Occupy L.A.: A Cop’s Perspective
Life under the occupation is growing ever more wearisome. I have so far not been called upon to confront or otherwise deal with the group known as Occupy Los Angeles, which has now been encamped on the lawns (or what used to be the lawns) outside L.A.’s City Hall for the better part of two months. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t had occasion to share the vexation imposed by the Occupiers on those people so unfortunate as to live and work in downtown L.A.
If the occupiers confined their activities to their campsites, I suspect most people here in Los Angeles would by now have come to regard them as part of the landscape and ignored them as they do any number of other petty annoyances inherent in city dwelling. But of course, they do not confine themselves to their campsites. Intent on recapturing the spirit of the ‘60s, they regularly “take it to the streets,” marching here and there with little regard for traffic laws or for how all this marching inconveniences their fellow citizens — all those working stiffs into whose pockets they hope to reach so as to pay for the things they themselves are unwilling to work and pay for.
I don’t work in downtown L.A., but my duties occasionally take me to the Police Administration Building at First and Main Streets, directly across the street from City Hall and the larger of the two Occupy L.A. campsites (the smaller one is around the block, on the north side of City Hall). Such was the case the other day, and after finishing my business at headquarters I was driving down Second Street and towards the freeway that would take me back to where I work. I was stopped at a red light, six or seven cars back from the intersection of Second and Hill, and when the light changed to green, I found it odd that the cars ahead of me weren’t moving ahead. I leaned out my window for a look between the cars and saw a column of placard-bearing Occupiers streaming through the intersection against the red light. Well, I told myself, all these people waiting here will be expecting the police to bring some order to this scene, and with me being the only cop around, or so I believed, I started to maneuver my car down the curb lane in preparation to do just that.
But imagine my surprise to discover, as I neared the intersection, that the marchers were being escorted by a number of my fellow LAPD officers. Apparently under orders, these officers were in effect abetting lawless behavior, allowing a hundred or so Occupiers to inconvenience the thousands of people who were forced to sit in their idling cars as the motley parade made its way down Hill Street to whichever bank or other business they planned to disrupt for the afternoon.
Welcome to the Los Angeles Police Department of 2011, where Chief Charlie Beck takes pride in having allowed such disorder to take place. And he apparently is prepared to let it continue through the coming year. “This is not a riot, one-time event,” Beck told the L.A. Weekly. “This is a sustained movement, in my opinion, that we’re gonna have to deal with maybe for all of 2012.”
Terrific.
Imagine living or working in downtown L.A. and hearing the police chief tell you you’re going to be stuck with this nonsense for the next year, all because neither he nor his political masters have the courage to simply enforce the law. “The LAPD does not want to be the story here,” Beck says. “I could change the story real quick, but I don’t want to do that.”
In other words, we are not willing to take the abuse sure to be ladled onto us in great heaping gobs on television and in the pages of the Los Angeles Times if we mix it up with the Occupiers and so much as muss their hair. So, yes, they will be running amok on the streets of downtown and probably elsewhere for as long as they choose to do so. If you’re late for work or late getting home because of it, well, that’s just tough.
“But your right to protest does not include the right to inconvenience your fellow citizens by blocking traffic or interfering with lawful commercial enterprises.” Yes it does Jack, in modern Amerika. Obama has taken us from rule of law to rule of man. Bloodshed will most likely follow as his grip on our throats gets tighter.
Check this out: In an act of total appeasement and complete cowardice, the City of Los Angeles has offered Occupy LA the use of a 10,000 sq ft office building near City Hall, “farmland” and free housing as a bribe to get them of the (former) lawn.
It sounds like a joke, but it’s not:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1122-occupy-la-move-20111122,0,1592348.story
And the taxpayers of Los Angeles will be footing the bill!
Even worse, none of this will stop them from clogging up the streets and make a general nuisance of themselves…In fact it will only embolden them.
Sorry, I just noticed you’ve already linked to this. I got in such a tizzy when I read it I posted the link without even looking.
Greetings:
I live in the San Francisco Bay area, a couple of soviets south of what the locals like to refer to as “The City”. Over the last couple of decades, I have had a kind of catbird seat on the local apparat’s administration of all things demonstrable and there is a identifiable trend that all demonstrators are not treated equal, in fact, some are not treated at all. The foreseeable result is that the citizenry’s right to freely travel and do its commerce is sacrificed to the hysterias of demonstrators from the leftist end of the political spectrum.
