Anti-Minutemen rally attacked by cops, people fight back

See the video of the LAPD brutalizing protesters

Once again, the Los Angeles Police Department showed its true racist and reactionary character when it viciously attacked immigrant rights activists who were protesting against the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project in Hollywood. Click here to see the video. More than 300 pro-immigrant protesters gathered in a militant demonstration on Saturday, July 8, to counter a Minuteman hate march down Hollywood Boulevard, a traditional route for anti-war and other progressive demonstrations. The march was an open attack on the immigrant rights movement that has gripped the nation over the past four months.

The Minutemen obtained a permit from the city of Los Angeles to rally and march in Hollywood with their neo-fascist message aimed at undocumented workers and Latino immigrants. They called their gathering a “United States of America March.” Their retrograde, inflammatory rhetoric is strongly reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party. They frequently hold protests in Latino communities. They call undocumented workers “illegal invaders” and decry the “Third World cesspool” they claim their neighborhoods have become. Their members often bring white supremacist banners, Confederate flags, and weapons to their gatherings.

At the July 8 protest, progressive and immigrant rights organizations responded to a call to action from the anti-war, anti-racist ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and squared off against the Minutemen and their supporters. By 4 p.m., three corners of the streets were filled with anti-Minutemen protesters. It was a multi-national, working class demonstration. The majority of the protesters were Latino and African American. Chants like “Minutemen, KKK, racist scum, go away!” and “Minutemen, racistas, ellos son los terroristas!” rang out on all sides in a show of class unity against the bourgeois lackeys.

Cops and Minutemen collaborate

Send a letter demanding that all charges be dropped against the anti-racist demonstrators.

After nearly two hours of peaceful but militant protesting, dozens of LAPD cops in full riot gear instigated a wave of unprovoked police violence on the anti-racist crowd. They pushed protesters, jabbed them with batons, and wrestled several people to the ground, while beating them brutally without any cause or concern. Several ANSWER activists were brutalized, and one was arrested because his friend was attempting to take photographs of riot police slamming a bystander against the back of a truck and hitting him with a baton. Top police brass later tried to justify their violence by saying protesters provoked the beatings by “crossing police lines”—an outright lie picked up without question by corporate media lapdogs.

A Spanish-language media reporter from KPFK radio was shoved to the pavement, smacked hard, and arrested for attempting to document the repression. The cops were attacking so wildly that even an elderly woman getting off a Metro bus was clubbed for being too close to the protest. 

People from the surrounding neighborhood stopped and shouted at the police to stop their rampage against the protest.

The police arrested around six people without cause, while the fascist Minutemen chanted “L-A-P-D,” cheering them on. It was a naked display of police and fascist collaboration. The outraged pro-immigrant crowd stood their ground and defended their demonstration while chanting “Cops and the Klan go hand in hand!” Carlos Alvarez, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition and Party for Socialism and Liberation, then gave an impassioned speech to denounce the LAPD brutality and defend the rights of the protesters to speak out against the Minutemen. 

While the now hundreds of cops escorted around 150 Minutemen down Hollywood Boulevard in their racist march, the progressives started to follow them on the sidewalk. LAPD goons again impeded the rights of the protesters and denied them access to the sidewalk. So the anti-racists, led by the ANSWER Coalition, took over a busy street in Hollywood, stopping oncoming traffic in an effort to outflank the police and get close to the Minutemen. They chanted, “The streets belong to the people!” with fists raised in the air. 

The several hundred protesters were met by police violence again as they approached the Minutemen a few blocks away. The protesters stood up to the cops, held onto the street, and later marched back to where the demonstration started, denouncing the Minutemen as they marched back to their cars. 

The anti-racist protesters outlasted the Minutemen and held a brief rally before marching to the ANSWER office less than one block away. Activists felt a sense of accomplishment and struggle after fending off police violence and maintaining an organized, successful action against the Minutemen.

Organizing to fight back

The ANSWER Coalition has vowed to respond swiftly to this vicious police attack. Along with its partners in the National Lawyers Guild and Latino Movement USA, ANSWER will host a press conference on Tuesday, July 12, to denounce the LAPD and the Minutemen. Featured speakers will include immigrant rights organizers, ANSWER organizers and lawyers, victims of police brutality at the protest, and others. There will be video footage shown that depicts the outrageous brutality of the cops that day. ANSWER and the NLG are vigorously defending the rights of the anti-racist protesters and plan to file a civil suit against the LAPD and the city—helmed by pro-cop mayor Antonio Villaraigosa—because of this flagrant assault on people’s civil rights. 

Muna Coobtee, member of the ANSWER steering committee in Los Angeles, said: “This unprovoked, terrible assault on a peaceful protest violates our civil rights and is aimed at the heart of the immigrant rights movement. The police came to this demonstration today, in an alliance with ultra-right-wing elements, to try to beat back the struggle for equality. We can’t look at this incident in isolation from the overall political climate. We know that it is related to the racist raids launched by the federal government targeting undocumented workers. It is related to the bigotry being whipped-up by the immigration hearings happening all over the United States. Because these connections are clear, we can be clear in saying that these intimidation tactics won’t work—they will backfire. The immigrant workers’ movement will remain stronger and more united than ever before.”

The independent people’s movement will not tolerate the LAPD’s criminal behavior. The cops and the Minutemen are part of the ruling class plan to defeat the just struggle of immigrants for amnesty and full legalization. All charges leveled at any anti-racist protester must be dropped immediately. The LAPD and the city must be held accountable. 

Click here to read an article about the July 11 press conference against LAPD brutality. 

Take action now – send a letter demanding that all charges be dropped against the anti-racist demonstrators falsely arrested by the LAPD. 

VIDEO of LAPD unprovoked brutality against protesters: