that they finally did the job correctly, the way it should be done which only makes them look good compared to Every Other Police Force in the Nation that has dealth with this so far. The other Forces Massive Tragic Fail, does not equal an LAPD Win! They simply didn't Frack it Up like everyone else, even as the LAPD itself did cause their own big mess in MacArthur Park back in 2007.
This time no LAPD officers will probably have to worry about possible Abuse Charges as they were then. Call me silly, but I think that's the way it should be. That should be the standard, that should be the Norm, not the rare, odd, puzzling, "praise-worthy" exception.
As of now the park is closed "indefinitely". But the West Steps are still open for "Free Speech". Thanks Mayor Bush.
OccupyLA and OccupyPhilly are not bowed, they are not cowed - they will go on.
As shown by the defiance and solidarity that OLA received from Vietnam War Protestor Ron Kovic (Whose Life Story was the basis for the Oscar Winning film "Born on the 4th of July") on Sunday Night (as shown in this video, which I shot myself that night)
(Sorry I have less data on Philly, I was glued to LA TV and Livefeeds all night, since a) I've been to that camp and b) I live in LA)
Viva la Revolution
We will fight on. You can't evict an Idea.
Vyan
2:36 PM PT: I want to give credit to Kate Linthicum of the L.A. Times who I met last Monday after she was kicked out of a #OLA Strategy Session that she refused to keep off the record. Despite that, she's done some fairly high quality reporting on OLA in the Times and in her twitter feed. Not so haughty, highly factual.