On October 15th, I decided to visit Occupy LA for the International Day of Action march they were planning through the financial district. But first I decided to take a few pictures of the camp they set up.
The frist thing I took notice was that conspiracy theorists and 9/11 truthers set up their own tent and table at Occupy LA.
Some of the conspiracy claims got really delusional and even antisemitic. Notice where it talks about “Jewish bankers” in the sign below.
Hear are a couple of youtube videos I uploaded on youtube involving some of the conspiracy theorists I encountered at the protest. One video also involves an altercation between a couple of liberals and conspiracy theorist Ron Paul supporters.
Many of the tents were used for specific purposes.
There were quite a few animals rights activists there also.
This had to be my favorite part of the encampment. Apparently for Halloween the protesters drew the races of their most despised conservative enemies on pumpkins.
This is just some extra footage a images I have. Please enjoy.
(Remember: click on the image to make it bigger.)
The thing that surprised me really is that lack of confrontations with protest had with police unlike the one in NY. Nonviolence and following the law were major themes that were frequently brought up. The only offence I witnessed was the guy a couple of posts below yelling at the cops.
By the time the protesters got to the North lawn they starting sitting on the grass, stood by the curve, and marked the beginning of the occupation of LA. This could basically go all week long and many people got ready by bringing camping gear.
Just when I’m about to leave the OccupyLA protest for home, this idiot decides to act macho and starts throwing random verbal obscenities at police up the City Hall steps. I’m surprised at the amount of self-control these cops have and not immediately arresting and kicking this brainless tough guy wannabe’s ass. But he was probably counting on it to give the others a reason to riot.
Also, make sure you listen to the cool cop at the end of the video.
I’m sure most of you have heard of the recent rallies in NYC where socialists, communists, and anarchists have occupied Wall Street, called the Days of Rage movement, in order to protest against corporations, banks, and the bailouts. Apparently movements like this have started to spread to other cities, including Los Angeles. This protest that I’m currently covering occurred in Downtown Los Angeles and is part of the Days of Rage protests that have been going on in numerous parts of the country.
(JUST A NOTE: YOU CAN CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO INCREASE THERE SIZE)
Around 9:45 am, protests began congregating in Pershing Square:
Before starting the march, participants took the time to create there own protest signs and banners. Some of the signs I noticed which you will see were quite random in their subject material and advocated things that barely had anything to do the main topic involving corporations or Wall St.
Some Anonymous guys were also there:
Yeah, because regulation always works. 😉
The main problem I notice with this movement is the fact is that they have no plan or direction. All that they advocate is the idea that all the worlds ills is a byproduct of some evil capitalist system and corporate greed even though the current economic problems are the result of a wide range of factors besides greed, such as problems with government regulation. But don’t just take my word for it. One of the organizers in the video below even admits they have no specific goal.
Glenn Beck says his family was accosted while watching a movie in a New York City park Monday night. On his radio show and his website today, Beck described the incident and said an angry moviegoer kicked a glass of wine onto his wife Tania’s back, and as she got up to walk away, a man shouted: “We hate conservatives here.”
“We didn’t leave. My staff this morning said: ‘Why didn’t you leave right away.’ That was uncomfortable,” Beck said, as he described the incident, which occurred while he and his family were watching a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” in New York’s Bryant Park. “I said because I have a right to watch a movie and enjoy a movie with my family in the park. I have a right.”
Beck said while he doesn’t expect “a warm welcome in New York City,” what bothered him “was the cowardly behavior of the hateful crowd,” he wrote on his website, glennbeck.com.
However, the woman who sat behind Beck responded in a letter to New York Magazine:
To Whom It May Concern:
Just a quick FYI -saw your article on Mr. Beck and his numerous FALSE claims about the way that he was treated at Bryant Park last night. Myself and several of my friends were seated immediately behind Mr. Beck & co (have pictures) and I can tell you that while the crowd was certainly not *thrilled* that he had shown up, his family was left completely alone, and for the most part he was too. Conversely, it was his security detail (two body guards) that seemed to be unnecessarily prickly with the crowd, scolding myself and my friends for acrobatics and other harmless activities taking place well before the movie started, and contributing to a considerably less relaxed atmosphere than is typically experienced during BPMN (I’ve been going for about six years now).
