Occupy Claims LAPD Kicked Suspect at Chalk Walk / Art Walk Clash (VIDEO)

By Dennis Romero Mon., Jul. 16 2012 at 8:01 AM

mpeake / Flickr

An injured man at Thursday's 'Chalk Walk.'

Occupy LA organizers claim police went over the line in confrontations with Chalk Walk demonstrators at Art Walk last Thursday night -- and that video proves it.

They say a skateboard-carrying man was shot with a non-lethal around and then kicked by cops. Officers "smash his face into the pavement," occupiers said.

But the two YouTube clips they provided (at the bottom) don't seem to prove a thing.

The video indeed depicts the skater getting shot by a non-lethal round and soon being surrounded by officers, but we can't see where he was allegedly kicked. He is pushed down, face down, by the cops, a move that's not against policy.

A second video is also cited as evidence of abuse by police, but it's hard to tell what's happening.

@NancyCasanova

The scene of the crime or, infraction, depending.

In any case, a long Facebook statement by Occupy Los Angeles describes the LAPD deployment of anti-riot tactics as a gross overreaction and as a violation of the group's freedom of speech.

At the heart of the clash was the "chalking" done by Occupy members as part of "Chalk Walk" festivities during the monthly Art Walk that organizers say have been happening since the occupation of City Hall started in October.

Cops arrested people who wrote messages in chalk that read "I love the world," and "heart the police," Occupy says.

Occupy / Chalk Walk

The organization says never before has the LAPD reacted this way, and it calls into question the legality of claiming that chalking is vandalism.

On Friday LAPD Chief Charlie Beck defended his officers' actions, telling reporters (via 89.3 KPCC) that "chalking" is "defacing public property."

He said demonstrators escalated the confrontation by throwing rocks and bottles at cops when they were told to stop chalking:

Tags:

Art Walk, Chalk Walk, chalking, downtown, DTLA, LAPD, Occupy LA, riot, use of force

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devinkreider

The courts have already decided that chalking is not vandalism. Take it up with them. Your opinion means nothing. Legal precedent does.

devinkreider

Here is the evidence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SDmySAlnbw

Peiper4965

The only thing I saw getting kicked was the skateboard out of the officers way.

devinkreider

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SDmySAlnbw

Emilio Largo

Oh please. Blacks fought in all the wars, never turned traitor, never sold out the country, earned 12 medals of honor in the civil war, and aside from a very few nuts, did not gratuitously attack police even in the 70's. They wanted "in" to the US and did not attack it or the cops. The Occupy people are spoiled trust fund babies or people constantly without jobs who can take time to go to "chalk" demonstrations, and appear to have deliberately provoked this encounter. They know no one pays any attention to them unless they fight with LAPD. The Occupy people do just what hard core types did in the 60's. They find a peaceful protest, hijack it by tossing bottles at the cops, get the cops mad at the group, get the peaceful types angry at the police, as the Occupy people stand back and pretend to speak for the peaceful people. We know this isn't so. Why don't you and the other "oppressed people" with time to go to chalk protests occupy a job, and drop the idea of seizing someone else's house and payroll as your career plan?

Summer Speaker

"Did Martin Luther King toss bottles at the cops?" Nope, but many black folks in Birmingham fought back during King's famous campaign there in 1963. Consider the following period press coverage: http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/race/051363race-ra.html. Shockingly enough, oppressed and exploited people in society run by violence at times become angry enough to resist in kind.

Stephen Tanny

Total Liberal Dem here who lives on Spring. Occupy please don’t come back. Please go to Staples Center during a Laker game and do this. BTW, the locals asked the LAPD to be there to control drunk crowds and F*ggot in chalk on a building is not art it’s vandalism.

devinkreider

The courts have already decided that chalking is not vandalism. Take it up with them. Your opinion means nothing. Legal precedent does

Partyfoul

Ummmm, lets see :::::::Lets be rowdy , ask for trouble , talk shit , throw bottles , disrupt and hijack a peaceful art walk , and than when we get the shit beat out of our asses , we will cry "foul". No sympathy , puhleeeeezzzzeeeee. Cry me a river.

Bemis

I don't want cops physically manhandling anyone who does not deserve it. And I have encountered enough rude cops in my time to not be on LAPD's side without checking. But the lame "occupy" crowd is looking for a confrontation. They want to push LAPD to the limit to see if they can prompt a reaction: its the only way the get media attention from their last remaining media groupie, the Los Angeles Times. When people start tossing rocks and bottles at the cops, or in their direction, or defacing private property, I am 100% on LAPD's side, and I want those bottle tossers arrested. Did Martin Luther King toss bottles at the cops?