Rarely are there any arrests. And when there are, a simple citation is the preferred level of effort regardless of the level of disruption. The local prosecutors have little interest in exacting much of a penalty from the malfeasant and the local media even less in publicizing the results of any legal action. The outcome, in the tradition of B.F. Skinner’s “rewarded behavior tends to be repeated” is an organized coterie of demonstrators whose favorite pastime seems to be a non-video game of “cops and demonstrators” and tough luck on the citizenry who make their living elsewise.
What the OWS demonstrations clearly show is that there is, in fact, a political Jim Crow system under which, leftist demonstrators are consistently allowed to wreak their havoc on the public and its spaces while ideologically aligned administrations wring their hands and allow these disruptions to continue. Like the proverbial right to throw a left hook that must end before the beginning of my fine nose, our current crop of public officials have now decided that some contact is acceptable. All demonstrators are equal; some demonstrators are more equal.
We are in an era when the rule of law has morphed into the ruler’s law; when disruption has become “demonstration”, and when passive-aggressive has become “peaceful”, or “mostly peaceful”.
Enough is enough.
We must charge #Occupy supporters and organizers for the costs of #Occupy!
We have to get together and DEMAND this. Tea Party groups and businesses in the area need to sue both the municipal government and the organizations that are backing #Occupy.
How about we start with suing obama, nag nanci and the rest of them.
Can’t do it. We have no standing. Radical greenies have the standing to sue the government (and its various branches). We tea partiers do not. Federal laws were passed in the recent past granting special standing to greenie interests, but the Sate Media chose not to report on it. This is why elections matter.
Mr. Dunphy, your experience of being inconvenienced at a traffic light does indeed sound as if it might induce weariness. Not quite sure what we might propose to solve these inconveniences; pepper spray doesn’t seem to have worked very well at UC Davis and in fact probably provided to these folks an iconic image to attach to their “movement”. Personally I find it somewhat disturbing that when we see similar images in a place like Egypt, Tunisia, or Syria, we are abhorred by the violent repression – tear gas, flash grenades, pepper spray, sound cannons, rubber bullets (and live bullets in Syria) – by the security forces of those states. Yet those same tactics of repression seem to be supported when the protests happen here.
My biggest concern is that these protests will die down through the cold winter months (in the north) and really explode in the spring. What do we do then? Hard repression hasn’t worked and will not work then either.
they are using live ammunition in egypt as well as syria but the BIG difference is those people are protesting to over throw brutal dictators while the ows are protesting to destroy capitalism and democracy . so yeah i will support “ those same tactics of repression against ows protestors and I will fight anyone trying to destroy my country, my constitution , my democracy , my freedom
These clowns have not suffered “hard repression”. Pepper spray is nasty, but it’s not “repression”.
You want to end these “protests”? Arrest the violators, deny them bail, charge them and try them on all the laws they’re breaking. Trespassing. Aiding and abetting multiple rapes. Drug trafficking. Littering. Improper disposal of human waste. Vandalism. Incitement to riot. Rioting.
Find out how they’re hiding the money they’ve collected and sue whoever’s holding it for overtime, damages, legal fees. Expose the organizers and RICO them for their involvement in the above list of crimes.
Fer crissake, the FBI took on and took down the Klan when it was supported by the dominant political party in most of the country! They can certainly do it again with these thugs!
I suppose repression is in the eye of the beholder Rob. If the police use brutal tactics to put this down, it will only add fuel to the fire. Deny people bail? Charge them with crimes that may or may not be committed by other people? Because we don’t like their message? That is simply unconstitutional. What some of the police are currently doing isn’t working. This will not be “won” with force and brutality. It has to be won on other terms; reason, rationality, counter demonstrations, at the voting booth, whatever.
Et tu, Brutus ?
This will be won when the Occupiers cross some ill-defined line,
and the police role out their riot control weapons; I personally
favor a Fogger, but recent purchases of microwave transmitters
which make the targets feel as though their skin is on fire
indicate a tougher approach will be taken.
Condoning/tolerating illegal behavior is wrong. There is no right way to do wrong. Unpunished, the level of criminality rises until it swallows the innocents disaffected by the evil activity. Beck is weak and silly for feeding the alligator. When all of his children have been consumed he, too, will be eaten. And justifiably so.
Charlieboy, bless his little heart, turned over his guns to the freaks who “don’t need no steenkin’ bodges”. That is a betrayal of his oath of office and he and his political bosses need to be provided with long term residential treatment; possibly in Yemen. The subhumans acting out need to be convinced, in the universal Language to disperse, and stay out of the sight of real people. As a humanitarian gesture perhaps we could airdrop them to some cannibal tribe?
