Sociology Talk

Pope About Town · Guest

VIDEO | LA Police Attack Crowd at Pro-Immigration Rights Rally

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050307B.shtml

One day after several reporters and camera operators were injured while
covering an altercation at an immigrant rights rally in MacArthur Park, news
organizations condemned the Los Angeles Police Department for its use of
batons and riot guns against members of the media, and some said they were
considering legal options.

Police Action on Journalists at Melee Is Assailed
By Anna Gorman and Stuart Silverstein
The Los Angeles Times

Thursday 03 May 2007

Some news outlets whose reporters and camera operators were hurt in melee
mull legal claims against LAPD.

One day after several reporters and camera operators were injured while
covering an altercation at an immigrant rights rally in MacArthur Park, news
organizations condemned the Los Angeles Police Department for its use of
batons and riot guns against members of the media, and some said they were
considering legal options.

"We are sorry for what happened to our employees and find it
unacceptable that they would be abused in that way when they were doing
their job," said Alfredo Richard, spokesman for the Spanish-language network
Telemundo, of the anchor and the reporter who were hurt during the evening
rally.

Other members of the media who were injured included four employees of
KVEA-TV Channel 52, a KTTV-TV Channel 11 news reporter who suffered a minor
shoulder injury, a camerawoman who has a broken wrist and a reporter for
KPCC-FM (89.3) who was bruised by a police baton.

"I was dumbfounded," said the KPCC reporter, Patricia Nazario. "I've
covered riots. I've covered chaos. I was never hit or struck or humiliated
the way the LAPD violated me yesterday."

Nazario said she was walking away from riot police when she was hit in
the back.

Wearing a press pass and holding a microphone, she turned around and
told the officer, "Why did you hit me? I'm moving. I'm a reporter," Nazario
recalled.

Then the officer hit her on the left leg, she said, knocking her to the
ground and sending her cellphone flying.

"I was shocked, trying to scramble to my feet," she said. "At that
point, I just started crying.. I just felt totally vulnerable."

Pedro Sevcec was anchoring the evening news for Telemundo when he saw
the riot police moving slowly toward the news crews.

A few dozen people had gathered to watch Sevcec do his live broadcast.

"The next thing I heard was the shotguns," he said.

Police knocked over monitors and lights and hit reporters and camera
operators with batons, he said.

Sevcec said police hit him three times and pointed a riot gun at his
face before pushing him out of the park.

An emergency anchor in Miami took over the broadcast.

"It was so ridiculous," Sevcec said. "They know what a TV camera is.
This is not a secret weapon."

Telemundo reporter Carlos Botifoll said he was hit by a baton as he was
waiting to go live on the broadcast.

He was carrying a microphone and standing in front of a camera.

"We were obviously reporters," he said. "There could not have been any
doubt whatsoever."

Police Chief William J. Bratton, who promised an investigation, said at
a news conference Wednesday that a key part of the inquiry into the
officers' actions would focus on why they used force against members of the
media.

"We should never be engaged in attacking anyone in the media," Bratton
said.

The use of force on news crews came despite a legal settlement signed in
2002 calling for the Los Angeles police and city officials to recognize
journalists' right to cover public protests even if there is a declaration
of unlawful assembly and an order to disperse.

Under the settlement, the city agreed to assign a press liaison to such
events and to set up designated media areas.

The pact resolved a lawsuit brought on behalf of seven journalists who
said they were assaulted by police officers while covering the 2000
Democratic National Convention in L.A.

Peter Eliasberg, an ACLU lawyer who helped negotiate the settlement,
said that based on broadcast news reports he has heard and viewed, "the
police went way over the line," using force that "violates the law and the
Constitution."

Marc Cooper, associate director of the USC Annenberg Institute for
Justice in Journalism, said the video he viewed of the clash led him to
believe that the use of force by police was "unjustifiable and excessive."

"From what I saw, it just seemed gratuitous to go after the reporters,"
Cooper said. "They weren't really in the way, they didn't really pose a
threat and, of course, they were trying to do their job."

KPCC-FM News Director Paul Glickman said the LAPD's actions against
Nazario, who clearly identified herself as a reporter, raised questions
about whether the department's policies and procedures are sufficient to
guarantee the safety of reporters.

--
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we will stop telling the truth about them." -

Adlai Stevenson, former Illinois Governor
and democratic presidential candidate.

angrywhiteguy.johnny@gmai · Guest

I'll bet that when the smoke clears, you'll find that these incidents
are set-ups instigated by agitators

AWG

Me · Guest

On Sun, 06 May 2007 16:59:07 GMT, "Pope About Town"
<medii45434@mypacks.net> wrote:

[...]

Kevin Cunningham · Guest

<angrywhiteguy.johnny@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1178472301.667393.184310@y5g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...