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GUESTS: Becky Dennison Co-Director, and General Dogon, organizer with the LA Community Action Network, O.C. Hasson, eyewitness to the beating

Last Sunday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, according to numerous witness reports, a group of 4-5 LAPD police officers brutalized a homeless African American woman on the street in Downtown LA. Witnesses state that the policemen attacked the woman for 10 minutes, using both billy-clubs and pepper spray before “hog-tying” her by her hands and feet and carrying her back to a police car, bloodied and injured. The incident occurred just a few blocks from LAPD headquarters and comes just a month after the police department unleashed excessive violence against peaceful protesters in MacArthur Park on May Day. The Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), a watch-dog group dedicated to exposing police corruption, has organized eyewitnesses to this latest assault. Local residents present at nearby Gladys Park on Sunday who witnessed the police beating have filed misconduct complaints against the LAPD officers. Their testimonials can also be seen in a YouTube video created by the LA Community Action Network.

Watch the witness testimonies online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=w07m9ZKfXFg

Rough Transcript:

Sonali Kolhatkar: General, I would like to begin with you. You were the person gathering some of the testimonials in the downtown area. How did you find out about this beating and what happened and who were some of the people you talked to?

General Dogon: One of my directors called me on the phone and told me that an assault was made upon one of our community residents downtown. So I went over on Gladys Street, and I walked around and I started talking to community residents. And as I started talking, you know, this crowd of folks would just come around. Everybody had a story to tell. You know, everybody has something that they want to just get off their chest. You could just feel the rage and the anger in folks and so, I stood on the corner and started asking one person a question, and, next thing you know another person walked up, another person walked up, next thing you know we got a crowd out there. So, I’m trying to take everybody’s name and everything and that’s how it all began right there.

Sonali Kolhatkar: And when did you actually do this videotaping?

General Dogon: We did the videotaping the following day.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So literally a day after the beating happened.

General Dogon: Right, exactly. Because we had to gather all the information from everybody first, and we came back and we interviewed everybody that was on the scene right where it happened at.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So the incident happened on Sunday. O.C. Hasson, can you tell us exactly what happened and where were you when the beating took place?

O.C. Hasson: I live on 5th and Gladys and they were having an event that day. They had a live band, so we had a lot of witnesses there. We had about 150 to 200 people there. And, what I saw, I went out to look out the back to see what type of band was being played. I was enjoying the music. I could hear it from my room. And as I observe this Afro-American female running, after she was apprehended, she was thrown down on the ground and from that procedure she was, they could have handcuffed her, because she wasn’t giving up any resistance. But after they used a certain type of force on her, I could see clearly, but I couldn’t hear from the position I was in. But what I saw is that she didn’t resist after she had had got apprehended, but after they had treated her in a certain way, then she kind of moved from the treatment that she was receiving and then from that it escalated. She got up in some kind of way and they threw her back down. A Caucasian sergeant seemed to be offended and he began to hit on her. So she broke away from that, got up and she attempted to go across the street. It seemed they let her move for a little bit and he tripped her and they brought her back a little bit from where she was at and then I seen a mace, seen them take her head and hit it down on the ground. That’s when the bleeding started. So you would think that at this particular time the officers would stop, especially since they already have a ruling against illegal search and seize and detention for the homeless row people of the Skid Row area. You would think that these officers would be more alert, because a judge had just passed a law, concerning Skid Row, about the [inaudible] situation, the case that deals with stop, search and seizure. So, whatever cause they stopped her for, the treatment that she received shouldn’t have been given to her.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So, just to reiterate it, she wasn’t really putting up much resistance, or it looked as though they could have easily subdued her. There were about 4 of them, but they continued beating her.

O.C. Hasson: Right, they continued. They seemed like they were trying to send a message to the downtown area. I’ve been down there for 2 years. This form of harassment has been going on since I have been down there and I just, when I saw that, I just got tired of it. I just had to come up and say something.

Sonali Kolhatkar: And they did this in full view of yourself and of other residents? They were aware that there were all these witnesses watching?

O.C. Hasson: They didn’t care about the witnesses. They didn’t care about the people that weren’t even on Skid Row. There was a band there, there were other people dressed neatly there. And they didn’t care about that.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Now, in your testimony in the video you said that it looked like they were having fun; that they were trying to make a mockery of her, if you will.

O.C. Hasson: Right. That’s what I got. That’s what they were trying to do. And it looked like they were abusing their job.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Let’s play a clip from the video that was taken by General Dogon with the LA Community Action Network. These are some of the other witnesses that corroborated what my guest O.C. Hasson has been saying about this beating that took place last Sunday in Downtown Los Angeles.