It was my friend that spilled the glass of wine on Tanya -and I can assure you that it was a complete accident. A happy one, to be sure, but nonetheless a complete and utter accident. As soon as the wine spilled (and I question how Tanya became soaked from a half glass of wine) apologies were made and my friends pretty much scrambled to give Tanya & co napkins -no doubt aware that it would look terrible and that their actions could be perceived as purposeful. No words were exchanged after that, as I think that it became pretty clear to Beck & co that my friends and I were doing everything in our capacity to help clean the “mess”.
I‘m sure it’s unnecessary to point out the hypocrisy in Glen’s statements that we were being hateful. I can assure him that we don’t need his sympathy. Incidentally, none of us have made a career of “spewing hate” on the radio, or any other media platform. We live our lives intolerant only of those who don’t tolerate: We have chosen New York as our city for that very reason. We do things like go to Bryant Park Movie Night, and vote to legalize gay marriage. We don’t taunt Glen, or his family. And we certainly don’t waste our wine, even on Tanya.
Thanks, and please let me know if you have further questions.
Lindsey Piscitell
Her tweet, on the other hand, gives a different impression.
Whatever happened to being tolerant to others ideas?
Well here it is. Been waiting for this one for a while. This is actually my first time at the annual May Day parade in Los Angeles. If you’ve been paying attention to my blog, you’ve already heard that there were two parades, due to conflict between two immigrants groups. Therefore, I will divide my report in two. One will cover the rally organized by Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition (FRIC) and the second half will cover the rally orgainzed by the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC).
Though there were two rallies, most people who took part would shift between the two, either because they didn’t care about the divide or because they didn’t realize there were two separate rallies, even though a line of LAPD officers separated between two groups. This is unfortunate, since if the two groups were united the amount of those who took part would have probably seemed larger than they were.
This was the first rally I went to when I got there. It was a bit larger than the other one which was further down the street.
The vast majority of protesters were holding the following sign.
A few bands were also playing at the rally:
A few socialist/communist protesters brought with them a pinata in the shape of a “capitalist banker.”
At first they tried to tie it around the street pole but it got stuck and the police told them they couldn’t do that. So they went to a nearby sidewalk (in front of the Bank of America) and used a metal stick to hold it up while kids took turns swinging at it until the candy came out.
Here’s a video of what happened:
Southern California Immigration Coalition:
This rally was blacked off by a line of LAPD officers.
While I was searching for any upcoming rallies, protests, and demonstrations on the internet that people were planning on conducting this coming week, I happened to remeber the annual May Day Immigration march that occurs every year that I’ve always been anticipating to get on film. You know. The one that has now become a tradition in commemorating the colossal failure known as the Great American Boycott?
Anyways, while looking it up on where they were planning on having the march, I noticed something that peaked my interest: there will be two marches going on this May Day. Normally, there is a single march that is held by multiple immigrant groups. One will be lead by a group called by the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC), while the other will be lead by the group Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition (FRIC).
This division seems to be due to a conflict that the two groups had last year. According to the SCIC, they accuse FRIC and the LA County Federation of Labor of trying to “keep SCIC out of the planning process” by changing meeting dates and locations. They also accuse the organizers of cutting off the microphones when SCIC and CHIRLA activists were trying to speak, and that Juan Jose Gutierrez and FRIC “collaborated” with the LAPD in order to block SCIC in getting a permit to march.
In response, the SCIC is planning on organizing a separate march this Sunday. Even though their budget isn’t as much as the other groups, they boast that they are larger and have more community support. I tried to see what FRIC’s response was but I’m unable to find their website if they have one. I did find their facebook page, but it’s terrible out of of date. Another difference between the two groups is that FRIC appears to by the arm of the Democratic Party, supports a Guest Worker Program, and tends to wave only American flags, while the SCIC is more grassroots oriented, hates both Republicans and Democrats, believes in complete open immigration, and waves flags from multiple countries.
