
The action was planned to take place between 5th and 6th on Spring street and was intended to be a peaceful outreach event to encourage friendly dialogue. Many artwalk regulars (parents and their children included) stopped by to draw with us.
Many interesting conversations sparked from discussing MacKinney vs. Nielsen the ninth circuit court of appeals decision that ruled that chalk could not be considered vandalism and was a constitutionally protected form of free speech under the first amendment. 8 arrests occurred between 7:30- and 8:45. All for.... you guessed it- chalking. Everything remained peaceful during the first 7 arrests as the chalkers remained calm as they were taken into custody.

Skid Row Media: Chalk Walk report
As the crowd swelled, residents watching from their windows began to throw bottles at the police line. It was this excuse that LAPD took to begin firing rubber bullets into the crowd. Some artwalk bystanders were hit by the less- lethal ammunition* and suffered some pretty ugly injuries as a result.
One man -not pictured below- was shot in his chest, had the wind knocked out of him and ended up collapsing right in front of the skirmish line.
A few female protesters holding the front line rushed forward to help him and called for a medic. However we could not get to him before the police kicked the skateboard he was cradling into his face.
As we were all forced to take a step back we watched as he was trampled over, flipped onto his face, zipped tied and dragged onto the sidewalk.
It was at this point that some bar patrons came out and hurled a couple bottles at the police. Two female occupiers mic check and told the crowd, "Don't throw bottles- when you do that the cops don't care to aim at you. They just shoot in your general direction." "Keep your brothers and sisters safe, we are not prepared to deal will less lethal ammunition."
At one point the police attempted a right flank to kettle protesters but everyone was able to get out of the designated area. We believe an additional 3 people were arrested as LAPD pushed the crowd North on Spring, none of which were associated with Occupy L.A. A couple hours and probably hundreds of thousands of city dollars spent on LAPD machismo later, the crowd naturally dispersed and continued along with their night.
So- now the real nitty gritty- Why did this happen? I'll keep this brief since this post is running a bit on the long side. This wasn't about chalk, this wasn't about 'people provoking the cops'- it was about finding any excuse to lock up individuals speaking out about what is going on in downtown.
The CCEA's safer cities initiative is nothing more than a way to gentrify the area into a mono-socio/economic neighborhood that does not have to worry about "ethnic problems". Harassing the houseless population of skid row and co-ercing them to leave is just the first step to expand CCEA's current 97 block territory to cover the whole of downtown. Don't believe the houseless get harassed without reason? Go to LACAN and talk to any of the individuals that work there and I guarantee you will have an entirely different perspective on what goes on in downtown. The safer cities initiative also lays out a plan that CCEA plans to implement by 2020 that would in essence clear out all of the businesses from Santee Alley.
Skid row is comprised mostly of African American residents and Santee Alley is comprised mostly of Latino or Korean business owners. While this 2020 plan may not be intentionally racist, it certainly brings into question the morality of determining someones future or making decisions about someones livelihood in a way that will not benefit them in any way. As well as the morality of such decisions being made by people who only stand to benefit by other's misfortunate. In the end- this is all about economics and keeping money in the hands of the "right" people.
----interesting
Some food for thought-
Did the consent decree actually do anything?
Why are the interests of the CCEA only being taken into account and not the people its'
policies will actually effect?
Before LAPD
After LAPD
*Note: less- lethal ammunition refers to rubber bullets, foam grenades, pepper spray rounds, tear gas, or any other ammunition the LAPD normally refers to as "non-lethal". While law enforcement claims that these are not intended to kill the people they are aimed at; there have been various documented incidents of people dying or receiving life threatening injuries as a result of "improper use" of said ammunition. Tear gas and other chemical weapons have also been documented to cause miscarriages.
from the perspective of artwalk regulars
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Updates:
my story got picked up and has top views on Occupied stories http://occupiedstories.com/chalkwalk-turns-ugly.html
It is also published in the latest issue of Turning the Tide!
PDF http://antiracist.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/v25-n3-jul-sep-2012.pdf
Find out more info here: http://tideturning.org/
PDF http://antiracist.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/v25-n3-jul-sep-2012.pdf
Find out more info here: http://tideturning.org/