St. Patrick's Day Parade Arrest Photos

I wasn't in town this past weekend, so I missed all of the hubbub. csaction.org has a photo journal up on their site explaining what went down. The piece that is up on Kos is pretty good.
here:

Elizabeth gets dragged away across Tejon Street. Between the two of them, they either aren't strong enough to help her walk across, or aren't man enough to be sure she isn't harmed. She falls. They don't help her up. They drag her until her pants are pulled down and her bare skin, ravaged by diabetes and in extreme danger of infection, is scraped off for about 36 square inches. The children watching are traumatized. Vietnam combat Veteran Jim, is horrified. Some live wrasslin' watchin', beer swilling redneck scum in the audience, cheered. One guy yelled "kill the hippies". I would guess a member of New Life Baptist or Focus on the Family, but, not understanding insanity like this, I couldn't say.

I don't know who would treat a 65 year old women like this and I don't know who would cheer for them doing it. I don't know what kind of police force would hire and train people to do this and what kind of city would allow this to happen. I don't know what god these people think supports this behavior, but I always find they stand behind some deity when behaving like this.

Comments

[Grinth]

How has no one commented on this yet? Granted I wasn't there, so in that sense I am only being exposed to one side of the story, but I have difficulty picturing anything a 65 year old woman doing that would call for the actions taken by the police. To me this is a horrifying incident of abuse by the people we are supposed to trust to keep the community safe.

Even if she was verbally abusive or even if she pushed the police officer as one of the reports claims, it is obvious she couldn't pose even a minor physical threat to the police officers involved.

Dragging 'protestors' is nothing new in our history but the manner in which they did, and the fact that it was a person who uses a cane is new (to my knowledge).

The thing that got me most was the quote from the CSPD spokesperson who said that the department had received several calls supporting them and commending them for their excercise in restraint.

[Non-Prophet]

It will certainly be interesting to see what comes of this. The local ACLU is involved now and the reports don't seem to be backing the CSPD to the extent that they were initially. Injuring an elderly and defenseless woman who posed no threat to anyone cannot be acceptable behavior in our city, no matter how much you disagree with her message.

[tony tyler mayor candiadte]

I can not beleive how agressive the cops have become in our city. i thought it was limited to just pulling over people and making money and treating them really bad with agressive behavior. i find it terrible that this can happen in our community and i am amazed it has come to this..
tony l tyler
mayor candidate..

[Mark Lewis]

Nothing will excuse the treatment of elderly women by the police in this matter. We had a permit, a right to peaceably assemble, and speak out for peace. The constitution is not null and void in a "private" parade on city streets, and when the city subsidizes the parade with thousands in free police services, it's no longer "private". The police brutality winessed by thousands is a disgrace to the department, and a stain on our city. Peace is a universal desire, not a protest of anything, but the violence visited upon us, in reaction to the message of peace. What a sick world.

[Klayton Elliot Kendall]

Our nation began with genocide and was sustained by slavery. Today we have exported our slavery and our genocide in the form of cheap imports and international weapons manufacturing. As of 2006 the U.S. spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined. From 1492 on, it's been a pretty nightmarish run, with tens of millions murdered, tens of millions enslaved, two atom bombs dropped on civilian populations, and the promise of many more horrors to come. And yet, only a very small percentage of the population of this country even recognizes these facts as a reality. The vast majority of the people live in a commercialized Shangri-La, wherein it appears the U.S. can do no wrong. In terms of sheer brutality, the history of the United States is no better than Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. Of course, this fact is sacrilege to most Americans, because most Americans still refuse to accept Native American Indians, Black Africans, and Asians as human beings. We have internalized our racism into the very fabric of our history in order to cope with our collective guilt. It's easy to forget that the "shining city upon a hill" is just another Babylon built atop a hundred million corpses and counting. But corpses make for a weak foundation, and this city too will fall.