It appears that both marches are planning on marching at the same time and place, though I’m not sure how that’s going to work out. FRIC seems more moderate compared to SCIC, but I’m not completely sure. Juan Jose Gutierrez himself has been accused of expressing “radical” views and being a Marxist. It’s just one of those things I’ll have to see when I head over there this Sunday.
While filming the anti-war protest two weeks ago a came across this group known as the Black Hebrew Israelites who are normally seen preaching in downtown Hollywood. Many BHI groups, such as this one shown in my pictures and videos advocate Black supremacy, the idea that Jesus was originally black, and that blacks (specifically those in the Western hemisphere) are the original Israelites from the Bible. They are also known to be highly confrontational and belligerent.
From wikipedia:
In late 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described as black supremacist what it called “the extremist fringe of the Hebrew Israelite movement”. It wrote that the members of such groups “believe that Jews are devilish impostors and … openly condemn whites as evil personified, deserving only death or slavery”. The SPLC also said that “most Hebrew Israelites are neither explicitly racist nor anti-Semitic and do not advocate violence”.
The Black Hebrew groups characterized as black supremacist by the SPLC include the Nation of Yahwehand the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ.Also, the Anti-Defamation League has written that the “12 Tribes of Israel” website, maintained by a Black Hebrew group, promotes black supremacy.
In the video below is a group of Black Hebrew Israelites arguing with a group of people, including other African Americans. Near the middle of the vid they begin to argue with one of the members of the Christian group (the one wearing the hat) who were preaching to the anti-war protesters by the sidewalk. He can also be seen in the second vid in Part 3 guarding the pastor who was preaching.
Sorry for taking so long in adding part 4. I had a lot to do considering school.
Anyways, by a little after 12 pm did the protesters began marching through Hollywood Blvd.
The march ended right outside Grauman’s Chinese Theater, and in a huge act of obvious hypocrisy that everyone could stop out besides the protesters, after hours of bitching over the supposed evils of capitalism they begin to left-wing oriented products.
Did I mention that some of the products were T-shirts that glorified left-wing militants, known terrorist organizations, and communist dictators?
Then, in a desperate bid for attention, some of the protesters with pictures of their sons or daughters, specifically parents who had loved ones who were killed or wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, began squatting outside the entrance of the Chinese theater, which is private property and illegal, in an act of “civil disobedience.”
Also, the protesters placed boots that either belonged to dead soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan or were used represent them in some way.
Here one of the officers tries to negotiate with one of the squatters in order to get them to leave. It was practically useless.
After a little while, one of the guys who worked security was fed-up with the trespassing hippies and began going around and throwing away the boots in a while plastic bag. One of the squatting protesters (the bald white guy below) tried to feebly grab the bag in order to get back the boots but it was in vain. Afterwards everyone except the protesters were thrown off of the premises.
Sorry for the quality in that last pic. That’s it for now. I may upload some more bonus footage and photos later so please subscribe if I’m interested.
As with most large scape rallies such as this, there tend to be counter-protesters. The majority of the counter-protestors at this particular rally were Bible preachers.
Here’s a couple of videos I took involving conflicts between the protesters and the religious counter-protesters. The first vid involves the guy in the first photo. While the march was going buy he was involved in a couple of screaming matches. I’m surprised the bald guy at the end didn’t end up resorting to blows.
The second video involves a preacher by the El Capitan theater. Most of the protesters just stared at him. A couple hurled insults.
[UPDATE: The man whose preaching in the video below replied in the comment section. He’s an evangelist by the name of Pastor Steve Sanchez of Hope Chapel in Hermosa Beach. Here’s what he said:
“Hi There,
I’m the guy preaching at this protest. You can read about why we there and the strategy we employed to reach these people with the Gospel by going to my blog, StoneThePreacher (dotcom). Great footage. I also included your Part 1 in this mini-series, as an example of how NOT to preach the Gospel. God bless you. Pastor Steve”
Sounds like a nice guy, though I must admit there’s probably a whole lot we don’t agree with concerning certain aspects of religion and evolution.
Here’s the rest of my pics that I thought were interesting.