Et Tu, Brute? What shall we do?
Tolerate the occupiers.
But they are intolerable.
Persuade the occupiers to bring their behavior within acceptable limits.
But the very purpose of their mission is to extend their behavior far beyond acceptable limits.
The only remaining alternative is to eliminate those acting out.Tolerate, modify or terminate, and thats all there is.
Shooting those bottomfeeders has advantages:
1.It ends the occupations and thus restores law and order in the disaffected areas.
2. It significantly reduces the welfare rolls.
3. It improves traffic flow.
4. It restores business activity in the occupied areas.
5. The government could declare an “open season”, sell tags, and make a fortune.
6. It greatly raises cash flow in the funeral and cemetery industry.
7. The bottom will fall out of the crime rate.
8. There will be a giant reduction in the number of those voting for Obama.
9.Jail overcrowding would be relieved.
10. The burden on State mental institutions would be relieved.
Shall we give it a try?
I don’t know about anyone else but this acceptance of disorder on the part of city officials breeds nothing but contempt in me towards those same officials. Contempt because I know that if it were a Tea Party group that was disrupting traffic and commerce, we’d be hauled off so fast it would make our heads spin. And we’d be fined. And we’d be forced to pay license fees before even having a demonstration. I guess what it boils down to is the difference between those that are law abiding and those that are not. And when the law seems to give preferential treatment to one group over the other – then it earns that contempt. And that is an ominous development for all of us.
I recall a Tea Party protest in Illinois where the local PD called out riot cops to stand between the Tea Partiers and some government building. Not that there was a threat of violence — but the local authorities had to show the TPers who was in charge.
I remember that. Quincy called out the PD to defend public order against dangerous little old ladies: http://is.gd/p0R47D
I regret to say that the answer will come when some of the terrorists are shot. Not sure that I will like the answer.
We know that the LA city mayor is on the terrorists side.
Broken Windows Theory states that monitoring and maintaining urban environments in a well-ordered condition may stop further vandalism as well as an escalation into more serious crime.
The theory was introduced in a 1982 article by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling.
Can’t we find a police chief that knows that theory? Where is the former police chief that used it in NY? What happened to him? Didn’t he train anyone?
We know that when shooting occurs it will be done by someone who is not stable, but imposed upon by the terrorists, and he overreacts. That will be regrettable, but understandable. We also know that will be used as the excuse to go after everyone who is not a terrorist.
The answer is to keep in mind who supports the terrorists, and be patient. vote against them, or move out, and let them eat dirt. Move to someplace where the terrorists are not in charge.
A proper non-violent response of the police would be to put up fences around the OWS people. That would restrict them from getting food and water in, and keep them from getting out. They would be permitted to continue to occupy, and would be permitted to leave, if they surrendered at the door, signed a confession, and waived their ‘rights to an attorney and to appeal’. A small court could be arranged in a local paddy wagon, and detention camps in a barren wasteland for them to serve their sentence. No plea bargains. Not Gitmo with the other terrorists, the weather is too nice.
Keep in mind, some of these terrorists need to die, to serve as a lesson to others to not trust the ring leaders. It is my hope that they get to die because of their stupidity, and not because of righteous wrath.
L.A. is Huge, OWS is small in comparison, that being said, if the Police chief is allowing this to continue, then OWS has won.
No Rule of Law? Lawlessness will prevail, keep your powder dry, for the Cops might not be around to help,
Cheers,
Bob
LAPD are playing with fire. If normal citizens feel laws won’t be enforced unless they’re part of a ragtag bunch of agitators, they might take the law into their own hands. Maybe that’s the point – to create sympathy for the dirtbags when people inevitably stand up to enforce the laws themselves.
I hate to say it, but Charlie Beck is making me miss Daryl Gates.
Everytime I hear of these OWS types…I keep thinking of this song. Sorta sums the question many of us have: how do you afford your rock & roll lifestyle?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYSesXsN-ZM
Enjoy – the lyrics are spot on.
