May Day……A Year Later

I’m working on a deadline but will have more posting later today…. In the meantime:

Last year on May Day, in MacArthur Park, police used their batons to whack immigrant parents with their kids, plus small NPR reporters and various camera people (with their cameras rolling)—resulting in more than 300 excessive force complaints.

Among this year’s most to-the-point glimpse of what went wrong last year is this report by KPCC’s Frank Stolz talking to Juan Calos Baustista who says he had his leg broken by police at last year’s rally when he was shielding his four year old son.

But a year later, many changes have been made—-both in terms of departmental training, and on the LAPD’s command staff (the replacement of then Central Bureau head, Deputy Chief Caylor Carter, with well-liked Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, among the most prominent changes).

Whether or not the training and the departmental changes had anything causal to do with it, this year’s May Day was festive and pretty much problem free. Of the photos I’ve seen from the day’s marches and rallies, one of those I like best the photo above of Deputy Chief Michael Hillman, by LA Times photographer Rick Loomis. Hillman is a cop’s cop, beloved by the rank and file as the guy they’d be most likely to follow into hell if the situation demanded it.

Fortunately yesterday’s May Day activities required no such thing.