On Dec. 19, 2011, three prisoners sent a petition to the California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR, “for the redress and reform of current inhumane conditions” in the Administrative Segregation Unit at Corcoran State Prison, according to the San Francisco Bay View.

Kendra Castaneda speaks to fellow activists over the fate of California prisoners held in solitary confinement. Her husband is currently detained in such a holding at Corcoran State Prison. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Among the demands of prisoners are adequate legal assistance and medical care, that their food be kept fresh and free of insects and that they be afforded due process when being sentenced to Security Housing Units, or SHUs.

According to the website Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity, as of Feb. 9, 30 Corcoran inmates were still striking. One prisoner has died, but it is not confirmed if the hunger strike was the cause of death, according to Solitary Watch, a website dedicated to shedding light on prisoner mistreatment.

It was issues concerning the SHUs that led to the previous two hunger strikes, which at one point involved over 6,000 inmates. In SHUs, prisoners are kept in small, isolated cells for 23 hours a day with no direct sunlight. Many are held in SHUs for years, some even decades.

Kendra Castaneda’s husband is currently being held in an Administrative Segregation Unit, or ASU, at Calipatria State Prison. She spoke to activists at the Pershing Square meeting yesterday. Her husband was sent to the ASU, she said, based on a tattoo he had since the age of 15 and the testimony of one or more confidential informants who said he was affiliated with a gang.

“He was sent to segregation [with] no human contact,” she said. “I haven’t seen him in one year. My daughter hasn’t seen him either. They canceled his visits, and recently, his appeal was denied. He is on his way to Pelican Bay State Prison to be in the SHU for the next seven years.”

The CDCR does offer inmates a path out of the SHU, which is to “debrief,” or snitch on another prisoner’s gang affiliation. However, as Castaneda said, snitching in prison can bring about sometimes violent reprisals against the inmate or their family. Critics say the practice of “debriefing” often leads to false testimonies because an inmate is desperate to leave solitary confinement.

Fred Hampton Jr, son of former Blank Panther leader Fred Hampton, speaks about the existence of political prisoners in the U.S. and widespread injustice in the courts. “If the American judicial system was interested in justice," he said, "people like George Bush and the rest of the American gangsters and banksters and Barack Obama ... would be buried underneath the penitentiary." (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

For an hour or less a day, prisoners are let outside, alone, into an area little bigger than their cells with 20-foot-high walls and no direct sunlight. Family members of prisoners describe inmates with very white, almost bluish, skin due to their prolonged confinement.

“They are just alone for years,” said Castaneda. “It is torture and inhumane, and there is no rehabilitation.”

Castaneda has been working with the Center for Constitutional Rights in obtaining the support of prisoners in petitioning the United Nations to investigate inmate abuse.

There are several treaties that obligate the U.S. to conform to international standards against torture and inhumane treatment, such as the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1976 and the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

It is Castaneda’s hope that the U.S. will be held accountable before a U.N. criminal court.

“We are asking them to come inside California prisons,” she said. “We want them to go talk to the inmates and take their reports back to the United Nations. Then we will be filing, in international court, against America, basically.”

According to organizers, there is another hunger strike looming due to the CDCR not meeting the demands of the prisoners from the last two strikes. Prisoners are calling the CDCR to eliminate group punishments, abolish the practice of “debriefing,” end long-term solitary confinement and provide adequate food and clothing.

Fred Hampton Jr., son of former Black Panther leader Fred Hampton who was killed in a questionable police raid in 1969, was present at the meeting. He spoke of the need to organize and fight for the freedom of political prisoners in the U.S.

Others voiced their concerns about the infiltration of for-profit interests within the prison system and tied that into the occupy movement’s ethos of keeping corporate influence in check. According to Michael Novick of Anti-Racist Action Los Angeles, Occupy Oakland has called for an “Occupy the Prisons” action on Feb. 20 at San Quentin State Prison. A similar demonstration is planned that day at 3:00 p.m. in LA at the men’s county jail.

“I would urge everyone to get out there and demonstrate to the world that those people are in there for us and we are out here for them,” he said.

[For related stories click here.]

(Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

While the U.S. government continues to its hard line stance against Iran’s nuclear program, others are calling for a softer approach that considers the fate of the average Iranian.

Yesterday, roughly 100 demonstrators stood in front of the Westwood federal building and demanded no war, sanctions, assassinations or intervention on Iran.

John Parker, the International Action Center’s West Coast coordinator, said a war with Iran would be based solely on economic reasons and that it was the job of the peace movement to shift the government’s goals from its for-profit concerns.

“We’ve got to flip the script on them,” he said. “We got to make them say that they are going to make people’s needs a priority … not going after the oil, territory and sovereignty of the Iranian people.”

According to Parker, whose group organized the event, 79 cities across the U.S., along with six countries, held similar demonstrations.

“There are many that understand what the U.S. is doing, and that the U.S. government — the one percent, the ruling class — is the real enemy, not the sisters and brothers of Iran,” he said.

Several Iranian expatriates were in attendance. They say an attack on Iran, either by the U.S. or Israel, would only make opportunities for governmental reform in Iran difficult.

Reza Pour, a representative of the Union of Progressive Iranians, told demonstrators that arguments for foreign intervention in Iran are disingenuous. He said belligerence toward Iran was a pre-text for a larger showdown with China — the largest consumer of Iranian oil — and asked that the people of the Middle East be allowed to decide their own fate.

“We have to stand up together to defeat any aggressor, even if it is NATO, the U.S. or any other country,” he said.

Israel’s deputy prime minister Moshe Ya’alon claimed recently that Iran was developing missiles with a range great enough to reach the U.S. According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, the U.S. “doesn’t believe Iran is producing such a long-range missile, but Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is still reportedly fearful of a growing chance Israel would attack Iran as early as April.”

Parker, who traveled to Iran last year as part of an anti-war coalition, said focusing on concerns over an Iranian nuclear bomb does not reflect the entire picture, as the U.S. possesses thousands of nuclear weapons, and it is widely believed that Israel has 200 to 300 nuclear weapons as well. He said that while the Iranian nuclear program is monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.S. and Israel nuclear programs are not.