Clip:
– What’s your name?
– Michael Lewis.
– And you saw it too?
– Yes sir. They beat this woman, I saw it. I’m disappointed, man. Surrounded by five policemen, and they can’t subdue her? I was in Vietnam, you know. We held people without a weapon. A white cop hit her with a stick five times after he kicked her. You know, that’s the worst police work I have ever seen. If they need training, I’ll train them. You know, they are bringing cops from everywhere. I mean, she is surrounded by five cops. Why don’t you just let her. She is on the ground bleeding. Just stand there. She’ll get up eventually. Just get it over with. She’s not going anywhere. Why is it necessary to continue to beat her? I wish I had they guys name. But I was so angry. Still disappointed.
– Would you recognize him if you saw him?
– Yes, absolutely.
– Can you identify him?
– Yes, I can identify him.
– What did he look like?
– He is white. He is the only one I remember.

– That’s what they did.
– What happened?
– They beat her up. Four policemen. It happened right here. They beat her.
– What’s your name?
– [inaudible] Brooks
– What did you see, brother? Where were you standing when you saw it? You were standing across the street?
– Yeah.
– And you saw four officers doing what?
– At first, the woman ran from right there.
– She ran up Gladys Street?
– Yeah, from right there. From that apartment building. And so, when she ran, [inaudible]. And here, when they got her right here, bam, bam.
– They hit her with their hands?
– Yeah, with the fist! They hit that woman with their fists. They wouldn’t have beaten a white woman like that. You don’t beat a woman like that, man. We are nothing but human beings.

– How did it make you feel?
– Made me mad. Made me very angry. I mean, you know, after all the training they go through, they shouldn’t have done all that.

Sonali Kolhatkar: And those were just some of the folks that were speaking to the LA Community Action Network earlier this week about a very severe beating that took place on Sunday of an African American woman by at least four police officers, one of whom was white and was seen to be beating her pretty severely. Becky, this is really strange that all of this is happening so soon after the May Day violence that we have been covering on KPFK. It seems as though the LAPD is really not paying very much attention to their protocols and maybe they are counting on people not being outraged about this.

Becky Dennison: I think in some ways it is strange to see something this severe with all the scrutiny on May Day, but in some ways it’s not surprising at all to those of us who work downtown and live downtown, because we have seen an escalation in police activity and harassment and illegal activity, and this is just the culmination and the worst impacts that we have seen. This is the most severe beating that we have seen. But we continue to see a police force that is out of control, out of compliance, out of their own protocol.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Now, what has Chief Bratton responded to this? I understand that there was a press conference yesterday that the LA Community Action Network held?

Becky Dennison: We did a whole sort of an impromptu press event, and Chief Bratton’s response as far as I heard was that LA CAN continues to make these false allegations of police misconduct and that nothing had happened. That was his first statement. The second statement that came out of LAPD was that yes, there was an incident and yes, the woman was beat with a club and kicked and had a gash on her face, but she had attacked them first was their statement.

Sonali Kolhatkar: With what?

Becky Dennison: An ink pen.

Sonali Kolhatkar: An ink pen. Now, I understand that the LAPD is also coming under fire by its own police officers. Black LAPD officers are protesting a promotion that the Chief Bratton just did of Captain Richard Webb. This is a captain who has been picked to oversee internal misconduct cases and he was on suit for discrimination for, basically, expressing racial slurs to police officers who are from minority communities. Can you comment on this?

Becky Dennison: I mean, it’s, we are really sort of outraged at Chief Bratton’s response to the May Day event over all, and particularly his rush to promote people, not only Captain Webb, but Captain Smith in our division, and folks that have a history of problems either individually as officers or, in Captain Smith’s case, a history of unconstitutional searches just last month. And I think it is Chief Bratton trying to cover his own job by reorganizing the top brass in response to May Day and really just putting the same folks with the same problems in charge of our community.

Sonali Kolhatkar: He is going to be up for renewal pretty shortly. General Dogon, can you talk a little bit more about the sentiment in downtown in the aftermath of this beating. Is there a higher level of fear there right now? Or is it anger?

General Dogon: It’s a combination of both. A lot of women sleeping on the streets are scared. They don’t understand. They have seen this other woman being treated like this.

Sonali Kolhatkar: And was she also a homeless woman?

General Dogon: We hear that she was, but we haven’t found any address or residence. So, we hear that she was. And, for a lot of other women downtown it’s very scary, because a lot of other women live on the streets and a lot of them are single women, they are by themselves. On a daily basis they are being approached by LAPD, so it is very frightening for a lot of folks. And then, on the other hand, there is a lot of anger. Folks are outraged, you know, that this happened right in the middle of the street in broad daylight and this white officer just continued to wail on this woman after the community repeatedly shouted out for them to stop, that it was unnecessary abuse. So, people are really mad about that. You can just tell by the anger that is still around that area, that is in the air.

Sonali Kolhatkar: O.C. Hasson, just following up from what General was saying. You had mentioned in your testimony in the video that there were folks, some of the folks who live on the streets who protested when they saw what was happening, and they were trying to express themselves as gently as they could to the police that they weren’t very happy about what they saw.

O.C. Hasson: Right. Some even sat down on the ground to show that they were not trying to use any physical force or any threatening body language. So, they sat down on the ground so they kind of knew the mentality of the police, so they sat and squatted down in order to voice their opinion about their dissatisfaction about this taking place.

