One Year After The Anaheim Uprising
When we arrived at Anaheim City Hall we were “greeted” with police in riot gear blocking the entrance to the doors. It’s always interesting to look into the eyes of cops in riot gear, as they are clenching to their batons, waiting to be given the order to attack. At that point they have dehumanized both themselves and the protesters. After it was clear justice would not be found there we spent the rest of the day taking the streets, avoiding police lines and trying to make it to Disneyland. But we never made it there, and instead returned back to the intersection right before City Hall only to find more police in riot gear and more people on the streets. The cops and the media filled the middle of the intersection. Protesters on all corners, chanting we want justice, the orders were issued and we had become an “unlawful assembly”, the phrase police always use right before they are going to use brutality to try to end a protest. The first shots of tear gas was used on only one corner of the intersection, people began screaming as cops had their guns pointed on us, and as if the tear gas was a distraction for what they were about to do then came the shooting. BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG. I stood almost frozen for a moment watching the brown youth that I had spent my day with being shot, then trying to dodge bullets myself, i ran. whatever happens after this point, is just a response to the already clear message the city had sent to the community. The clear message that their concerns were not a concern, to them. SHATTER, the sound of the glass of the Starbucks window breaking. People yelling “hands off mom & pop". But there were no leaders in this crowd, no “trained organizers" just disenfranchised people of color who had had enough. Lost in the sea of chaos we tried to escape arrest. While trying to walk back to the car, individuals who recognized us from earlier warned us not to go a certain direction because cops were arresting anyone they saw on site. Some people yelled, “hey dont go that way they’re fucking up a Wells Fargo and the pigs are on their way". BOOM, “what was that?" was it more shooting, sound grenades, maybe even live ammo this time? why not? they had shot guns pointed at us earlier in the day. I mean, the whole protest was about how they murdered someone execution style in front of his home right? But It was neither, instead, it was red, white, and blue fireworks, it was the complete ignoring of a community that was wronged. It was fascism dressed up in bright lights and colors. It was Disneyland the place we never made it to, but the place we should have begun our protest at in the first place. Given the fact that corporation runs Anaheim City Council and police unit. The “Happiest place on earth” could care less about Manuel Diaz and his family or the community that are terrorized at their attempt to white wash Anaheim. No care at all, it was just business as usually for Mickey and friends.
It’s been almost one year since the murder of Manuel Diaz, since the uprising that followed that Tuesday, since the Militarization of the police that happened that following Sunday, and the raid on the community that had happen two weeks after that. AnswerLA along with the family members who have lost love ones from police brutality, including Manuel Diaz’s mother are making a call out for a protest this Sunday, July 21, against Police Brutality of both brown and black people.
Here’s more info on the event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/387201908055348/
