Also, it’s interesting to note the difference in culture (both police and general) between urban and rural areas: in LA, police presume people to be criminals until proven otherwise. In rural Utah, they presume that you’re NOT a criminal. Over Labor Day weekend, some of my city friends came to visit us. We had to call the sheriff because some wayward horses wanted to eat the trees in our yard, and two deputies came out to to our place to check it out. One of my city friends commented, “They didn’t even draw their guns!”

Here we have police at ease with the populace, despite the fact that most of us own guns. In LA, there’s a mutual mistrust between police and citizens. I won’t speculate here as to the reason, I’ll just point out that the mistrust exists in LA– and that it doesn’t exist everywhere.

And they don’t profile by race, color, or religion. Think about it…one white, black, or Mexican person robs a store….does that mean that all people of that race or color are crooks of thieves???? NO!

This pertains to police also….
I do not agree with every action that each police officer makes, but if you group the police together and say that they are all unjust…they you are just as wrong as the next person saying that all blacks, Mexicans, or whites, are problematic in society because one person made an illegal action.

If you’re the kind of person that says “Fu*k the Police” or anything like that…..DONT call 911 when you are being robbed, or get blind sided by a drunk driver.

http://polizeros.com/2007/05/02/lapd-chief-says-inappropriate-force-used-duri…...

So you think it’s better that police don’t bother showing up because the last one was peaceful? What if this one isn’t? Who will the shop owners blame then, if all their stores got smashed and looted? Is that a risk you as a mayor are willing to take? You’re supposed to be protecting your people, not lowering your guard because it “seems peaceful”.

Yes, obviously putting those riot police to use was unnecessary, that’s not under debate. Having them there in the first place, though, absolutely was.

Just spoke with an ANSWER organizer in L.A., he made the excellent point that LAPD frequently acts this viciously when the protest is about immigrant rights.

And, bottom line, the source of this problem was the decision, undoubtedly involving Bratton, to send massive force to “police” a march which has proven repeatedly over the years to be completely peaceful. What were the police doing there in the first place?