“The U.S. and Israel did not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran has,” he said. “So there is a lot of hypocrisy going on.”

There are four different U.N. Security Council sanctions currently in play against Iran. The U.S. has enacted its own economic penalties. Demonstrators argue that sanctions will not hurt the Iranian government, but only punish its citizens.

Amir Hoss, an Iranian who emigrated to the U.S. 34 years ago, said that war is not a solution in dealing with Iran. He is concerned about the safety of his family and friends he has there.

Hoss said it was a mistake for Iranians to have overthrown the Shah for its current leadership. He feels Iranians will be careful not to make the same mistake twice.

“If the Iranians want to change their government, they will have to do it themselves,” he said. “Iran is a very educated country, they know what they want and they’ll have to do it in their own way.”

After a confusing shuffle of flashlights, badges and broken doors, he ended up in the back seat of a police car in his pajamas, and with no idea of what was going on. They mentioned something about gun possession but it wasn’t clear. It was too early, too loud, too much for a misty May morning.
What Montes did know was his rights. Some could say Montes knew civil rights more than most. When the detective came over to question him on the spot about his gun possession, Montes promptly asked for his lawyer. He knew it was the usual way to cut down the conversation.

But then something strange happened. The detective said someone would like to talk to him. A man in plainclothes, around 35 years old, white, with long blondish hair and a cap approached Montes and identified himself with the FBI.

“That’s when I realized, ‘Oh, man, it’s all political, this thing about the gun,” he says.

What makes it “all political” is Montes’ decades of activism. He carries a history of social organizing that stretches back to the Chicano “Brown Berets” of the late ’60s, through the anti-war movement of the ’70s, and right on into his involvement with the contentious anti-war protests held at the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Even now, charged with six felonies and faced with the looming threat of jail time, he says he can’t stop. His history — the thing that got him in the back of that police car — won’t let him.

***

Marching in front of the downtown courthouse in Los Angeles, Carlos Montes (center-right) leads demonstrators in their protest against the LAPD's killing of Manuel Jaminez on Oct. 26, 2010. The death sparked several days of unrest in the Westlake community where Jaminez was killed. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Located at the intersection of Temple Street and Union Avenue, the Tribal Cafe serves as a command center for local activism, grassroots organizing and community art.

Every square inch is papier-mâchéd, painted or decoupaged. Paintings line the walls and carry messages or symbols: tribal designs, fetuses, skeletons, anything that could carry a connotation.

Almost as soon as Montes sits himself down on one of the cafe’s charmingly uneven chairs, he erupts in a flurry of fliers, pamphlets and documents. Some are about his court case against the sheriff’s department, others are for his various other activism groups: the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and an untold number of immigration rights, anti-war and Chicano rights groups.

Without ordering, a small Styrofoam cup is delivered from the Tribal Cafe’s kitchen. He puts aside his papers to sip, breathe deeply, lean back and give a wide smile.

“Maybe the thing that keeps me going is in these smoothies,” he says with a sigh. “Believe it or not, the lady who cuts my hair started giving me these green juices and I’d get all wired up. It’s natural, too”

And yes, when he talks about his activism it comes out in a fury. There’s a infectious, youthful exuberance about him.

After his lunch order arrives — and after the fanfare over the taste, texture and quality of the paella-like meal dies down — he continues his story about the raid earlier this year.

Protesting a series of FBI raids on anti-war and solidarity activists, Montes speaks to demonstrators outside the Westwood federal building on Jan. 25, 2011. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

“They ransacked my house,” he says. “They took my political documents, computers, cellphones, storage disks. If it was about the guns … they were not hidden. They could have gone in and taken them. But they didn’t.”

He says there were stacks of his political documents when he got back, as if they perused and sorted them.

After it was all said and done, he was charged with six felonies all related to his gun possession. They say that, beyond just having the weapons, he perjured himself because he failed to note a felony conviction from 40 years ago — when he threw a coke can at an officer.

But he says the Department of Justice knows he had guns and officials knew it for years. He bought novelty guns in 2002 and 2005 with no problems.

After becoming a victim of armed robbery in 2009, he wanted to invest in something with a little more firepower. So, he picked up a shotgun on sale at Big 5 in November of 2010 because, well, “it was a good deal.”

But, his timing could have been better. On Sept. 24, 2010, the FBI conducted raids of the homes of 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists in the Midwest under the pretense of investigating terrorist actions.

Due to his involvement in the anti-war protests conducted at the 2008 Republican National Convention, his name was also on the search warrant. But he wasn’t raided until the following May, a few months after he purchased the gun.

Montes feels like it’s some sort of entrapment. He’s fought through multiple stages of his case and won back his property. Now, his court case is going through the discovery motions to try to get any communications between the FBI and sheriff’s dept. He says this will prove that the intent was beyond gun possession.

His next court date is scheduled for Jan. 24.

***

Ask Montes when it all began and he’ll go back — way back.

Growing up in 1950s Boyle Heights was no easy task. He was an immigrant kid who hung out with other immigrant kids and they saw a lot of one thing: police brutality. Only back then, there was hardly a term for it.

Los Angeles was still racially divided. Montes remembers cutting through Huntington Park, which was predominantly white at the time, and seeing a sign that said, “For Rent, Whites Only.”

“And I started thinking about it,” he says. “I got the feeling that they didn’t like blacks. But then I thought, well, I’m not black, I’m not white, what do they think about us?”

Montes is swarmed by supporters shortly after his first court appearance over alleged weapons violations on June 16, 2011. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Perhaps the most formative experience for Montes was when his dad took him to a factory picket line. His dad’s union was fighting for better working conditions. The struggle for ethics and equality brewed within him.

Although he wasn’t the best student, Montes was a good reader. That’s how he got through high school and, after briefly working at the factory with his father, why he started classes at East Los Angeles College. Using those young experiences as ammunition, he began to participate in student government.

