You know you're from California if:

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Are riots still a big problem in Kali

Had one in L.A. last May...

Why?

May Day illegal immigrant rally.

Did that turn into a riot?

[Heracles 417]

Oddly enough, I seem to remember my wife (who is from CA) telling me that there is a lot of resentment towards Californians outside of the state.

Seems a bit like the deal people from Liverpool, Birmingham or Newcastle get from people in the south of England.

I just had a friend visit from London who was saying how infamously Californian tourists stood out. I was puzzled because I thought to myself, you mean Californians actually leave the state.

I hate having to go through LAX. Apart from being a crappy rundown 80's airport, the attitude of staff stinks.

[eric&gen 0]

Could be no worse then living in another state dealing with hurricanes tornadoes. Here in Cali you have to put up with illegals and gays lol.

[no name 1]

Are riots still a big problem in Kali

Had one in L.A. last May...

Why?

May Day illegal immigrant rally.

Did that turn into a riot?

um, YEAH.

Then again I am from Melbourne, Aus. Maybe you should check that city out. You know the world's most livable city. Yes the same city thousands of Indian professionals are migrating to each and every month.

So move back?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Are riots still a big problem in Kali

Had one in L.A. last May...

Why?

May Day illegal immigrant rally.

Did that turn into a riot?

um, YEAH.

All the news accounts I've read of that call it a 'melee' (sounds like fun, doesn't it?).

[no name 1]

Are riots still a big problem in Kali

Had one in L.A. last May...

Why?

May Day illegal immigrant rally.

Did that turn into a riot?

um, YEAH.

All the news accounts I've read of that call it a 'melee' (sounds like fun, doesn't it?).

You obvs read the national reports, not the local ones. Rubber bullets aplenty!

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

Are riots still a big problem in Kali

Had one in L.A. last May...

Why?

May Day illegal immigrant rally.

Did that turn into a riot?

um, YEAH.

All the news accounts I've read of that call it a 'melee' (sounds like fun, doesn't it?).

You obvs read the national reports, not the local ones. Rubber bullets aplenty!

what, no amnesty from rubber bullets!!!!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Interesting. Thanks.

[Marilyn. 340]

the "riot" was started by a small group of people who were not really even part of the rally.. they started throwing stuff at the police and then the police started shooting rubber bullets at them and then pushed them back into the peaceful crowd and herded everyone out of the park...

at least that is what I read.....

Edited January 30, 2008 by MarilynP

[Heracles 417]

Then again I am from Melbourne, Aus. Maybe you should check that city out. You know the world's most livable city. Yes the same city thousands of Indian professionals are migrating to each and every month.

So move back?

All good and well but this does not change the reality that many in LA are dimwits.

PS I am trying but all of the Brits moving there are congesting the immigration process.

Edited January 30, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Marilyn. 340]

Then again I am from Melbourne, Aus. Maybe you should check that city out. You know the world's most livable city. Yes the same city thousands of Indian professionals are migrating to each and every month.

So move back?

All good and well but this does not change the reality that many in LA are dimwits.

PS I am trying but all of the Brits moving there are congesting the immigration process.

there are dimwits all over the world... LA does not hold the market on them

[no name 1]

Google peoples.

By now you’ve surely seen the video and still images taken at around 6 P.M. Tuesday, when a phalanx of officers in riot gear swept through the park at the end of what had been a peaceful day of marches and demonstrations. Some people, including a few reporters and news cameramen, were knocked down, roughed up, or otherwise manhandled in the process. I was part of a reserve force and nowhere near the park when this occurred, but I’ve spoken with people who were directly involved and I’ve pieced together what I’m confident is an accurate if incomplete description of the events.

There were two separate marches on Tuesday in Los Angeles, one in the morning in the civic-center area, the second in the afternoon at MacArthur Park, just west of downtown. The first was uneventful, as indeed was the second until the very end, when a relatively small group of demonstrators provoked police officers by blocking the street when the terms of their march permit expressly prohibited it. Several times marchers came out into the street but were turned back by ranks of police officers, some on foot, others on bicycles and motorcycles. These demonstrators, their faces hidden behind bandanas, became bolder with each successive foray into the street, taunting officers with the customary “F*** the police” chants and a litany of similar verbal provocations.

