(CNS) While the Supreme Leader of the Republic, President Bill Clinton, addressed the nation Monday night, August 14^th, 2000, from the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, violence flared in the street outside as police attacked a crowd leaving a concert nearby. The attack took place at the conclusion of a performance by the rock band "Rage Against the Machine," after a concert to proclaim their disdain for the corruption of American democracy across the street from where the president and first lady waited for their turn to address the nation.

The concert itself passed without incident and most of the approximately 7,000 people in attendance quickly dispersed. But as darkness was falling, a few protesters began heaving rocks, concrete and bottles over a fence at police. Some climbed the security fence while others set some of their signs on fire and began dancing around the flames. Police, who were widely criticized for what appeared to be a slow response to a melee following the Lakers' recent championship victory, rolled out quickly, well-armed and in overwhelming numbers, and virtually launched an attack which effected not only the protesters, but innocent bystanders, in what can only be described as a police riot.

There were 10 arrests - bringing to 38 arrests since protesters began assembling last weekend - no reports of serious injuries, and no repeat of the vandalism that damaged downtown businesses after the Lakers' victory in the National Basketball Assn. championship. There were, however, scores of people of hit by rubber bullets or other projectiles, like beanbags. Many of those who were hit were bleeding or displayed deep silver dollar-size bruises. An L. A. Times reporter was hit on the back of his upper right arm, presumably with a police baton, who said the beating caused an intense stinging and burning sensation at the point of impact. The rifle fire sounded like a war-zone, sparks flying and the projectiles whizzing toward the crowd. In the opening moments of the attack, described by the mainstream press as a "melee," LAPD officers ordered the crowd out of the area near the concert. "Down! Down!" officers yelled, "Move it! Move it!"

Confused, most of the crowd near the barricade simply crouched down, while a few others fled north on Olympic Blvd., stumbling over each other as they ran to avoid the onslaught of police gunfire. Behind them in the dark officers began firing rubber bullets. Glinting under the security lights, the gun barrels of the police ejected powder plumes as they launched a full-scale assault on the confused and panicking crowd.

"Jesus!" Jorge Villa shouted as he stumbled, reaching down to his leg, and running until most of the crowd was behind him. Villa, a utility meter reader who had gone to watch Rage Against the Machine, displayed a rubber police bullet. "Pretty painful," he said, grimacing from the pain inflicted on his body by police. In addition to rubber bullets, police also used pepper spray and projectile beanbags, striking many of the protesters and innocent bystanders as police fired indiscriminately for more than an hour.

Ted Hayes, a homeless advocate leading a legal, permitted march on Monday evening, was struck in the chest with a beanbag. He was knocked down to the ground, where he gasped for breath. Hayes was taken by ambulance to nearby California Hospital, where he was in stable condition Monday night after sustaining injuries from the attack. Nearby, an 11-year-old boy, a child, Abraham Mejia, was with his father when he was hit by a rubber bullet. "I came to see and was just trying to get away," the child cried. He, like many of those hit Monday night, was struck in the back. "I am now kinda scared." (Well, you should be scared Abraham! The rest of America should be scared as well, as this shocking abuse of police power demonstrates that the police state is alive and well, and in need of dismantling. Until the police state is dissolved, and succeeded by a civilian government constituted according to the ancient constitution, no one's civil rights will be protected by law. WFI Editor)

Others who were hit by police-fired rubber bullets included American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California lawyer Carol Sobel, who helped negotiate the permit for the legal rally site, and Karl Manheim, a Loyola Law School professor. Most convention delegates were unaffected by the violence, but a few were caught up in it. At one point, LAPD bicycle police charged members of the New York delegation to the Democratic Convention, to push them off Figueora Street onto the sidewalk. The New Yorkers, including New York City Public Advocate Mark Green, had been waiting for a van to take them to a party in Beverly Hills. (How anyone thought they were going to have protests in the same area as the convention, and not have it affect any of the conventioneers, is only an example of the hubris of the people policing and governing the City of Los Angeles. WFI Editor)

Several observers agreed that police had been provoked but questioned whether the level of force the police deployed was necessary. "They could have peacefully arrested the people who were causing the problem at the fence without causing a near riot," said Jim Lafferty, an observer with the National Lawyers Guild. Recent law school graduate Eric Luce and student Jennifer Calinisan were caught up in the police action. They weren't protesters or part of any march, they said, but rather showed up because they are fans of Rage Against the Machine. "I've never seen anything like this," Luce said. "We were following orders, walking up Figueroa, then came the cavalry."

Becky Johnson, a homeless advocate from Santa Cruz, was at a hot dog stand. She said she was taken completely by surprise when the police riot erupted. "I didn't hear any announcement or nothing, all of a sudden people started running." Others said they were doing their best to obey the police but either were not given a chance or could not find a way to evacuate the area as ordered. Pat Gowens, a protester from Milwaukee, who attended a protest of mothers on welfare, said, "Between the sounds of the guns and the flashes of tear gas, people were panicked… We were trying to leave but they didn't give us time. The horses were breathing on us. We literally couldn't move because the horses were against us."

Kelly Brand of Los Angeles said he did not have time to obey the police. "We were dispersing and the cops rode up behind us on horses and started hitting us with batons," he said. "One of them hit me two times. One of those times was on the back. Look…" Brand said, lifting up his black T-shirt to show a 4-inch bloody gash on his upper back inflicted by the brute force of a police baton. "I'm just here to get some publicity for American Indian causes."

As they tried to leave the area, some demonstrators and concert-goers were forced into the Pershing Square Red Line Station. Standing in line at the ticket vending machines, the demonstrators struggled for change, anxious to get out on a train to escape the rage of the police gunfire. Finally, Sgt. Steven Vinson, using his bullhorn, announced: "Everyone can ride for free as long as it's one way." (The equivalent in Los Angeles 2000 of the old threat, "You better get out of Dodge cowboy!" WFI Editor)

Oddly, the police attack Monday night came after a day in which march after march paraded in orderly fashion through downtown without incidence. Protesters shadowed and occasionally confronted police, but each time conflict flared, it melted in the heat of the afternoon. There were dust-ups: Police arrested ten people during an act of civil disobedience early Monday afternoon. And there were tense moments: During one particularly critical over-reaction, police charged a group of about 1,000 people, who were demonstrating. Some of them complained of brutal treatment at the hands of police, and one said he had been struck by a police baton. Police were tense from expectation of confrontation by protesters, and had been keeping them under questionable surveillance for several weeks prior to the convention, which a court ordered police to tone down. The explosion of police power upon the fleeing concert-goers has been characterized as an over-reaction by many, but some have gone farther, and compared it to an outright act of excessive use of force, and outright unnecessary police brutality that will probably be a source of innumerable civil rights lawsuits by the victims.

SOURCE: Information for this article was excerpted from the 15 August, 2000, issue of the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition, from an article entitled, "Police Forcefully Break Up Melee After Concert," by Tina Daunt and Carla Rivera, Times Staff Writers. Reprinted in the public service of the national interest of the American people.