L.A. Mayor’s Back in Town

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Posted on May 5, 2007

AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa fields questions at a press conference in Mexico City on Friday.

After traveling to El Salvador and Mexico during the week that began with a May Day clash between immigration rights demonstrators and the LAPD, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wisely decided on Friday to cut his sojourn short by five days and return home to deal with the fallout.

Reuters:

“It’s time to go back; they want me to be there,” Villaraigosa said in Mexico City. “We all know ... this is a serious matter.” He was to have been in Mexico until May 9.

Televised images show a line of police in riot gear shoving mostly Latino demonstrators from the city’s MacArthur Park on Tuesday. Most of the crowd had just taken part in a day of nationwide protests to demand citizenship rights for illegal immigrants.

The police swung batons and fired rubber bullets as people fell to the ground and several journalists were caught in the fray.

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TAGS: el salvador immigration lapd mayday mayor mexico police villaraigosa

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By Linda Sutton, May 6, 2007 at 4:17 pm #

It seems very strange that our mayor would choose May 1 for his escape on a “trade mission.” Could it have anything to do with last year’s large rallies?

And, then to find out that his police department attacked the news media and to go on with his photo ops in El Salvador and Mexico before someone could convince him he should be in Los Angeles to deal with the crisis. And, excuse me, is he doing anything?
This is the mayor who stood before us and repeatedly said he wouldn’t forget where he came from.

We don’t need another globe-trotting junketeer, Mr. Mayor. Please run the city you were elected to run.

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By cann4ing, May 6, 2007 at 11:32 am #

As Yogi Berra would say, it was deja vu all over again.  As I watched the heavily armed, black-suited line of officers in riot gear from LAPD’s infamous Metro Division wielding batons and firing away at the peaceful assembly of mostly Latino men, women and children in McArthur Park I instantly recalled the dark days of my youth; black and white televised images of Bull Conor’s all-white police force attacking peaceful, African American demonstrators with truncheons, fire hoses and unmuzzled police dogs. 

There has been an undercurrent of blatant racism within the anti-immigrant movement over the past several years, and this May Day attack appears to be a product of it.

Then, again, from an historical perspective, there is an irony in this taking place in McArthur Park that has not been recognized by most Americans.  Most are aware of McArthur’s World War II role in the Pacific, including flight from and recapture of the Phillipines and his acceptance of the Japanese surrender where he aptly described war as “a malignant scourge,” but few are aware that it was General McArthur, whose forces, under the directive of President Hoover, violently waded into an encampment of unarmed and homeless World War I veterans in Washington D.C.

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By THOMAS BILLIS, May 5, 2007 at 9:15 pm #
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It was eerie like the 60s cops overreacting.Looking like storm troopers.Democracy in this country is under attack everywhere.The ability to demonstrate to address greivances from the New York Republican convention to L.A. is frightening.Nice of the mayor to come back and see if he can save democracy in L.A.Maybe he brought back notes from Mexico where they seem to demonstrate regularly without these problems.
People wake up.At least those like myself who were alive in the 60s.We are not safeguarding this precious idea of democracy for our children.

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By QuyTran, May 5, 2007 at 5:28 pm #

He’s back in town or hiding some where, who cares ?

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