I am ashamed of my neighbors who have donned armor and raised shields and weapons, who have who have sprayed and gassed and prodded and otherwise campaigned against these words:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Please reconsider your allegiance. The Constitution was a revolutionary document against British economic tyranny. Back then, your allegiance to the status quo was also allegiance to the crown. Today, your allegiance to the status quo is likewise to the ruling class, a class with whom you and I are as likely to socialize as if we were separated from them by an ocean, they are so insulated. I work for a living, and, if you have a job, so do you. We need to be loyal to each other, not to the economic royalty who have fixed the government (TARP & Citizens United, for example) and media (here here) to pacify and control us, and to funnel so much of our productivity to them.
I hope some of you are a little receptive to this message. I’m sincere, not trolling, trying to talk to you all.
E.Warren, I’m at sixes and sevens trying to make sense of your comment.
Who are your “neighbors” who “have sprayed and gassed and prodded”, the police doing their job?.
And, are taking away the constitutional rights of the OWS?, huh?.
“Peaceably assemble” might, at the outset been the order of the day, but professional anarchists in black hoodies and bandanas trashing businesses,closing a port, and building bonfires in city streets ain’t peaceful. Try watching something other than MSNBC for unsanitized media of these criminals carrying their red and black flags, their Che t-shirts. The OWS is not “petitioning the government’ for redress of their grievances because Wall Street is not 1600 Pennsylvania and unpaid student loans do not constitute cause for redress.
Because I like my personal wealth that I have EARNED, does not make me an ally of Jon Corzine, James Dimon, Jeff Immelt, etc. (all of whom real good buddies with the big eared OCCUPYant of the black,er,white house.
No I won’t call you a troll, an apologist for dirtballs is sufficient.
Polite golf applause…
Second the polite golf applause. How scathingly civilized.
Okay. Regarding TARP, Bush supported it. Many (too damn many) in the GOP establishment went along with it. Okay, that is true. But more importantly the Democrats supported TARP 100%. Obama supported it during the 2008 campaign (following the footsteps of RINO imbecile McCain). Speaker Pelosi supported it. Senate President Reid supported it. The ONLY faction that fought TARP was the Conservative Right of the GOP. And that is an easily verifiable fact. So unless your only purpose here is to fan class warfare (ala Obama), then you should be siding with the Republican base which wanted nothing to do with TARP. We rejected the whole “too big to fail” mantra. We believed — and will always believe — in the free market right to fall flat on your face if that is what you deserve by your own lousy business practices. It is the Democrats, and their RINO allies, who support bailing out crony capitalists. Working Americans NEVER supported it, as the polls of the day amply testified. This is the truth and these are the facts. Run from them and attempt to distort them as you may. This is what separates True Americans from American parasites.
As for the protestors, they were blocking people from going to class, and refused to move. Would you rather have a police officer risk a physical confrontation with these people? That could get ugly real quick, and would be a gigantic P.R. nightmare for police everywhere. If some physical discomfort caused by pepper spray can end this situation, then everybody will be better off–the police won’t be in physical danger, the public can go about their lives unimpeded, and the protestors can take some street cred into their sociology classes next Monday. The taxpayers save money because the police can eliminate the problem with a can of pepper spray, and avoid all the money spent to arrest, process, and charge the idiots.
Sure, the spray won’t work every time, but it can help the police avoid something much worse. They were completely justified in what they did, and would deserve to be criticized for doing anything less.
The LAPD might have the right strategy. If public opinion does not support police who take action against OWS, then the public must be made to suffer OWS until they cry out for the police to take action against them.
Chief Beck will sink even further when he sides with his boss (Tony Villar) in overriding state law requiring the impounding of cars for 30 days for unlicensed drivers. Let’s be honest. The majority of unlicensed drivers are illegal aliens who have already broken the law by being here. Just as he has allowed the Occupy LA people to break the law, he will allow these law breakers to continue doing it without penalty.
It is sad to say that the Chief’s job has become so political. Back in the day the Chief ran the police department not the mayor.
Too bad the chief is not elected like the Sheriff. That way the chief would only respond to the voters and he could get whatever he wants and enforce the law without anyone telling him what to do.
Charlie, I hope you look back on your career and see how you sold yourself out to Tony V.
A dangerous precedent is being set by allowing mobs (yes, they are mobs!) to take control over cities without swift and effective action. Shame on Chief Back for relenting his authority to mass civil disobedience, and shame on the L.A. mayor the city counsel for not demanding that the LAPD take stern steps to take back control of the streets and public property for the 99.99 percent of the population that is inconvenienced by thugs and rabble rousers who want nothing more than to taint their cause by urinating and defecating in public. Please, someone, tell me when we allowed the tail to wag the dog; and when did the LAPD lose its authority (read: grit) to do the job of a REAL police department?
