Greetings NLLSA and TUPOCC,
I was just over in Maywood to legal observe a protest against the minutemen.
My group and I arrived in Maywood at 9:30am. All was well for the time
being, the minutemen had not shown up yet and the maywood police had set up
barricades on two sides of the street. We were on Slauson and Pine. The
Minutemen were set up west of us also on Slauson. Each barricade was
intended to keep the minutemen on one side and we were on the other, about
80-100 yards apart. The police had set up a surveillance spot on top of the
grocery store, on the corner directly behind our side (which was not a
neutral point of surveillance when you consider the minutemen are over 100
yards away from them on the other side).
At 10am the Minutemen showed up on their side. They had full police escort.
The police escorted them into a private parking lot on Slauson for a
building called Fallas Y Paredes. The police set up posts in the parking
lot to protect the minutemen vehicles, would not allow patrons to go into
the business and when several of the renters of the property protested and
called tow-trucks, the police refused to let them enter.
At about 10:15, a minutemen came over to our side, wearing a bandana on his
head with Marijuana leaves on it and black t-shirt. He was passing out
Mexican Flags. When the community discovered he was a minutemen, several
young men asked him to leave. He refused to leave. He and another man got
into a verbal dispute, and the minuteman started to walk through the
barricades to cross back to the minuteman side. Our community member was
grabbed from behind the barricades by several police officers and pushed
down to the floor and handcuffed. The minuteman flashed a police badge and
was allowed to walk back to the minuteman side.
At 12:30pm, my friend who is a photographer and I went over to the Fallas y
Parades side of the street to ask the management if they had given the
Minutemen permission to park their cars in the driveway. The information
above was reiterated by several of the managers there and when I attempted
to speak with the police they would not answer my questions.
We went back to the other side of the street to where people were
protesting.
At 1:34pm another individual from our side crossed over the barricade.
I was sitting over on a sidewalk when I saw the commotion. My friend and I
ran over there. I wanted to try and get people behind the barricades and my
friend was going to take pictures of the police.
This second man was taken down by five police officers and arrested and
taken away.
I was yelling at people to get back. I was right behind the barricades
motioning people with my hands and screaming for them to get back. A white
police officer, with the name badge R. West saw me doing this, came over to
me and with both hands pushed me to the floor. I fell back and saw several
men come up behind me to defend me. The whole time police were shoving and
pushing people back. I got up and continued to ask people to get back.
At 1:45pm another individual from our side crossed the barricade and when I
saw him do this I yelled at him to get back. I must have yelled three times
when I heard a shot and I saw a blue rubber pellet hit his left side near
his abdomen. I yelled at him to get back and six police officers charged
him. An additional four then followed him. I didn't want to leave the
protest site and so my friend ran after the police. There were cop cars and
officers on foot to arrest this man.
When they returned to the site, several of the police officers shoved past
protestors to get back behind our barricade. Things were very intense at
this point and young children were crying.
I took names of witnesses for each incident and gave people my phone number
to call me. I feel that the police treated our side as if we were
criminals. They were standing facing our side (not the other side) holding
batons. They were aiming pellet guns at our side (not the other side).
I would like to file a complaint against the Maywood Police Department. I
was attempting to assist them in their work and trying to keep the
protestors back from the barricades, I was not crossing the barricade when I
was pushed to the floor. If anyone has information on how I should go about
doing this it would be greatly appreciated. I have already contacted a few
attorneys to inquire if they will assist me.
As I was leaving the protest a woman with her three year old daughter
approached me and asked if I was an attorney. She wanted to know if there
were going to be more protests and who she could contact to get more
involved. She spoke with me for a little while and when she was done her
daughter looked up at me and said, I just wanted to ask you if the police
are going to kill us. She had tears in her eyes.
It is pretty intense to be at something like this and be the only legal
person there...
Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this.
Gracias,
Mercedes.
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