After repeated watching of the video, it appears most of the beating of Villa and Westberry was done by an LAPD sergeant.

Villa and Westberry were standing on the street videoing. An officer on bicycle comes behind them, picks up his bike, slams it into them, pushing them into the Sgt., who pushes back. They get pushed again, and the Sgt. hits them once while standing, then more four times after they are lying on the sidewalk. The final hit (photo 1) was after a pause of a few seconds, and another officer then backs him off (photo2).

[tags]police brutality[/tags]

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From LAVoice

A judge today shot down Ralph Horowitz’s bid to shut the South Central Farmers out of court as well as the 14-acre plot of his land where they had squatted rent-free for three years.

This means they’ll be able to press their Superior Court lawsuit to force the city to take back the land and give Horowitz back the $5 million he spent on it several years ago.

[tags]South Central Farmers[/tags]

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Jose Villa was videoing LAPD during the anti-Minutemen protest called by ANSWER LA last Saturday. As the YourTube video shows, he and Christen Westberry were standing still when an LAPD officer on a bicycle stopped next to them, picked up his bike, slammed it into them, pushing them into other police who then clubbed until they were lying on the pavement - then continued beating them.

For this Villa has been charged with “lynching”, a felony.

From the Wikipedia definition of “lynching.”

Many states now have specific anti-lynching statutes. California, for example, defines lynching, punishable by 2-4 years in prison, as “the taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer,” with the crime of “riot” defined as two or more people using violence or the threat of violence.

At a press conference Tuesday the National Lawyers Guild and ANSWER LA announced they would file multiple lawsuits. Richard Becker of the ANSWER Coalition summed up situations like this up perfectly, “the severity of the charges is always in direct correlation to the severity of the beating”. LAPD knows they are in trouble, hence the grotesque charge of lynching because a man hugged his girl friend to protect her from thugs with badges who beat them both to the sidewalk and continued to assault them while they were motionless.

Becker continued, “we demand the charges be dropped,” saying the behavior of the police could only be called “fascist.”

Reaction from other parts of the country and world is, those LAPD cops are animals, aren’t they? My 88 year old father, a retired lawyer, said the video was ’sickening.’ A friend, Wood, who lives in Wales contrasted the video to the “comforting idea of the provincial British bobby.” Imagine, a country where the police are not known for violent behavior or for clubbing innocents. Wood concludes “Those aren’t policemen. Those are thugs in uniforms.”

Does LAPD even learn? No. That’s why the National Lawyers Guild successfully forced LAPD into a consent decree against precisely this kind of brutal behavior during the 2000 DNC. LAPD is undoubtably now in violation of that agreement. You better believe they’re worried about the coming lawsuits.

Read the full report of the press conference on ANSWER LA.

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Another stinky scandal for Bush’s poodle.

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My take, they peaked late last year and are on their way to becoming just another blog. Here’s the chart.

The Mystery Pollster details the complexities of the Lieberman race and trying to poll it. However it appears Lieberman is still ahead, and even if he loses the primary and runs as an independent, will be re-elected.

This race is one the KOSsacks have put huge emphasis on, they need a win to show their netroots has actual traction, else the vultures are waiting.

Me, I think netroots bungee-jumps into races they know little about, then compounds their errors by doing little if anything to build an organization on the ground, a ’strategy’ doomed to failure.

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South Korean protests are among the most militant and best-organized anywhere. There will be many of them in the coming days in protest against the US-led FTA talks going on there now.

Brian Becker of the ANSWER Coalition reports from Seoul.

South Korean riot police storm peaceful press conference.

Today’s press conference was the kick-off of what will be several days of protests. The fact that the South Korean government sent five hundred riot police to storm a peaceful press conference of 50 activists was a clear sign that it fears the widening opposition to the proposed agreement by a growing number of Korean workers and farmers. It was also a “good faith” sign to the Bush administration by the Korean government, which is under pressure to sign an agreement that not only sacrifices the interests of Korean workers and farmers to U.S. transnationals, but also lays bare the essential neo-colonial character of U.S.-South Korean relations

Lenin’s Tomb has comprehensive coverage.

[tags]FTA,South Korea[/tags]

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Women could make sperm

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