My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan (Family Guy writer)

[Dennis Donovan]

http://myoccupylaarrest.blogspot.com/

My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.

I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”

As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.

When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.
</snip>

Goddamned @#$%&* cops...:grr:

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Rodney King.

K&R

[StandingInLeftField]

2. I don't know about the LAPD...

...but I wouldn't f*ck around with a person that writes for Family Guy.

Seriously.

[Javaman]

3. +100 nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. We. Can. Only. Hope.

Could be just what the doctor ordered.

[Bjorn Against]

16. I suspect the best Family Guy episode ever will come out of this

[tblue37]

That's kinda what I was just thinking. The cops are pissing off people who

not only can get the message out, but can do so in a way that will win over young people who might otherwise be indifferent or even hostile to OWS.

[tblue37]

18. Self-delete: Accidental dupe. nt

[deutsey]

4. k&r

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. Fuck Antonio Villaraigosa .

Fuck Ed Lee.

Fuck Quan.

And fuck ever single Democratic Mayor across the country who rousted nonviolent protesters exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed rights.

[Wind Dancer]

7. This is absolutely horrific!

There is no reason for the police to be involved in peaceful protest much less use brute force and destroy personal belongings.

Reminds me of another place and time in history.

:mad:

[gratuitous]

8. Some funny words from a quaint old document

"No state shall . . . deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law."

Void where prohibited.

[robinlynne]

17. k&r quaint old document........

[backtoblue]

9. kick and rec

[Electric Monk]

10. I predict an Occupy episode of Family Guy in the not too-distant future.

[me b zola]

11. K&R

[demmiblue]

12. K&R

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. F'n THUGS!

:grr:

[russspeakeasy]

14. Thanks for doing what you're doing..

[RevStPatrick]

15. So... what's a guy hanging around with a copy of...

...Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” doing working to enrich Rupert Murdoch?

Family Guy is among the worst bits of divisive trash in the current popular culture.
Along with my former favorite show, The Simpsons, which I won't watch anymore, and that awful American Dad piece of crap.

If this fellow, who certainly does not and did not deserve the kind of treatment he experienced at the hands of the LAPD really REALLY wanted to make a difference, he would tell Rupert to go fuck himself, and stop contributing to the News Corp cash cow. Put your money where your mouth is, Patrick!

[StandingInLeftField]

20. I have to agree with you, Rev.

There's absolutely nothing PC about FG. Subversive, ironic, sarcastic, illuminating, self-reflective, annoying, Devil's advocate- mabye; PC, - no way.

[RevStPatrick]

21. I don't have a problem with...

"...Subversive, ironic, sarcastic, illuminating, self-reflective, annoying, Devil's advocate..."

I have a problem with enriching Rupert Murdoch.

[StandingInLeftField]

22. In all sincerity, I do, too.

There has always seemed to have been a disconnect between the Faux Newz side of things and Faux Entertainment and I can't understand why none of the other "majors" have never had the guts to lure these types of shows away from Faux. Either way, I'm hoping Murdoch has been given just enough rope to h*ng himself with, vis-a-vis News of the World. :hi:

[Rhiannon12866]

19. Will we ever learn from history?

:banghead:

[davidthegnome]

23. To learn from history

We would actually have to read about some of it. It's my understanding that the vast majority of people (even those with college degrees) know very little of it. Came as quite a shock when I learned I knew more about history (world and American) than my girlfriend with a master's degree. Being GED educated and all... it was a bit of a downer.

[Rhiannon12866]

24. One thing I heard was that there's now so much more history, that they can't get to it all...

That certainly made me feel old. :(

Though it's not considered as "important" as English or math, knowledge of history is extremely underrated and a lack of knowledge or interest can have horrific real-world consequences, as we saw with George Bush*... ;(