“My name is Catie Laffoon and I’m a photographer based in LA; I’ve shot protests around the country and I can tell you that what’s happening here is different from what you might think. There’s been no violence from protestors, contrary to what many outlets are reporting. The images being circulated are orchestrated by authorities who meet peace with force, over and over and over, trying to get the protestors to fight back. But I have yet to see a single person fight back: I’ve seen two empty water bottles thrown in the last week, and that’s it. But I’ve seen authorities illegally assault and batter civilians who have their hands up, doing their best to follow the orders being given by the police.”
“At a recent protest in downtown LA, I met everyone at city hall at 4pm. People were peacefully gathered, sitting on the steps; There was music, people dancing, good spirits, and the feeling was that we were ready for a peaceful march. We had a great leader/organizer, who repeatedly — throughout the entire day — reinforced that we were peacefully protesting and no agitators would be tolerated.”
“About 20 minutes in, one person threw an empty water bottle in the direction of police and we stopped the entire march, however many thousands of people we were by then. We reprimanded the person and announced that we had a zero-tolerance policy for agitators — and that if absolutely anything else was thrown, that person would be considered to be working for the authorities and removed from our ranks. As we walked, we kept yelling the same phrase: ‘Peaceful protest!'”
“We were going down Broadway until we ran into a blockade at Temple, at around 6:15pm. There was nowhere for us to go, so we stopped and held our arms up and said we were peacefully protesting. They waited until enough people had bottlenecked on the block and then they declared it an unlawful gathering and immediately began shooting rubber bullets.”
“We repeatedly yelled, ‘We are peaceful, no threat!’; some people even sat down, holding their hands up. But officers began shooting point-blank at people, not shooting the rubber bullets into the ground, but directly at people’s bodies. A lot of people were similarly hit with tear-gas canisters, and hurt badly.”
“Then they brought out the horses and stormed us. People ran, trying to get away; I saw civilians running and get pinned by officers on horseback against walls, with nowhere to go. The officers screamed “Leave” and the protestor would scream, “I’m trying to but I’m trapped!” and then an officer would try to trample that person.”
“I personally got chased by an officer on horseback. There were three of them and only one direction to run; I was pinned between two cars that had crashed into each other, and my exit was blocked by the officer. I had to throw myself backward over the cars, possibly damaging one of them to escape. I messed up my back when I landed wrong.”
“The police pushed us into Grand Park, letting everyone gather there but then blocking all but one way out. People were wondering how we’d be able to leave, because there was only one direction it seemed like we could go — south, deeper into the city. By now it was 7:05, and people were worried about getting home for curfew. People walked to the only two metro stops we could reach; both were closed, gates down, not running. The police formed a blockade between all the metro lines.”
“I made it home only because a friend came and picked me up; I don’t know how the other 2,000 or 3,000 protesters left. To me it felt like we were being trapped into breaking the 8pm curfew. The officers were repeatedly trying to cause chaos and violence, and then created a situation where people didn’t know how to get home.”
