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| Does this look peaceful to you? |
On the night of Tuesday, November 29th I was arrested by the LAPD while peacefully asserting my 1st Amendment right to free speech. While on the front lines of the Occupy LA eviction I was peacefully chanting and asserting my right to be in witness of the actions that were taking place.
My partner, Chris, was filming the raid with his iphone when, from inside the officer barricade, another police office lunged for his phone. Chris threw his iphone and was then violently grabbed and dragged into the middle of their circle. I engaged in defense of him by trying to pull him back to our side of the protest. Three to four police officers threw him to the ground and pinned him down while a group of protestors chanted “police brutality”.
Chris instructed me to find his phone which I did and proceeded to put it in my pocket. At the time, I did not realize the iphone was still filming. He was carried out by four police officers and I followed and watched closely from outside their barricade. When I reached the outside of the City Hall Park, on the corner of 1st Street and Main Street I stopped to observe the police officers in discussion with Chris. They were arresting him and he was stating that he was unlawfully being arrested for filming the events of the raid.
I was standing there, crying just watching what was happening when a police officer came up to me and aggressively informed me that I needed to keep walking. I informed him that I was going to stay there until I knew that Chris was safe. Four cops, one guy…no way I was leaving without bearing witness to his treatment. The police officer then grabbed me violently and pushed me towards the other side of the street. With the instinctual reaction of an animal I turned around and yelled at him telling him to take his hands off of me and to not touch me. He then preceded to grab my arm, twist it behind me and inform me that he was arresting me. I was crying, hysterically. Bearing witness to such mistreatment of another human being is shocking but I was NOT violent.
I pleaded for my release, told him I would leave. Another police office came up to us and pleaded with my captor to let me go. He said that I had been on my way out and there was no reason to arrest me. The police officer informed him that it was too late. I was going in. I suspect his ego was hurt by being yelled at by a tiny woman who he thought would just take his aggressive treatment and retreat with fear.
I was carted off to the LA Detention Center around 2AM. Booked, fingerprinted and in a holding cell by 6AM with about 100 other women who were unlawfully arrested. I proceeded to call my Super Rockstar Mom. She paid my bond by 10AM. The bondsmen were in the lobby trying to post my bond only to be refused entry by the police officers. I was informed by my Mom and by the bondsmen that they were in the lobby only to be told by police officers inside the jail that no one was out there for any of us. About 10 other women had also posted bail.
At 12 Noon we were informed that we were being transferred to the Van Nuys Jail. Van Nuys! But I’ve been trying to post bail for two hours!
“There’s too many of you. This is a men’s facility and we can’t process you here, if you posted bail we won’t transfer you, you might be going to the center on 77th street in East LA, no, you’re going to Van Nuys, we’re not moving you, you might get released soon, we’re holding you until we can process all of you, there are more of you coming”
These are some of the things the officers were telling us. The right hand having no idea what the left hand was doing. I read an article in the LA Times on Monday where Police Chief Baca assured everyone that LAPD was quite capable of handling the eviction and arrest of so many protestors. From experience, I think not. That or they were playing mind games. You decide.
We got to the Van Nuys facility where we were informed that we needed to be processed. Wait, again? We just did that at the Detention Center? Yes. Processed because now we were in Van Nuys and we could not be released until they made sure we did not have a criminal record. For those of us who had never been arrested this process would take longer than usual. Really? Oh, so if I had priors this would go faster. Hmm…ok…
To write that the raid went well and there was no aggression on behalf of LADP is a boldface lie. Whether the aggression was subtle or coercive, it was there in full force. If you really want the truth, you can’t watch it on TV. Even the media was silenced that night. Turn to social networks and live streamers to see what really happened. Their claims can easily proven incorrect.
Allow me to dispel one last misconception about this movement. I am 36 years old, I have a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Emory University, I am trained as a Body/Mind Counselor and an Energy Healing Therapist. I work and pay my rent every month, my parents are well off, I don’t drink and I don’t smoke…anything. The Occupy encampment was NOT only populated by homeless derelicts. Yes, some flocked there for shelter and this is simply a reflection of our current societal situation. Sad, but true.
I have met some of the smartest, most loving people through this movement. We are determined and passionate and mark my words; this is not the last of Occupy LA.
The people united can never be divided!
