a day in the park

[ljgeoff]

I woke up this morning, turned on the radio and heard a recording of a voice coming over a bull horn: "This is an unlawful assembly." Honestly, it gave me chills.

from wikipedia: Unlawful assembly is a legal term to describe a group of people with the mutual intent of deliberate disturbance of the peace. If the group are about to start the act of disturbance, it is termed a rout, if the disturbance is commenced, it is then termed a riot."

Who decided that this was unlawful assembly?

This is my country, damnit.

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Without knowing more about what actually happened, I have to form an opinion based on what the article says. And this jumped out at me:

In Los Angeles, after police tried to disperse demonstrators who had moved off the sidewalk onto Alvarado Street about 6 p.m., some of the few thousand participants still in the park started throwing plastic bottles and rocks at officers.

So....sounds to me like the protesters started blocking traffic, the police tried to get them back on the sidewalk, and people started throwing rocks at the police who then (over?)reacted and things escalated.

This is not to excuse excessive police reaction, but it's a difficult job, and when faced with a mob of angry people, I can see where the heat of the moment is a hard place to make a good decision.