Quote: "Do you know the backstory or what happened *before* these videos were recorded?"
This is the only video I could find right now from the scene of the first video. It shows more or less what was going on beforehand. There was a small group protesting in the street and area residents milling around. A larger group may have marched through the area earlier on.
Quote: "riot cops bring out the LRAD truck. warning message broadcasted over the crowd. at this point, it was mostly local residents who live a couple blocks away, and a very small and well-behaved group of protesters with picket signs and making chalk drawings. at the end of the video, i started moving back up the block because i was nervous about the truck, but you can hear the LRAD come on in the last few seconds."
There was another which was a few minutes long which showed the stand-off line and it was basically the protesters bullhorning and trying to tell the police that they were a peaceful group and had rights to be there, etc. I didn't notice any anarchists in either of the videos- Most of the Black Bloc was in another section of the city at the time.
I don't really have any problem with police clearing streets or dispersing crowds for public safety reasons but it's ridiculous to be blasting things things off at everyone.
My first day living in the LA area (around 1998), I was visiting Venice Beach and a music release party had gotten out of hand and some police vehicles were vandalized so they cleared the beach and surrounding areas. They did it with loudspeakers and riot police who pretty much just advanced through the areas they were clearing. If you hadn't moved on by the time they got to you they would encourage you to keep going or face arrest. If there was a troublemaker, they would target the individual and go after them. To me, that was professional policing whereas the stuff in these vids; not so much.