It snowballed from there. He joined the Mexican American Student Union, the Young Chicanos for Community Action and the Brown Berets.

This was also the time of the Vietnam War and Montes remembers seeing his old high school buddies come back traumatized, if they came back at all.

“It politicized me,” he says.

Soon, he was organizing protests and traveling across the country to promote Chicano rights and protest classism. He was arrested frequently and, finally, he skipped bail and went into exile for most of the ’70s. He was caught in ’77 when he tried to visit his wife’s family in Los Angeles. When he was finally tried in ’79, he was found not guilty.

“Oh man, they were so pissed that they lost against me,” he says. “I won that case and I’m going to beat this case, too. Even if it takes a while.”

***

Activism is tough, but Montes maintains that it’s a labor of love.

Even after 40 years of organizing, he maintains that his work is far from over. Beyond his help at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Montes also helped organize the massive May 1 immigration marches, anti-war protests and continues to spearhead Chicano rights issues.

(Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

He also has been active with the Occupy LA movement in Los Angeles and — being a staunch socialist — he’s a staunch supporter.

“There’s a lot of focus on the super-rich,” he says. “I think that’s a great thing they’ve done. The super-rich at the top and they’re the problem. … It opened up a Pandora’s box and the rich people are afraid.”

He’s well known in the social organizing sphere and other groups frequently call on him for help. However, Montes warns those with whom he organizes: if you associate with me, you’re going to get attention.

“Police will see me there and say, ‘Ah, there’s the troublemaker,’” he says. “They’ve been calling me a ‘troublemaker’ since the beginning of time. Now they’re calling me a terrorist. … It’s another label they put on you.”

Indeed, the name-calling continues even today. This past summer, the LA Weekly called him an “over-glorified rebel of yesteryear” that is a “mouthy, charged, socialist to the death and suspicious of anything authority-related.”

After 40 years, Montes can’t point to a particular protest or cause as his greatest success because the causes keep coming. He says he’s proud of his work — all of his work — and wants to do more.

His laundry list is long. He says the Chicano and anti-war movements have become too dependent on nonprofit organizing. There needs to be a return to grassroots. He wants more marches, more pounding the pavement, more old-school activism.

Besides those green smoothies, Montes points to one other thing that inspires him to action every day.

“I always meet people — women, youth — who want to get involved,” he says. “And they like what they see or hear and they want to get involved. And when I see it, ah, man.”

He touches his chest and smiles.

(MC Barnes / LA Activist)

An LA Activist investigation has revealed that an oft-cited justification for evicting Occupy Los Angeles, that of concerns over public health, doesn’t reflect documents obtained from the health department.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and multiple news media outlets repeatedly alluded to the issue as a necessity for ousting the two-month long sit-in demonstration at City Hall. However, reports from the LA County Dept. of Health tell a different story, showing that minor issues were quickly dealt with by occupy organizers.

Angelo Bellomo, the department’s director of Environmental Health, told LA Activist that the health dept. made daily visits to the occupy encampment. He said occupiers routinely complied with the department’s orders and that issues were dealt with on the same or next day of notification.

Bellomo said the occupiers were “fairly well organized” because they had committees that dealt with serving food and portable toilet inspections.

“We would bring [code violations] to their attention and the organizers would respond immediately to correct the conditions,” he said. “In fact, they had shared with us it was their intent to comply with the basic health and sanitation laws so that it did not become a basis for their removal.”

Despite the occupiers’ efforts, public health was made an issue. In a Oct. 27 article, the Los Angeles Times reported that Mayor Villaraigosa “decided the camp could not stay after Los Angeles County health inspectors expressed worries about the cleanliness of the camp.”

But on the same day of the Times’ article, Bellomo sent a letter to Gaye Williams, Villaraigosa’s chief of staff, stating quite the opposite. In the matter of toilets, wastewater disposal, food safety, personal hygiene and refuse and debris removal, Bellomo reported minor infractions that were quickly remedied, and noted that bottled water had been “in adequate supply.”

According to Bellomo, the letter was an attempt to lay out the agency’s standards so as to avoid any miscommunication with city officials and the occupiers. The letter gave an overview of the department’s actions, as well as their findings, at Occupy LA.

Although Bellomo acknowledged the potential health risks with the sit-in demonstration, he told LA Activist the health dept. was never worried. He said the agency treated the demonstration like an encampment caused by a natural disaster, such as a wildfire or earthquake.

“We did have our finger on the pulse with regard to any diseases that could have resulted,” he said.

A day after the Times’ news article and Bellomo’s letter, the Times editorial staff raised the issue of public health.

“There are obvious sanitation, vermin and public-health problems that come with an impromptu encampment in an urban zone,” said their editorial, urging Occupy LA’s removal.

On Nov. 18, the Times editorial staff went a little further by reporting that “lice have been a problem” at the encampment.

However, there exists no health dept. report of lice at Occupy LA.

Bellomo explains that after hearing a rumor of head lice at the encampment, health dept. nurses went to City Hall and interviewed protesters. They couldn’t find anyone with the critters. Instead, nurses counseled people on what to do in case of head lice, similar to what they do when schools have an outbreak.

“The Times must have had a different source of input then we did,” said Bellomo.

They did. Nicholas Goldberg, the Times’ editorial page editor, told LA Activist via email that their information came from an LAPD spokesman, who told them, “There was a lice infestation earlier” at Occupy LA.

“He was describing conditions that the police and health department were aware of in the encampment,” wrote Goldberg.

The invented lice problem wasn’t isolated to the Times. It was repeated by other media outlets, even after the protesters had been evicted. On Dec. 10, KPCC reported that lice had been an “obvious problem” at the demonstration.

During the clean up of City Hall, CBS Los Angeles quoted an unidentified worker who justified the use of hazmat crews by saying, “There were a lot of reports of staph infections and lice and things like that.”

When it came time to evict the occupiers, the mayor, in a  Nov. 25 letter to Occupy LA, said their protest was “not sustainable” on the basis “of public health and public safety.”

LA Activist was unsuccessful in reaching the mayor’s office for comment.

