Courtesy Tom Ferda

Scores of people, police and, of course, Occupy L.A. hit downtown yesterday for the annual May Day marches and rallies. The streets were clogged with an estimated 10,000-plus people who were there to speak their minds on immigration reform, and -- wait! -- did that sign just say what we think it said?

Of course, it would just be an example of someone exercising their First Amendment rights. The phrase is not unknown to us, right? It has been used in various protests across the world at least since the N.W.A song made the phrase popular in 1988.

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Sheriff Lee Baca

The Los Angeles chapter of No More Jails Coalition is taking it to the streets today, telling L.A. County supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Gloria Molina, Don Knabe, and Mike Antonovich that the plan for embattled Sheriff Lee Baca to build a new women's jail is a crazy way to spend millions of tax dollars.

"We don't need these new jail cells, we don't want these new jail cells, we can't afford these new jail cells," says Mary Sutton of Critical Resistance, a member of the No More Jails coalition, in a press statement.

Sutton and other activists say the supervisors should instead spend money on programs such as drug treatment, housing, education, and job training. They're holding a mass protest in front of Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in downtown today. But will the supervisors listen?

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Ted Soqui for LA Weekly

Was Christopher Dorner assassinated by the LAPD? Was he the victim of not only racism but of a twisted system of internal justice at the department when he was fired in 2009?

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@GladstoneReport

Protesters planned to march outside the LAPD's Rampart Division station in Westlake today in a show of solidarity with demonstrators who have been clashing with police in Anaheim over a rash of deadly officer-involved shootings in that city to the south.

LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman told the Weekly that no special preparations beyond a normal response to an everyday demonstration were planned by local cops.

A department official told KNX 1070 Newsradio that ...

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David Steinman for Congress 2012 / Facebook

Students protesting a proposed class-fee hike at Santa Monica College tonight were hit by pepper spray from cops. Video (after the jump) depicts some of the mayhem.

The demonstrators are unhappy with a plan to possibly quadruple fees to $180 per unit or more for the most popular classes, which are already hard to get into. Students protested outside at board of trustees meeting.

Three people were taken to hospitals as a result of the spray, officials said:

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Tis the season of protest. Some angry people will be occupying Trader Joe's today, and not just for the frozen tamales.

Unfortunately, this is not a case of occupiers carbo-loading for winter. Rather farm workers are pissed at Trader Joe's for failing to join a movement that seeks to improve conditions for farm workers.

Yeah, the Trader Joe's that's home to the liberal, flax-seed eating customer. Florida's Coalition of Immokalee Workers states:

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stopLADOT.com

An example of "apron" parking

On August 28, the Department of Trasportation (LADOT), who consistently claims to have Aneglenos' best interests in mind, started to enforce a city-wide ban on "apron" parking. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this L.A. staple, "apron" parking is when a car is parked on the long section of driveway from the street to the sidewalk.

The City has been handing out $60 tickets all over the city since the ban, and residents are getting angry.

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@ericspillman via Twitter

Kaiser nurses got an early start this morning on Sunset Boulevard.

'Tis the season for labor strikes! Last week, about 100 Hyatt workers decried their "unfair and abusive" employer along Sunset Boulevard, and this week, a citywide grocery-worker strike was narrowly averted.

Today, 2,500 employees from Kaiser Permanente join the fun across California from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., with up to 20,000 more expected to walk out tomorrow and the next day. Here in L.A., the spot to watch about 200 unionized nurses pump their signs and bark their slogans is the hectic corner of Sunset and Vermont, outside the hospital empire's biggest SoCal branch. So, uh: What do they want?

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Diamond Bodine-Fischer

Roger, the event organizer

It started last season, quietly, and has slowly but steadily gained momentum: the fan protest to the Frank McCourt ownership.

Last season a number of fans stopped attending games to avoid contributing to the McCourts. This protest has continued to grow and attendance plummets to new lows.

This Saturday fans gathered outside Dodger Stadium before the nationally televised game against the San Diego Padres. The first fan-organized event of its kind, it brought a number of protestors with an array of anti-McCourt signs and shirts.

The crowd called out to people entering the stadium, pleading with them to stay away, that it wasn't too late to do the right thing.

More photos from the event below:

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farmtofridgetour.com

Free the pigs.

Animal rights nuts or provocateurs who will make you think before you eat?

You decide. Either way, you might want to avoid having lunch at Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica tomorrow.

Because the save-the-piggies brigade will be in full effect there Thursday to show-and-tell about the "the brutal treatment of animals for food," according to a statement. (But they're so tasty).

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