Marine APCs & Tanks Appear At Anti-War Protest In Westwood
LINKS: Video & Photos & Story (also copied below)
LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM, What were first reported to be tanks and now identified as Marine APCs
showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood.
The APCs circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area
where most of the protesters were gathered.
Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the APCs, but police quickly cleared the street.
The people continued to protest the presence of the Marines, but after about ten minutes they drove off. It is still
unclear as to why they were deployed to this location.
COMPLETE STORY
Westwood Anti-Occupation Demonstration Pictures - Part 2 of 2
Despite the one-day notice, about 400-500 people came to the Westwood Federal Building on Tuesday night to protest the
start of the second U.S. attack on the people of Fallujah, which had been officially launched on the previous day. To my
own recollection, this is a record number for a demonstration called on such short notice.
As usual for such short-notice demonstrations at this location, most of the group stood on the sidewalk along Wilshire
Blvd. waving signs and shouting to oncoming commuters in cars and buses, who frequently expressed their support by
shouting and blowing their horns, and (much, much less frequently) expressed opposition. Smaller groups were stationed
on each of the other three corners of the Wilshire and Veteran intersection, and as the lights changed some of these
groups would parade across the intersection, making themselves still more visible to traffic.
About 7:30pm, two tanks barreled past going East on Wilshire, rounded the corner onto Veteran going South, and
disappeared.
About ten or fifteen minutes later, two tanks (apparently the same ones) appeared again going East on Wilshire and
stopped for the light there. Demonstrators immediately stepped in front of the lead tank, blocking its path, and started
to chant "U.S. Out!" at the soldiers, whose heads and torsos were clearly visible and who evidently exchanged a few
words with protestors.
The soldiers seemed amused and not really unfriendly. Unfortunately, a few of our protestors chanted "murderers!" at the
soldiers, although in general I think we were more sophisticated than that, realizing that many soldiers are victims
themselves who were recruited through propaganda, guile, and economic incentives that the very poor can find it
difficult to refuse.
I have no idea why they were there, and neither did anyone else that I asked.
Both tanks were surrounded on three sides by protestors for about three or four minutes until the LAPD showed up and
placed themselves between tanks and protestors, and cleared the protestors who were blocking the front tank out of the
road. I did not witness any brutality as this occurred, nor am I aware of any arrests having been made.
The tanks then proceeded to turn right onto Veteran and disappeared from view.
Our protest continued following this incident. If sending tanks driving by was meant to intimidate us, it definitely did
not succeed, and in fact had the opposite effect.
Thus, we citizens of conscience in Los Angeles have joined people around the world in expressing our public opposition
to a U.S. policy of dealing death and mayhem to the citizens of Iraq in general and to those of Fallujah in particular.
Author: Ich Bin Ein Fallujan
Posted: Wednesday November 10, 2004 10:06 AM
ENDS