Bellomo explains that, in an encampment with people living in close quarters and in less than perfect circumstances, a situation regarding health can degrade quickly. However, most health issues, he said, could have been dealt with at City Hall.

“It depends on the situation,” he said. “If there is an infestation of head lice then people can be treated right there. You wouldn’t simply say, ‘OK everybody, we got to get out of here.’ I think it really depends on the type of problem you are dealing with.”

But there never was a health situation to begin with, a fact that is not missed by occupiers.

Carlos Marroquin, a homeowner advocate and occupier, said the public health excuse was created to malign the protesters and obtain a political objective. He feels the news media were actively seeking to portray an unstable environment at City Hall to capitalize off of the sensationalism.

“It was bogus,” he said. “The excuses they used were just absolutely outrageous.”

Occupier PJ Davenport sees the concerns over protesters’ health as disingenuous. Both her and Marroquin talked about a real public health issue only a few blocks away from City Hall: Skid Row.

“Those people on Skid Row are not part of an organized campaign against greed and corruption in this country, to hold banks accountable and demanding to get money out of politics,” said Davenport. “So those people didn’t seem to matter. Their health concerns were irrelevant to the media and the mayor.”

For Davenport, the eviction of Occupy LA also came down to politics and to an entrenched establishment desperately seeking to rid the city of a 24/7 reminder of their own shortcomings.

“When you are tampering with people’s free speech, you’ve got to come up with a mighty, mighty reason to do that,” she said. “And their mighty reason was health concerns. So when they come in and they do this ridiculous, over-the-top, very costly raid, they can say, ‘Well we did it for the good of the people.’”

“It’s bullshit,” she added. “They did it to maintain the status quo.”

(Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Roughly 100 demonstrators marched through downtown Los Angeles yesterday to show their support for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, an alleged government whistle-blower now on trial.

Manning is accused of turning over hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, ranging from diplomatic cables, military ground reports and the 2007 video of an Apache helicopter attacking civilians. The leaks revealed widespread corruption and secrecy on the part of the U.S. government.

Among many things, State Department cables shed light on an American government willing to buy off brutal dictators and their families in former Soviet republics for tens of millions of dollars for access to oil and gas pipelines and military airbases. Cables showed the U.S. is engaged in a greater level of armed conflict in northern Africa than it openly admits. It was also disclosed that U.S. officials attempted to influence Spanish prosecutors in stopping investigations into torture at Guantanamo Bay and CIA kidnappings.

A protester, who eventually made it back onto the sidewalk, is arrested by police for being in the road during the march. The arrest led to a brief stand-off between police and demonstrators. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

It has even been argued that the release of the classified documents was in part responsible for the Arab Spring after diplomatic cables reveled corruption in various Middle Eastern governments.

Manning faces over 20 criminal charges, including violating the Espionage Act and aiding the enemy. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in a military prison.

Gathering at Pershing Square, demonstrators marched to City Hall demanding the release of Manning, sometimes chanting “End government secrecy, set Bradley Manning free.”

Protester Jeffery Swietlik said that if Manning did release classified documents, it was a positive, “non-biased action” that benefited American citizens and the world.

“In the United States, there are a lot of secrets and a lot things being hidden from us about our government,” he said. “Giving information out like that is just a good thing. I don’t like secrecy.”

Protesters hold a moment of silence for Bradley Manning on City Hall’s west steps after marching. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Speaking to the group of protesters at Pershing Square, Ed Pitzer pointed out that if Manning did release classified documents, he risked his own life in the process, for such crimes can be punished by execution.

“Anybody who is willing to risk their life for the rest of us to stop unjust wars, we all need to be here for [them],” he said.

Not long after the march began, one protester was arrested for stepping into the road. While an LAPD officer reached for the protester, either to push the protester onto the sidewalk or apprehend him, the protester said, “Don’t touch me,” putting his arm out and making contact with the cop. At that point, with protester now back on the sidewalk, the officer grabbed the demonstrator and began placing him under arrest.

(Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Marchers began repeatedly shouting, “Shame” and “This is what a police state looks like,” leading to a brief stand-off. The arrested protester was cited and then later released.

Ellen Sturtz was in the gutter with the arrested protester looking for a way back onto the sidewalk when she witnessed the altercation. Sturtz, who spent time with occupiers in Washington, D.C., said she was shocked by the arrest after experiencing so many well-trained law enforcement in the capitol. She got to know many SWAT police by their first names and said she couldn’t fathom an arrest there for simply not getting on the sidewalk fast enough.

“That officer had no idea if that person had some sort of physical problem,” she said. “Anytime I see an officer like this, he hasn’t been trained well.”

Yesterday’s march was held in solidarity with similar marches and rallies held around the country and world demanding Manning be freed. After the march, protesters held a candlelight vigil for Manning on City Hall’s west steps. Protesters sang “Happy Birthday” to Manning, who turned 24 yesterday.

Sitting on the west steps, John, who asked his surname be withheld, said he views the law as something that helps people “do the right thing.” However, in Manning’s case, he sees the law acting to keep people silent about crime.

“What is the better thing? To see a crime and not report it or just divulge it?” he said. “They all knew what was happening in [Nazi] Germany, but everyone kept their mouth shut. And we all know what happened.”

Long-time activist Blase Bonpane speaks to an audience at The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles about his recent book “Imagine No Religion.” (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

It may seem surprising for a spiritual man to publish an autobiography titled “Imagine No Religion,” but Blase Bonpane’s convictions are anything but ordinary.

On Dec. 11, Bonpane visited The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles to deliver a short speech on themes related to his newly published book.

Bonpane, known for his extensive missionary-cum-activist work in Central America, expounded upon the philosophies and convictions he built during his years of human rights activism and anti-war organizing.

Much of his talk was dedicated to his rejection of mainstream Christianity and its focus on enforcing rules rather than peace.

“Dogma is what ties us, but it really is quite irrelevant,” he said. “It has nothing to do with who you are. The binding part is what separates us.”

He feels the literal interpretations of spiritual texts are among the primary causes of separation and disagreements around the world. The focus, he said, should be on faith.

