Yesterday, during my KPFK/Pacifica interview on Wednesday with citizen journalist and fearless video live-streamer Spencer Mills (better known to the world as “OakFoSho”) about his remarkable coverage of the Tuesday Night/Wednesday morning LAPD raid of OccupyLA at Los Angeles City Hall, we discussed a moment when an LAPD officer had, inappropriately, pointed a gun at him, and Mills’ fearless attempt to take the officer to task for it.
“Escamilla is pointing his gun at protesters,” Mills is heard saying on the video. The officer then points the gun towards the sky, and then lowers it briefly straight at the camera as the journalist’s video-camera records the moment for posterity.
“That’s not necessary! You just pointed your weapon right at me!,” Mills shouts to the cop. “That’s not necessary!…It’s against procedure and it’s against code and you’re not supposed to do it! Take your finger off the trigger, please. Thank you! Don’t point your weapon at me. It’s against procedure and its against code. I’m a journalist! I’m allowed to be here!”
The crowd follows up Mills by chanting, “Guns down! Guns down! Guns down!”
“Again, his name is Escamilla,” Mills says near the end of the clip, before spelling out his name. “E-S-C-A-M-I-L-L-A. I believe he just broke procedure.”
Prior to the show yesterday, I wasn’t able to find the audio from the incident, which I had seen live as it occurred on OakFoSho/Mills’ live-stream, but RT (Russian television) apparently noticed it, and highlighted it yesterday. Here’s that moment…
Also, as we’ve been quite complimentary, in general, towards the way the LAPD handled the eviction from the park in a surprisingly peaceful way (versus the appalling example set by other cities where police sparked violence by the use of pepper spray, tear gas, and more against peaceful demonstrators), it seems, in addition to the above, a bit more video is helpful for balance.
“OccupyFreedomLA,” the other video live-streamer who joined me in-studio at KPFK on Wednesday to discuss her coverage, sends along the following video captured that same night and aired by KCBS2/KCAL9 (yes, their news divisions are now merged), showing exceedingly rough treatment by the LAPD of a photojournalist in the park that night. “It could have been us,” she notes, in the tweet accompanying the link she sent to both me and “OakFoSho”…
We can’t see what sparks the LAPD behavior in the above video, so we’ll reserve judgment until we learn more. But, in any case, with that caveat, here’s the way the video above is described by the poster at YouTube…
It was not all ponies and rainbows, our raid, Brad.
Horror stories are emerging…
Thank you from this important update.
And please see the latest on our occupyLA arrestees, my friends, who I am so worried about after 2+ days of detention under what I am learning are HORRIFIC, INHUMANE circumstances:
http://www.answercoalition.org/national/news/take-action-arrested-occupiers-denied-rights-11-30-2011.html
Yesterday I posted an account of the Bangor Daily News censoring pro Occupier comments on their online website in ME. Bangor Daily News is read mid state and all the way to the Canadian Border.
Yesterday, the Occupy comments had gone from around 100 for each article to 8.One of the anti Occupy comments stated the FBI might pay a visit to a commentor.
Today, there are 3 Occupy comments on the Occupy article. So, I guess they are having the desired effect. Shut down discussion.
The Bangor Daily News used to be the best newspaper that I had ever read. They will suffer from advertising revenues as a result of the censorship. Shame. It is the system.
Thank you for posting video of these incidents!
Nearly every description of the Occupy LA raid I’ve seen in the media parroted the claim of the mayor and police chief that all officers used “minimal force”, yet these examples clearly contradict that claim.
Since the “media pool” was excluded from the activity in the interior of the park, these are our only glimpses into what actually happened there.
There was another example of police using excessive force that was broadcast live by KCAL9. To the best of my recollection, four male officers pinned a physically small young woman down onto the concrete with their knees, and one of them seemed to actually use the weight of his body to smash his knee into her neck/upper back, forcing her face into the pavement.
The only video I’ve been able to find of this incident is a secondary video of a TV screen during the live broadcast. This clip begins during the middle of the event, after the worst of the violence:
http://youtu.be/61FhppD8FNo
Perhaps someone can obtain the original video of the whole incident from KCAL9?
Reviewing the videos of “Tyson Zoltan Heder” and the “girl with pink pants”, it seems that their arrests may be associated and possibly happened at the same time. (Is Heder the individual being arrested in the background of the video of the “girl with pink pants”?)
This could make it easier to obtain KCAL9 footage of the young woman’s arrest.
If the Senate Bill becomes law they could have military people there who could accuse @OakFoSho of terrorism then seize him and take him to GITMO and hold him there indefinitely without formal charges or trial.
DREDD @ #5, We won’t have to wait for it to become law. It’s already in the books, as I posted on your blog…
President Obama’s January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts (plural). “Anyone stating a radical change to (US) Government is a Homegrown Domestic Terrorist”. If you start to do the research into President Obama’s January 21, 2009 Patriot Acts and find “Indefinite Detentions” then you are on the right track.
Regarding the last clip, it is standard procedure for police to charge the victims of police beatings with “assault”. The only action necessary is TO BE BEATEN by police: if that happens you WILL be charged with assault, even if you did nothing but get your skull in the way of their baton. This charge gives them leverage to get away with unprovoked beatings.
Ralph @6,
Professor Jonathan Turley’s Blog says this:
(Professor Jonathan Turley)
Have you noticed that no Occupy people have been taken to GITMO yet under the “old” law?
If that changes refer back to this law.
Ralph @6,
There is no “post” or comment from you on my blog.
I wanted to add this to show that the Supreme Court is not on the same page as the Senate:
(Hamdi v. Rumsfeld). Neither did the dissent of Scalia & Stevens in Hamdi uphold what the Senate did.
What the Senate did is not the law now. We can only hope for a veto, which is not now likely, or that the Supreme Court will strike down that very, very alien law if it comes before the court.
DREDD @9,
I posted my comments on your site. I went back and copied and pasted those comments here. Something wrong with your site’s comments window.
Occupy America! Or lose it!
Ralph @10,
Hmmmm … others have posted there today. Anyway, thanks for the info though, will check it out.
Thank you Brad and other guests on your website for posting this and so much other important events and issues going on in the United States.
Protesters have got to understand that the armed loose cannon cops in riot gear are not the brightest tools in the shed and have no problem using excessive or lethal force on them.
The treasonous lying 1% fcks who increased their militaristic powers using the false flag attack known as 9-11 excuse in the Patriot Act law are watching this inside their homes. These treasonous dangerous careless individuals are clearly drafting new policies for all their sellout political representatives in office to declare into law.
This is specifically aimed at any domestic opposition to their rule, however, the outrage of an American majority is unknown.
The cunt running his mouth in the first video is a complete PUSSY!!!!!! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, CUNT!