The real irony in all this is that the 99% is actually the 1% if you take into account the rest of the emerging third world. I personally feel blessed to be in the 99%.
Well it’s obvious this is not a riot or protest anymore but a human caused disaster. I’d call off the LEO and send in FEMA.
perhaps, The Police, their Union are on OWS side and want the occupy crowd to remain unhindered in their drive to hinder everyone so The Obama POTUS (pbuh) can get re-elected in 2012 as this seems to be the democrats agenda.
Joe Biden VPOTUS did say that if the USA didn’t pass the democrats plan and re elect the current POTUS people would get murdered and raped, and by the great spirit they are getting murdered and raped in the Occupy lands.
Good you choose to be anonymous. Very few police officers are politically oriented to the left. We tend to despise lawbreakers and those who choose to enable them.It seems unlikely that we will ever want to provoke civilians into criminal activity. Got it?
I have the utmost respect for you Jack, and admittedly have far less time on the job than you. However, I respectfully disagree with your standpoint on the UC Davis incident, and believe that based on the UCDPD UOF policy (whatever it may be), this incident has the potential to be justified.
Here’s a longer version of the video at UC Davis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Uj1cV97XQ&feature=player_embedded
You can see a Lieutenant approach the group twice only to be met with sarcastic and snide remarks. It wasn’t long ago, before LAPD adopted the UOF Continuum, that they had the UOF Scale where at the “uncooperative” level officers were justified in using joint locks and OC spray to subdue suspects. If a uniformed police officer tells a crowd to leave twice and they refuse, I would consider that to be “uncooperative,” therefore justifying the use of OC spray. Officers are also allowed to deploy OC spray if they are able to articulate their belief that if they do not use OC spray and attempt to subdue the suspect, the situation could escalate to a greater use of force that could be likely to cause injury. I think in this instance if OC spray was not used, and officers attempted to pull apart the linked arms of the protesters, the level of force required could have escalated. Therefore, the use of OC spray was used to gain compliance before “putting hands on.”
I know LAPD does not use OC spray in crowd control situations except for on an individual, target specific basis. If we look at the type of OC spray used in the video though, you can tell that it is not the basic OC spray officers carry on patrol, this is a larger canister that is designed to deploy the spray in the form of a mist instead of the stream which leads me to believe that this specific canister was possibly designed for crowd control purposes. I understand that LAPD does not employ this tactic and therefore would not be able to justify this UOF under its policy, however other departments have different UOF policies which may very well allow OC spray to be deployed in this situation.
LAPD is a sham. Why do you stupid people (sheep) that live in that rat-infested city allow these clowns like Villar, Beck, his command clowns and all the rest of the dirtbag politicians allow this outlaw behavior. You fools just keep paying the salaries and taxes and the outlaws and assh…. keep doing as they please by taking all and giving nothing. The City of LA will someday pay a huge price just as it did during the riots. I am proud to no longer be associated with such a sissy bunch f fools and losers.
Just watched the whole video linked by UCDPD Not so bad, and I too have a complaint about the actions of the police in this incident.
They only used one can of pepper spray. I think two would have done very well. Also the officers who were not wearing gloves, should have been. That stuff is a bugger to wash off.
Oh, and I should express sympathy to the protesters too. I’m sorry they were too dumb to move. College is indeed providing them an education. And in a year or two they will also learn that prospective employers check arrest records.
Is pepper spray the official air freshener of the one percent?
Fail to disperse when so ordered and you will know for sure.
Thanks for your comments Jack. As a cop, you know better than I, that police chiefs are politicians beholding to other politicians, mayors, for their jobs. Chief Beck likes his high paying job, and isn’t about to jeopardize it, by actually enforcing the law, where applicable, vis a vis OWS LA.
I’ve said this before. Seriously, do people allow their toddlers to continually throw tantrums after the “gimme, gimme, gimmes” without any consequences? No. And the adult “gimme, gimmes” tantrums should not be tolerated either.
But, LC, most people DO allow their children to misbehave without consequence.
Which is precisely WHY we have parks filled with those children, phusically grown, but emotionally infantile. They were never required to grow up- so they never did-and probably never will. And they terribly resent, even detest those who have become self supporting, self directing individuals. The Occupiers need to occupy some workfarm space as an alternative to being shot on the spot.One or two of them might even become a man before his mama does.
Deal with it now, don’t wait and hope the crocodile will eat you last…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wBhwTRFXaU