The cops on the line remained impassive to these insults, but when the crowd began pelting them with bottles (some filled with urine), cans, batteries, and almost anything else that can be picked up and thrown, police commanders declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and gave an order to disperse. Some news reports have made the claim that no such order was given, but it was broadcast from a police helicopter circling the park, from police cars, and from hand-held bullhorns as the police moved in. These warnings can be heard on some of the videos of the incident now circulating on the Internet.

The officers who entered the park in riot gear were from Metropolitan Division, an elite group specially trained and equipped to control and disperse large crowds with minimal force. They formed a skirmish line of officers with batons, backed up by others armed with “less lethal munitions,” i.e. weapons that fire small beanbags or rubber projectiles about the size of a votive candle. Yes, they hurt, and yes, they leave a welt. They’re supposed to, with the objective of getting recalcitrant individuals within a crowd to get up and scram.

The skirmish line advanced slowly, about 50 feet at a time, allowing those complying with the dispersal order to retreat unmolested. Those who stood their ground were met with batons and rubber bullets. Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy wrote a firsthand account of the incident, including this description of a confrontation between police and a group that refused to disperse:

The lingerers were a mix of protesters and reporters. Some were reporters from established news organizations watching or recording what police were doing, and some were self-styled grassroots reporters — protesters with cameras — some of whom were both filming officers closely and yelling challenges at them. At least three men in this mixed group lingered long enough to be caught by the advancing line of officers and they were batoned. They received one or two baton strokes each.

Sections 407 through 409 of the California penal code read as follows:

407. Whenever two or more persons assemble together to do an unlawful act, or do a lawful act in a violent, boisterous, or tumultuous manner, such assembly is an unlawful assembly.

408. Every person who participates in any rout or unlawful assembly is guilty of a misdemeanor.

409. Every person remaining present at the place of any riot, rout, or unlawful assembly, after the same has been lawfully warned to disperse, except public officers and persons assisting them in attempting to disperse the same, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Note that the law makes no exceptions for reporters, cameramen, lawyers, or anyone else who might see himself as immune from the consequences of remaining in an area after being lawfully ordered to leave. It’s possible that in the noise and confusion some people did not hear the dispersal order when it was first given from the helicopter and police cars, but as the officers advanced slowly through the park the command was given time and again by supervisors trailing the skirmish line. Any fool could have seen it was time to go, and some of those who didn’t were roughly treated.

Some reporters, reveling in the role of victim, have tried to turn the fracas into some kind of anti-press Kristallnacht, as though the involved cops were motivated by some long-repressed hatred for the fourth estate. “I was dumbfounded,” radio reporter Patricia Nazario told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. “I’ve covered riots. I’ve covered chaos. I was never hit or struck or humiliated the way the LAPD violated me yesterday.”

Predictably, LAPD chief William Bratton was critical of his officers, calling some of their actions “inappropriate.” “Quite frankly,” Bratton told an interviewer on a local radio station, “I was disturbed at what I saw.”

Then again I am from Melbourne, Aus. Maybe you should check that city out. You know the world's most livable city. Yes the same city thousands of Indian professionals are migrating to each and every month.

So move back?

All good and well but this does not change the reality that many in LA are dimwits.

PS I am trying but all of the Brits moving there are congesting the immigration process.

You are a Aussie citizen, you can easily move back.

Australia has a fair share of a$$holes too - ask the Brits.

[Heracles 417]

Then again I am from Melbourne, Aus. Maybe you should check that city out. You know the world's most livable city. Yes the same city thousands of Indian professionals are migrating to each and every month.

So move back?

All good and well but this does not change the reality that many in LA are dimwits.

PS I am trying but all of the Brits moving there are congesting the immigration process.

there are dimwits all over the world... LA does not hold the market on them

They have definitely corned the market.

[Sister Fracas 5]

oh good grief...

[Heracles 417]

You are a Aussie citizen, you can easily move back.

Australia has a fair share of a$$holes too - ask the Brits.

Who do you think would score the highest votes if we where to conduct a national survey on which state has the most douchebags?