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An occasional column
by David McReynolds.

Los Angeles saw, this week, a police riot, being covered a bit slowly by the media, but being covered (hard not to cover it when among those slugged by the cops were TV journalists). Meanwhile on the East Coast, the May 5th edition of the New York Times had an excellent and funny column by Jim Dwyer, on the front page of the Metro Section, dealing with Mayor Bloomberg's secret police.

What happened in Los Angeles was not an accident - I saw very much the same thing in Portland, Oregon, several years ago when I took part in a gentle demonstration (it might have been in May - I've forgotten) and was stunned to see the Portland police charge the demonstrators with special motorized vehicles, and clubs, when there had been no provocation

(I was on the spot and there simply wasn't - someone in charge of the police seemed to think it would be a good occasion to try out the newly acquired "military tactics" which municipal police across the nation have been learning). read more »