“Rigid ideology is religion,” he said. “It limits us and divides us. … Spirituality is based on how little we know, not how much we know.”

He also spoke against the weaving of religion and politics to validate war. He explained that America has combined the “terrible cancer” of Christianity with war to legitimize its actions – a maneuver he finds immoral and unjust.

“How can you justify war if it wasn’t your religion?” he said.

Bonpane developed much of his philosophy during his time serving as a Maryknoll priest in 1960s Guatemala. He discovered that many of his fellow Catholics had different priorities that were not aligned with his own, even though they had the same belief system.

“I thought to myself, ‘If I have more in common with an atheist working for peace than a fellow Roman Catholic who is a warmonger, something’s wrong,’” he said.

Instead of following orders and proselytizing the indigenous people, he became involved in their spirituality and human rights struggles.

In 1967, Bonpane was expelled from Guatemala for subversive actions related to a political revolution. When the Catholic Church told him to keep quiet about his doings, he knew he had to separate himself from organized religion.

Since then, he has dedicated his life to world peace rather than religious rhetoric. He has worked with anti-war groups around the globe, winning numerous human rights awards along the way.

Currently, he serves as director of the Office of the Americas, a nonprofit he co-founded in 1983. It’s there that he continues to work for international justice and crusades for peace.

“War is terrorism, torture, hatred and lies – and that’s all it’s ever been,” said Bonpane. “We’re not wired for war. … We’re wired for creativity and imagination.”

(Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Reporting from Orange County – In just under three months, Occupy Wall Street has managed to become a full fledged movement in the U.S. and around the world. Time magazine reported that Occupy protesters have succeeded already by “changing the national conversation from a focus on the debt to one of income inequality, opportunity inequality and a system they say has left too many people without a voice.”

Occupy Los Angeles has the distinction of having been one of the largest and longest running occupations of the movement. The protesters had a good relationship with the city, however the string of crackdowns on occupiers across the country gave city officials a political opening to start removing demonstrators.

On the night of November 27, over 200 riot police showed up at Occupy LA. While protesters and media prepared for a raid, it never came. Instead, police officers instructed the crowd to stay off of the streets and on the sidewalk. Demonstrators celebrated when the majority of the police left in the early morning hours of Nov. 28.

However, it would only be less than 48 hours until the police moved in to evict.

Occupy Santa Ana protesters hold a vigil on Dec. 3 at Santa Ana’s monthly downtown artwalk. (Photo courtesy of Carlos Cordero)

Massimo Marini from Occupy Santa Ana was arrested at Occupy LA and booked at LAPD Central Division just under a mile away from City Hall. He said he was among 30 supporters of Occupy LA linking arms around a tent in the main plaza who were ready to be arrested as an act of civil disobedience. Marini had put himself on the National Lawyers Guild list of those willing to be arrested during the raid.

“At some point, riot police flooded in from the City Hall using it like a Trojan horse,” he said. “Police were just everywhere, as far as you can see. We were told it was an illegal assembly and we would be charged with failure to disperse. If we did not unlock arms, we would be charged with resisting arrest.”

Marini said the booking process took over seven hours as they waited and were transported by bus to a jail in Van Nuys, then taken back to the jail in downtown LA. He said the zip ties used dug into his wrists through his gloves which may have caused temporary nerve damage.

Marini was charged with a misdemeanor with his bail initially set at $5,000. He was able to get it reduced to $2,000. He was released on the afternoon of Dec. 2 after spending two nights in a 5 x 8 cell in jail.

“It was not the typical catch and release of misdemeanor charges,” he said. “I believe we were being held longer because they didn’t want us going back out to protest and that’s understandable. But on top of that, we had the huge bail amount and some of us were having trouble getting bail accepted through the bondsman.”

Although there have been reports of police abuse against protesters, Marini said he did not feel his rights were violated while in jail. Arrestees were fed meals, allowed to show and even were played movies on Thursday afternoon and were able to read newspapers.

“It’s part of the act of civil disobedience to flood the system,” he said.  “If the best the police have to try to suppress it is to lock us up in jail, so be it. I strongly believe in this movement and I feel what happened to us strengthens the movement as a whole.

Anthony Velloza, a former U.S. Marine, participates in Occupy Santa Ana’s Dec. 3 vigil. (Photo courtesy of Carlos Cordero)

Anthony Velloza, a former U.S. Marine from Occupy Santa Ana, was at Occupy LA during the police raid and narrowly escaped the camp.  He was among four that were arrested at Occupy Santa Ana in October for illegal camping when the occupation tried setting up tents on the Federal Building lawn.

Velloza was featured on Fox Channel 11 news earlier in the night as he criticized the militarized response to the occupation. His remarks were captured on video and posted on YouTube, where it has garnered over 16,000 hits.

As Velloza has participated in both Occupy LA and Santa Ana actions, he said he felt like a new stage was ahead for the movement.

“It’s the end of the beginning,” he said. “I feel like its moved on past occupying space through tents, now its on to mobilizing to reach out to the media and Congress.”

Velloza said Occupy Santa Ana hopes to form a coalition strong enough to take on local governments and the media to get their message across about putting people over profits.

The protesters that make up Occupy Santa Ana can be described as small tight knit group of about 20 demonstrators who juggle supporting the occupations in neighboring Irvine and LA along their own personal lives with work, school and families. They are in the process of outreaching to different groups such as a service workers union, Veterans Against War and local homeless advocates to strengthen their numbers.

Meanwhile, raids and police action against protesters are continuing in Washington, D.C.,  Boston, Santa Cruz, Nashville, San Francisco and other major U.S. cities. The movement has seen 4,700 arrests to date of non-violent protesters. A mass action is being planned in the West Coast on Dec. 12 as all of the coastal occupations have joined in vowing to shut down the ports as an act of protest against the one percent.

Joshua Grande says he and others were shot with a rubber bullets on the night of the LAPD raid on the Occupy LA encampment. The LAPD says it used bean-bag rounds on one protester in a tree, but has no knowledge of rubber bullets being employed. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

After the police raid on Occupy LA, there came a steady chorus of praise for the Los Angeles Police Department’s handling of the eviction.

