Keeping with collecting facts to remember about the ongoing invasion of LA in a discourse actively trying to reimagine these events in real time, I'd like to talk about this June 10th article on Huffpost because I think it highlights three important points I've been writing about on this blog. First, state security forces, particularly federal Trumpenreich immigration forces are the ones committing violence and sewing disorder, not protestors. Second, the "nonlethal" weapons being deployed on nonviolent protestors in LA are still extremely dangerous, and represent an unacceptable application of force against people exercising their constitutionally-protected rights. And third, the class sympathies of corporate media organizations are so powerfully encoded that they supersede even basic self-preservation.
huffpost.com/entry/journalists…
Dozens Of Journalists Targeted, Shot, Detained While Covering LA Protests, Press Org Says
"Shocking video and photos taken amid the ongoing immigration protests in Los Angeles show journalists and news crews being shot, detained and forced off public property by law enforcement, raising concerns of excessive force and First Amendment rights violations.
There have been more than 30 incidents of police violence against journalists as of Tuesday, including 20 injuries, at least five of which required emergency room or urgent care visits, said Adam Rose, the press rights chair with the Los Angeles Press Club, which released a statement Monday urging an end to the targeting of journalists whose work is constitutionally protected."
Keep in mind that this story was published on June 10th, and it is now June 13th; I've watched enough livestreams from LA to guarantee you the more than 30 incidents of police violence against journalists catalogued by the LA Press Club is now a drastic undercount as we roll through day 7 of the fascist Trumpenreich invasion of LA. Furthermore, while everyone has seen the clip of the Australian 9 News reporter being purposely shot in the back of the leg by a murderpig, incidents of deliberate calculated violence against journalists by various state security forces are by no means isolated, and have resulted in far more serious injuries than Tomasi got in that clip. These violent assaults on journalists by federal immigration officers and local police forces are *not* accidental; check out this quote from the LA Press Club's letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem:
“In some cases, federal officers appear to have deliberately targeted journalists who were doing nothing more than their job covering the news,” a letter addressed to Noem by the organizations states."
Do you have any idea how sure a mainstream press body has to be before they accuse cops of purposely targeting journalists? Security forces, particularly Trump's federal Gestapo, have been intentionally attacking journalists to prevent them from covering their widespread civil rights abuses and fascist piggery towards migrants and protestors; full stop. Is this violence? Is this disorder? Cause if it is, I think it's safe to say the pigs are the one bringing those elements to the streets of LA.
Which brings us to nonlethal rounds, and the intentional application of excessive force against journalists, by security forces. Take this story from a veteran reporter shot through the leg with a "nonlethal" round by a cop aiming an area effect weapon directly at his midsection.
"Graphic photos shared with HuffPost show a gaping wound in Nick Stern’s right thigh that he said has left him unable to walk or move without assistance.
“Why this device was shot at human, kind of, waist high level, I do not know. The people around me at that time was doing nothing more than waving Mexican flags,” he told HuffPost."
Stern's story is by no means an outlier, and the article provides evidence of more injured journalists like him. All of which might make you ask how media muppets can continue to blame violence on protestors and hump murderpigs on live TV while their compatriots are being wounded in the streets by deliberate pig assaults? The answer is cold hard cash, and the class sympathies of people who own and run media corporations. These folks are so committed to the police state that protects their material interests, that the media they control will jump through absurd hoops to conflate victim with victimizer; a few days ago I watched a CNN reporter claim protestors were throwing exploding foam objects at the press while holding up a nonlethal munition that I know came from the cops because they're the only ones who had those types of weapons at the protest.
My friends, you're damn right there is violence and disorder on (some of) the streets of LA; and if all the murderpigs and soldiers committing that violence and causing that disorder would like to fuck off now, I'm sure Angelinos can handle the rest from here.
#Fascism #Trump #InvasionOfLA #Police #PoliceViolence #Media #Journalists #CivilRights #USPol
“I never thought for one moment that I’d actually have to be fearful of law enforcement during a public protest," said one photojournalist hospitalized after getting shot in the leg.
Nina Golgowski (HuffPost)
