Police riot

W.T.F.?

CNN reported a disturbing account from an immigration rally in Los Angeles yesterday:

It was a dramatic and chaotic end to what was otherwise a peaceful day here in Los Angeles. … Police started to move and disperse the crowd and fired rubber bullets, dozens of rubber bullets, into the crowd. People went running and fleeing, trying to get out of their way, and there really was, there didn’t seem to be any warning. Police just took ground and moved forward and started firing on this crowd. … There were a lot of children and families at the rally, in the crowd, and I’ve got to tell you, there really wasn’t a lot of warning.

Watch the report:

Oh, and if Anderson Cooper would like to know "how soft" those rubber bullets are, maybe he should ask the family of Victoria Snelgrove.

I think a lot of people don't get just how volatile a mix protesters and the police can be. Having been to a few marches, including one where an NYPD officer found it pretty damned funny that his horse just missed kicking my friend in the head, I can tell you, the cops don't like protesters. It's hot. Their day off probably got canceled. They don't like the protesters' cause, most likely. Most of the cops I've seen try to set their expression into one of bland neutrality, but you can always find a glimpse of pure contempt among them. Add to that the fact that this was the LAPD and the protesters were brown and this seems inevitable.

Inevitable, but still disturbing.