LAPD Officers Shoot Journalists, Trample Protesters
The violence is coming from inside the house!
“This violence that I’ve seen is disgusting,” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said in a press conference about the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles this weekend. I’d agree with him, except that he was talking about violence coming from the protesters, not his own officers. The protesters, he said, were throwing fireworks at the police, adding that they could be fatal.
There have been a whole lot of videos of these protests so far and while it’s entirely possible that this has been happening, somehow all of the videos I keep seeing are of the LAPD enacting horrific acts of violence on not just protestors, but on journalists covering the protests. (Though be aware, even if there is video, police in this country have a history of planting agents provocateurs to incite violent in order to shut down protests and turn public support to their side, so … grain of salt.)
In this video, a police officer shoots a rubber bullet directly at Australian reporter Lauren Tomassi, hitting her in the leg.
In the clip, Tomassi is standing alone on the street with no one in between her and the officer, who physically turns away from where the other officers were pointing their guns and shoots directly at her.
Now, it’s possible that the officer didn’t mean to hit Tomassi and instead meant to hit some terribly violent protester we cannot see, even when the camera spins around, but if that’s the case, that officer needs to be taken off the streets before they make a mistake like that with a real gun. This is not a person with good aim! I have never fired a gun in my life, and yet I am somehow confident that, in the same position, my aim would not be that bad — largely because I have eyes and because I would not point the gun directly at an Australian reporter.
Tomassi wasn’t the only journalist hit, either. British photojournalist Nick Stern was shot in the thigh with a “sponge bullet.” What is that, you ask? Is it like what comes out of a Nerf gun? It is not! It is another kind of “non-lethal” bullet, like a rubber bullet, that could actually be quite lethal depending on where it hits you and how hard. In Stern’s case, the bullet tore right into his thigh — though, luckily, not in the femoral artery, in which case he would be dead now.
"There was something hard sticking out of the back of my leg and my leg was getting wet from blood," Stern told the BBC. The wound was bad enough that he had to have actual surgery afterwards.
This next video won’t embed on account of how it is marked on TikTok as “Sensitive Content” — and, you know, it kind of is. It’s a protester who was shot in the head by a rubber bullet, surrounded by police officers refusing to call an ambulance for them.
In the clip below, we see our boy Chief McDonnell again talking about how the LAPD will be focusing on its mission to “protect lives, safeguard constitutional rights and serve every neighborhood in Los Angeles with integrity,” while next to him, a video plays of several police officers on horseback beating and trampling a man trying to get away from them.
You know, it’s possible he was doing something bad right before that was shot, but it seems like maybe they could have just arrested him instead of going with the full Pamplona.
Here is an especially disturbing clip of another protester, who appears to be a woman, being trampled by horses, shot at and knocked unconscious.
This has become such a common occurrence at protests that one equine expert published a video to TikTok today offering tips for not dying or being severely injured should this happen to you.
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On the ground reports from those at the protests say that the violence was, indeed, started by the cops who started attacking protesters with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and sponge bullets because they were blocking the freeway.
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Shutting down a freeway is an act of nonviolent civil disobedience that in no way necessitates a violent response from the police. There were over 10,000 people marching down that freeway, outraged by the fact that ICE was coming into their city, raiding schools and workplaces and kidnapping their friends and neighbors. That’s a hell of a lot worse than shutting down a freeway. So, for the record, is trampling people with horses, shooting journalists and beating people until they are unconscious.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
Protesters nonviolently shutting down a freeway on-ramp? Pffft. National Airport is shutting down on June 14 for the fascist parade.
I cannot believe I'm saying this, but Bill Kristol made a good point this morning, as noted by Tabs:
𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱’𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘯𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦. 𝘐𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯-𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 “𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.”
If the TACO Maladministration gets its way, this is just the beginning.