Sonali Kolhatkar: So they were trying to get their attention and asking them to stop.

O.C. Hasson: Right. And one guy literally went up with a plate in his hand to demonstrate this also, the one that is the Vietnam vet speaking on the video. He walked up with a plate in his hand. I couldn’t hear what he said, but I could see his body language and the officers also knew that he wasn’t threatening. He had both his hands filled with food. So, we would have to ask him to find out what exactly he said. He told me, but I forgot what he said that he told the officer. Something like “Why are you doing what you are doing?”

Sonali Kolhatkar: And, I think, to emphasize, that must have taken quite a lot to approach police officers who were clearly being aggressive from a community that is already very vulnerable.

O.C. Hasson: Right. Well, they are circulating pretty regularly now, even yesterday, when Channel 11 came by 4 o’clock yesterday. And I conducted an interview with Channel 11. During that time period, they were coming by. They were looking at me real hard. They were looking at people that were all around, you know, their body language, like “We are here, we got you, we are looking at you now, we’re gonna get you,” you know, that type of thing. But I don’t fear nothing. I’m sixty years old, I’ve been through a lot, and I’ve been blessed to live to the time period I’m in now. So, whatever happened it happened. But anyway, the situation now near this is so petty, that they have, there is a street that they used to live on, on 6th and Gladys, around the corner from the incident. And that whole side is being cleared out now.

Sonali Kolhatkar: By whom?

O.C. Hasson: By the police officers. They don’t want noone in that area. So now, they got laws. This is beyond the laws that they already had. They already have a law called, what’s that bill? That 41.18(d), and what’s the name of that one?

Becky Dennison: No sitting on the sidewalk.

O.C. Hasson: No sitting on the sidewalk, and now this makes people get up and, this gives them permission to get the homeless up at 6 o’clock in the morning and they can’t return back in the streets until 9. So where are they gonna go between that time? I don’t know.

Sonali Kolhatkar: 6am and 9pm?

O.C. Hasson: Yes, 6am to 9pm. And they come in, since this incident, prior to this incident, they have been coming earlier. They have been coming at 5:30, harassing people. I go get up and take my little walk around about 5 every morning and, by 5:30 I get back from my little walk, I see them. It’s not even 6 o’clock. Why are you messing with these people?

Sonali Kolhatkar: How did it make you feel to see this black woman being treated in this way?

O.C. Hasson: I had, if I was younger, back in the 60 time period, when I was emotionally active, I would have gotten involved. Would have done something physical, you know, probably, or tried to create a riot or something. Back in the 60ies mentality. I’m 60 years old now. Then, I was 18, and I couldn’t hardly read and write, so I was an [inaudible] emotional creature then. So, I would have been in a whole lot of problem. But being through the trials and tribulations I’ve been through and I took an inventory of myself, and the world’s problems and history and how things are being manipulated by color and religion, I would take a different approach. I would be doing something like what I’m doing now. But I was really emotionally affected by it, though. That’s why I have come forward.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Finally, Becky, what is the LA Community Action Network planning on doing about this beating and has there been any media coverage? I understand that KTLA did a little bit of coverage, but has the LA times covered it etc.?

Becky Dennison: The LA Times actually ran something on their website today and I’m not sure if they ran it in the paper today, but, there has been some media interest and we certainly hope that there is more media interest so that people throughout Los Angeles and the surrounding region understand the level of violence that folks downtown are facing under the hands of LAPD. And what our plans are, just, hopefully, we would like to see this woman and give her some legal representation. But we view this incident as, like I said, just the most extreme incident in what we have been fighting for the last two years, which is Chief Bratton’s Safer City Initiative, which is an ongoing assault against poor folks downtown. And we will continue our monitoring and our civil rights intervention, but people in Los Angeles really need to wake up and understand the assault on the land that is happening downtown, because it will spread out of downtown and we cannot allow this level of policing and violence to continue.

Sonali Kolhatkar: And where can listeners find out more or get in touch with your organization?

Becky Dennison: They can call us at (213) 228-0024 and particularly those residents from outside the community that were at the event. We have heard that there are pictures and videos of this event.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Video even?

Becky Dennison: Yes. And if you are one of those folks who stopped in your car and took that video, we would really like to hear from you.

General Dogon: I would like to add that also some of the cameras where taken and cameras were destroyed. Some people dropped them and also were not allowed to get them back.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Some people dropped them?

General Dogon: Dropped them. And some of them were taken by police officers.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Is there also a website for your organization?

Becky Dennison: Yes, it’s www.cangress.org.

Sonali Kolhatkar: Becky Dennison is the Co-Director of the LA Community Action Network, General Dogon is an organizer with the same group, thank you Becky, thank you General, and thank you very much O.C. Hasson for joining us today. O.C. is one of the many witnesses that came forward to talk about what he saw. Thank you so much for coming in.

Special thanks to Claudia Greyeyes for transcribing this interview.