Using City Hall as their brick-and-mortar Trojan horse, police poured out of the building, divided the park into sections and isolated protesters. Nearly 300 were arrested, each initially facing a $5,000 bail. The Los Angeles Times described the action as occurring “swiftly and with the shock of an overwhelming force.”

Many were happy that LA did not repeat the mistakes of other cities where police often demonstrated cruel behavior towards occupy protesters. Civil rights attorney Connie Rice praised the police.

“You have to agree that this is not your grandfather’s LAPD,” she said.

But now that the dust is beginning to settle and protesters are being released from jail, a different story is beginning to emerge. It is a story, say occupiers, of media control, violence, intimidation and a disrespect for basic human rights that was designed to squelch dissent in an alleged democracy.

Protesters describe scenes of demonstrators being beaten with batons, pushed down the steps of City Hall, shot with rubber bullets, treated indifferently while in detention and harassed following the raid.

“We are not aware any rubber bullets were used,” said LAPD spokesman Richard French to LA Activist on Dec. 1. “The whole thing was very non-violent.”

Joshua Grande says he suffered a sprained wrist after being shot with a rubber bullet. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Joshua Grande couldn’t disagree more. With his arm in a sling and wrist swollen, he said he and others were hit with rubber bullets.

When police were rushing into the park, officers behind Grande told him to turn around. He did, but not sure if they were addressing him or someone else, he pointed to himself expecting clarification and began walking toward police. But when he dropped his arm, said Grande, police shot him, hitting him in his left wrist.

“They picked me up, told me there was nothing basically wrong with me, forcibly picked me up by my right hand and arm,” he said. “I was pushed into riot patrol, laying on the ground, holding my arm.”

An ambulance was called and Grande was sent to White Memorial Hospital. He said he was fading in and out of consciousness from being shot. X-rays determined that his badly swollen wrist was sprained.

After getting a sling for his arm, and because he was not arrested, he was quickly released and walked back to City Hall. Once there, he said he witnessed “people being chased, taunted and harassed by the police.”

“They were pulling one of my friends out of the camp and beating him with batons,” he said. “I witnessed a lot. I still have horrific nightmares.”

Ray Ramirez of Occupy Santa Ana said he witnessed a man being shot with a rubber bullet while attempting to leave City Hall. The man fell unconscious, but police did not attend to him.

“The cops left, they just walked back into the park,” he said. “About a half block up, there was another police officer. He walked up to the man who was obviously unconscious and kicked something away from him. He walked away and they just left this guy there on the sidewalk. We were all afraid to go up to him, thinking the cops were going to come out of nowhere like they did and shoot us.”

Ramirez said eventually three occupiers approached the man and began bandaging his leg. He said he heard no warning from police that they were going to shoot.

“There was nothing said. I was right there. They didn’t say anything to the guy,” he said. “I just saw the two cops crouching in the corner. They shot him with a handgun and then they took off.”

Grande corroborates Ramirez’s story.

“He fell to the ground instantly. It was horrible,” said Grande. “[The police] didn’t care. There were police out there who were laughing at us.”

Demonstrators marched onto the Men’s County Jail yesterday to protest police abuse and demand the release of their fellow occupiers. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Doug Kaufman of the ANSWER Coalition was arrested during the raid. He gives a bone-chilling report of violence towards demonstrators that continued within the jails.

“Several protesters were beaten while we were in there if they so much as looked away when told to look forward or talked when screamed at not to talk,” he said. “They were either dragged away [and beaten] or thrown into cold showers.

“One [arrestee] had his wrist broken by some of the cops who ratcheted up his cuffs really tight and just started bending back his hand and arm. He was crying out in pain as they dragged him into the inner part of the jail away from the holding bay where we were all seated on the cement.”

Kaufman said arrestees were also denied medical treatment for the 24-hour period they were held. One man, he said, was left handcuffed even though his shoulder ligaments had been torn.

Other protesters tell stories of arrestees being held for long periods of time without access to toilets. They tell of protesters who had to urinate on themselves while being held on MTA buses for eight to nine hours before being transported to jail.

Not all the violence was contained to City Hall or the jails. According to occupier Kwazi Nkrumah, fellow-occupiers Bilal Ali and Joseph Thomas were attacked by police near Pershing Square after they were separated from other protesters. Ali suffered three broken ribs, according to a statement by long-time activist John Imani.

As of publication, the LAPD would not comment on any specifics related to abuses during the Occupy LA eviction.

“I’m not aware of any rubber bullets being used,” said LAPD spokesman Cleon Joseph to LA Activist. “People can make complaints and we do review them.”

(Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Yesterday, occupiers marched onto the Men’s County Jail demanding the release of their fellow protesters. Leaving from Pershing Square, demonstrators also stopped at LAPD headquarters and City Hall.

Along the way, one protester was arrested for allegedly stepping off the sidewalk and entering the street. In the process of the arrest, protesters said officer Cardenas displayed a penchant for violence. Standing in front of the police headquarters, demonstrators shouted at Cardenas, demanding his badge number.

“As a few officers grabbed one of our protesters, Anthony, they grabbed his right arm and tried to pull him down. He was just protesting, holding up a sign.” said occupier Michael Grace. “Two of us grabbed Anthony and tried to bring him back and officer Cardenas, in his great decision-making-ability, came in with his baton, swung it to break us up and hit me in the arm and jabbed me in the chest.”

The arrest is an example of a sudden shift in the LAPD’s attitude toward protesters following the raid. Before, the non-violent movement experienced minimal police presence at marches and demonstrations. Yesterday, the roughly 200 demonstrators were closely followed by police in riot gear, patrol cars, bicycles, motorcycles and a helicopter.

Richard Florence said he experienced police harassment after eating diner at a restaurant near City Hall. While walking down the street with friends, a patrol car passed, made an abrupt u-turn and halted the group. Florence said he was singled out by the officer.