The hippy God himself, Ron Kovic, showed up as he does at every protest. He’s the one in the wheel chair. He’s a Vietnam vet who wrote the book Born on the Fourth of July.
You know I originally had no idea where these people are getting this 1 million number. It seems that it’s sourced from the Opinion Research Business survey of Iraq war casualties which came up with the number at 1,033,000 deaths of the result of the conflict. However, this ORB estimate has been criticised by some like the Survey Research Methods organization as exaggerated and ill-founded in peer reviewed literature. Most surveys, including the Iraq Body Count project, the Iraq Family Health Survey, and Associated Press estimate the death toll to be just above 100,000.
James Cromwell showed up to lend his support to the protesters.
In part 2 of our little journey we will focus our attention to some of the other groups taking part in the rally.
One of the most significant and common groups in these sorts of rallies are the anti-Israel / pro-Palestine crowd.
Signs like these are entirely expected. But if you haven’t covered these sorts of protests as much as me and others, you probably aren’t ready for this guy:
He goes by the name of Zan Overall. This individual has a history of holding signs detailing common anti-Jewish rhetoric, including claims of Israel committing the 9/11 attacks (he’s at the very bottom of the page in that link),and Holocaust denial. Here’s a few pics of the paper he gave me. All it is is anti-semitic ranting and selected quites as if it means something:
Just so you know Kevin MacDonald is a professor of psychology at California State University, Long Beach, and an evolutionary psychologist. He is known for his anti-semitic claims and ethnocentrism. he was ties to known white nationalist groups and has been praised by known white supremacists including, David Duke, Don Black, Jamie Kelso, and Kevin Alfred Strom. His work as also been criticized academically due to his use of assumptions, scapegoating, and “sloppy scholarship.”
Then he quotes Buchanan and Fulbright as if what they say absolute truth. I won’t concern with Buchanan but I found an interesting source concerning the Fulbright issue here. Apparently anti-Jewish philosophy was popular back then which isn’t surprising.
Concerning the Stephen Steinlight quote, I can’t find any evidence of him saying such a thing. Not to mention the fact that the quote is incredibly choppy. Racists are known to quote-mine like this. It’s a very common tactic they use. Anyways, let’s continue shall we?
Here are a few other groups who made themselves known:
It’s that time of the year again. Where all those political crazies come out to scream random and unrealistic claims about policies they barely know a thing about save what they read from The Communist Manifesto. Most are a sad spectacle really. They are either ageing hippies who are nothing more than a decrepit product from the turbulent sixties or naive trustafarian teenagers or young adults.
This gathering was sponsored and set up by ANSWER or Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. It started at Hollywood and Vine around 11am.
A few minutes later, more protesters started to show up and the assortment of the numerous separate groups and issues that were part of the demo became clear. One group in particular, in my opinion, had a large presence at the demo were 9/11 truthers. It wasn’t as if they controlled a separate section of the march. They were EVERWHERE:
The last guy above is WeAreChangeLA organizer Bruno Bruhwiler. WeAreChange has a history of advocating wacky conspiracy claims and disrupting television shows including Real Time with Bill Maher. Relatively recently he was arrested for making “involuntary facial expressions” at a courtroom and “resisting officers.” The nincompoops at WeAreChange also dubiously claimed he was arrested for “terrorist” charges and was put in a could room where he passed out. A couple of years back I once filmed him pulling a stunt at a pro-Israel rally which can be viewed here. For more about the case check out Screw Loose Change’s blog here.
There were also a few other conspiracy groups present at the rally spreading their pseudo-scientific beliefs:
Another topic that was popping up at the protest was Libya. The opinions were expected. There was both condemnation of both Kadafi and proposed US intervention in Libya:
But then there was this lovely gem:
Sometimes the insanity of people amazes me. Here’s another:
Notice the look the one in the middle and the far left are giving me. When they walked past me the one in the center asked me who I was with. I just said I was taking pictures for a blog and hobby. The one on the far left (no pun intended) told me I was taking pictures of something “I don’t understand.” Well there is one thing I do understand: Gaddafi is a fucking psychotic nutcase.
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