The officer accused him of flipping him off and threatened to take him to jail, said Florence. Only after convincing the cop that he didn’t have a problem with police, they left.

Florence said protesters near City Hall have been getting jaywalking tickets and people who stop their automobiles to pick others up have been getting tickets.

“Somebody drove by and honked and they got a ticket,” he said. “There has been a kind of increase in overall harassment, or like an intimidation to try and prevent people from being in that area or from protesting.”

Another disturbing aspect of the Nov. 30 raid, say protesters, is the LAPD’s control over the media. According to the LA Weekly, 11 hand-selected corporate media outlets were allowed in the encampment on the night of the raid.

“Police did manage to force out all indie reporters/photogs from the park with threats of arrest,” reported the Weekly. Dakota Smith of the LA Daily News posted on Twitter that the “LAPD didn’t want us interviewing protesters. … handful times we could talk to people.”

Michael Prysner of the ANSWER Coalition said that while he was in jail after the raid, he met an independent photojournalist who had suffered police abuse.

“They threw him down the stairs and started beating him when he was on the ground,” he said. “He had this huge bleeding welt on his head. He wasn’t even a protester; he was just someone covering it as a journalist.”

“And they actually charged him with assaulting an officer,” he added.

Grace called the use of hand-selected media a “PR stunt” to strictly control information to the public.

“They saved the brutality for out in the streets, not in there where the media pool was,” he said.

If the eviction was a “PR stunt,” as Grace calls it, the mayor certainly played his part. The Los Angeles Times reported that the mayor “decided to order the park closed after he learned there were children staying there.”

Protesters say this is disingenuous as there had been children at the encampment since the occupation’s first day. It was no secret. A “Kids Village” was even established with baby sitters, complete with arts and crafts projects for the children to work on.

“There were toddlers here, babies,” said Grace. “The whole reason why it was happening was because the mayor saw that the kids were living with us. He said, ‘God knows what they are doing.’ What they were doing was having a great time. We were taking care of them and looking out for them.”

The Los Angeles Times editorial staff, who had been urging city officials to evict the protesters less than a month into their occupation, praised police and City Hall the day after the raid, calling the eviction a “peaceful conclusion.”

“The Occupy L.A. eviction was the best possible outcome, a tribute to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Chief Charlie Beck and a disciplined, creative Los Angeles Police Department,” wrote the Times.

The First Amendment is supposed to provide the “right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” However, City Hall and certain media outlets portrayed the eviction as a battle won, rather than a battle lost.

It is surmised by occupiers that the eviction, the arrests, the initial exorbitant bail, violence and harassment are all geared to silence a social and economic movement. Or, as Prysner said, “to make people not want to exercise their constitutional rights.”

But if the intention was to intimidate and silence protesters, it didn’t work on Kandist Mallett. She was one of the demonstrators caught in the fray with officer Cardenas. She had stood on the sidewalk, facing him, demanding his badge his number.

“What have we done? Seriously, what have we done?” she said to LA Activist. “They are scared of us, because they are scared of people waking up, of the awareness we are bringing and the fact that this is going on around the world.”

The items people brought, and the signs and art people made, created the cultural and living spaces of the two-month long sit-in demonstration. They were created to cater to the nutritional, hygienic, and educational needs of protesters. Superficially, Occupy LA rallied behind the idea of ending corporatocracy and a rogue banking system, but the spaces created at the encampment became the immediate changes in society that protesters wanted.

Occupiers come from many different backgrounds. Some seasoned activists have been involved with specific causes and ideologies for years and others have been working side by side for years. They spanned from communists and anarchists, yogis, homeless people and many others. The encampment became an embodiment of everything they stood for. The spaces represented a society where people could express themselves freely, where the importance of children, radical education and dialogue were emphasized. All services, items and nourishment were free of charge and communalized.

Following the threat of eviction on the dawn of November 28, many occupiers began packing up their equipment and tents, but many more chose to stay and the services continued to function. On the night of November 29, the encampment was raided by more than 1,500 police in riot gear. Tents were dismantled and items were seized. Nearly 300 occupiers and supporters were arrested trying to protect the space.

An occupiers tent is placed in front of City Hall, on a hill to the right of the steps where the general assemblies took place. As the occupation grew, more tents covered the hill. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

An occupier makes their tent a home with decorations. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The Spring and Temple street corner at City Hall had two bus benches and street posts where occupiers hung many signs and banners. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

A group of men in their twenties used stencil to spray paint Occupy LA shirts for donations. The donations were used to purchase more supplies and to support the encampment. They had volunteers help them and allowed people to spray paint their own belongings. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The portable restrooms at Occupy LA were donated and drained every morning. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The Zero Waste Committee at Occupy LA handled all of the waste at the encampment. The city donated recycle, trash, and compost bins. The city picked up the recycling and trash. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

Classes were scheduled or held sporadically at the People's Collective University. There were no restrictions on who taught classes. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The Kids Village was run by the Women and Allies affinity group. They held activities for children, including arts and crafts and story time with parents, or while parents visited the encampment. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

Occupy LA had social workers present who were available to anybody. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The Free Store at Occupy LA consisted of large bins filled with clothes, blankets and shoes that were free for the taking. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

(Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The signs for the food tent were in English, Spanish and Chinese. Simply put, they read: food. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

CHEZ OCCUPY: The food tent at Occupy LA received donations daily and served 500 to 1,000 people per day. The tent was monitored daily by the Health Department. It never faced getting shut down. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

Food tent manager Michelle Watson adopted this kitten the first day of the occupation. She said somebody couldn’t keep her anymore, so she took her. Watson named her Peace. The day this photo was taken, a woman and her veterinarian friend took the kitten to get a check up and to get dewormed, free of charge. They brought Peace back hours later. Many occupiers occupied with their cats. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The mediation temple was set up by occupiers who thought spirituality was an integral part of a movement. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

Incense, candles, pictures, offerings and pillows were brought to the meditation temple and its shrine by occupiers and visitors. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

Volunteers built what they said was a spiritual space with offerings of flowers, crystals, fruits, vegetables, plants and water. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The People's Print Lab silkscreened shirts and bandannas with “Occupy LA” and “99%.” People were able to bring their clothing to get printed on. When nobody was working the print lab, people were able to use the equipment. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

This tent had a tarp that connected two other tents. They called themselves the Star Tribe. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

PARKING LOT: A cyclist collective, called Bike Scum, had bike racks where people could safely leave there bikes while they visited the encampment. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The encampment had two shower tents. When asked if he bathed there, an occupier said he'd rather not. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

TREEATRE: The theatre at Occupy L.A. held plays and skits that reflected life at the encampment and the problems faced by the 99 percent. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The Occupied Theatre’s stage backdrop. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

For decoration, occupiers tied shredded cloth to a rope suspended from trees. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

An occupier relaxes in a hammock placed high in a tree while LA reggae band, the Hashishans, perform. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The tent of occupier and artist Will Palomares had blankets, paint brushes, a bike and paint. His paintings, including a portrait of Ghandi, were displayed on the top of the steps where the general assemblies took place. He painted more than five paintings at the Occupy LA encampment. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The library at Occupy LA received donations of books and magazines. The topics spanned from radical history to feminism and anarchism to basic math. The library was open to the public and everything was free. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

A spray-painted whiteboard in front of the library. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

Certified nurses volunteered at the Med Tent to administer first aid. The tent saw approximately 40 people a day. The tent also tended to homeless people released from hospitals and in need of wound care. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

On the day of Occupy LA’s eviction, a peace sign was placed at the top of the Christmas tree. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

The fountain on the grounds of City Hall had been blocked off by 30 foot boards that were painted over by graffiti artists. Some occupiers placed their mattresses in front of one of the walls. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

Bike Scum, a cyclist collective at the encampment, had been growing vegetables since late October. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

MOVING DAY: On Nov. 27, throughout the encampment, people packed their belongings in advance of the city's proposed eviction to ensure they weren't seized by the police. (Lucy Guanuna / LA Activist)

LA’s Peacekeepers: Several occupiers put themselves between police and agitators, shouting “we are peaceful,” managing to quell several tense moments during last night’s protest over Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s impending eviction of occupiers from City Hall. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

On Nov. 26, while occupiers at City Hall anxiously awaited their impending eviction, homeless advocate Bilal Ali said to LA Activist: “We don’t de-occupy, we just multiply.”

And so it was. On the eve of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s attempt to squelch the now 59-day-long sit-in demonstration against economic injustice, supporters of the occupy movement showed up to City Hall in droves. Approximately 1,500 people added to the already 700 or so encamped protesters.

By 11:30 p.m., demonstrators pushed onto First Street, slowing traffic and chanting: “Whose streets? Our streets.”

The 12:01 a.m. eviction deadline arrived via a countdown amongst cheering protesters.

“We’re still here,” they chanted.

(Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

With an uptick in spirit and militancy, protesters began marching along First Street toward Broadway. Clad in riot gear, police responded by blocking the access to the intersection.

Over concerns of a divide-and-conquer tactic by police, many occupiers urged their fellow-demonstrators to stay at City Hall to defend their patch of public land.

“Don’t submit to mob mentality,” shouted one man into a bullhorn.

Others, flashing peace signs, stood between police and angry protesters, shouting “We are non-violent.”

In a rare, and perhaps bold move, LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith leaves a nearly surrounded police vehicle to address protesters. Here, he is given a hug by one of the demonstrators. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

Other face-offs at surrounding intersections took place between the LAPD and protesters. However, agitators had their work cut out for them. Neither the LAPD or a majority of occupiers showed much stomach for violence.

However, despite the best efforts to keep peace, some protesters “threw bottles and other objects at police,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Four arrests were made, however, the LAPD was not specific regarding their nature.

The night’s general assembly, whose attendance has ebbed and flowed over the previous weeks, had probably its biggest meeting to date. Police helicopters often circled overhead, shining their spotlights on the assembly.

“It’s up to the police if we are going to have another night of peace,” said one protester into a bullhorn.

Author, veteran and peace advocate Ron Kovic addressed the GA. He urged the protesters to practice non-violence in what he called a global revolution.

“Make no mistake about it, we intend to stay,” he said. “The people are not going to be moved. And we the people of this beautiful democracy movement, we are going to make a courageous stand here tonight.

“I gave three-quarters of my body in Vietnam, in that war. They told me I was fighting for freedom, liberty and democracy. Well, now they are threatening our freedom here at home and we are not going to let them take this democracy away from us.”

At around 11:30 p.m., Demonstrators began occupying First Street. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)

If democracy is threatened here at home, then the justifications for it remain dubious. The Los Angeles Times, and city officials pressured by business interests, have expressed urgency to end the occupation for well over a month now. They cite the dead lawn, public safety and health concerns and an increase in crime around City Hall as their reasons.

Jim Lafferty of the National Lawyers Guild has called the concerns over the grass “both sad and pitifully ridiculous.” He said city officials are trying to hide behind camping and safety laws, likening their behavior to “Nero fiddling while Rome is burning.”

“I guess the mayor is more concerned about dead grass than he is about a dead economy and a dead democracy,” he said. “Getting this economy back on its feet, getting the millions who are being foreclosed upon and thrown out of their homes, getting the 25 million or more people who are out of work a job, taxing the rich appropriately, making the corporations pay their fair share in taxes, not cutting social security and medicare, that’s a struggle. I would have thought that the mayor of this city would want to be a part of that fight.”

At the GA, the occupiers broke up into groups to discuss their reasons, which are numerous, for demonstrating. Cuts to education, student debt, health care, inequality and hopes to share the abundance of the planet with everyone were but a few of the issues raised.

For now, occupiers and the LAPD are maintaining a semi-entente, but the when and how of eviction still looms over both of their collective heads.

“Billboards are everywhere, but hold up a sign and you can get arrested,” announced one occupier at the GA.

On Spring Street, a long row of patrol cars lie dormant while police attend to the demonstration. (Dan Bluemel / LA Activist)