MacArthur Park

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

MacArthur Park is a place of dual identity, feared by outsiders as a haven of vice, but valued by locals as a space of cultural significance. The mainstream media has represented MacArthur Park as the epicenter of street crime in Los Angeles. In reality, it is a park, where working class families eat food purchased from street vendors and let their children play. Many of these families and vendors are undocumented immigrants. On May Day 2006 and 2007, marches related to immigration reform took place in Los Angeles. Naturally, protestors assembled at a site of cultural significance for undocumented immigrants, MacArthur Park. However, the criminalization of race has caused undocumented immigrants themselves, and the spaces they occupy, to be viewed as dangerous. MacArthur Park is a prime example. Most Latinx immigrants who reside in the vicinity of the park report that MacArthur Park is a place of immense social and cultural significance, but agency has been taken away from the locals, causing misrepresentations to prevail [1].

Images

Los Angeles, Ca. KCBS cameraman Carl Stein was hit twice by the LAPD, once in the ribs with a bat

Squad, Helmet, Cargo pants, Military camouflage

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

MacArthur Park, situated at 2230 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90057, was originally constructed in the 1880s. In the 1960s, the area became a working-class African American neighborhood, and the city halted funding for MacArthur Park. By the 1980s, MacArthur Park was regarded as the epicenter of crime in Los Angeles. By the 1990s, the area surrounding the park became a working class Latinx neighborhood[2]. In the 2000s, MacArthur park became the site of protests for immigration reform. The “Great American Boycott,” also known as the “Day Without an Immigrant” protests, took place nationwide on May 1, 2006. They were the largest May Day demonstrations in American history, even larger than marches at the height Great Depression[3]. Two marches were organized in Los Angeles on this day. One in Downtown, and the second began at MacArthur Park. Half a million people showed up to each march[4]. Demonstrators, protesting against House Resolution 4437, were seeking to challenge misconceptions that immigrants are a burden on society[5]. Footage of the march shows a demonstrator waving an American flag, stating, “We are not criminals, we came here to work for a better future…we did not come here to bother anybody.”[6] The protests of May Day 2006 were peaceful, but the LAPD claimed this all changed at MacArthur park after nightfall. An official report from the LAPD states, “In the late evening of May Day 2006 […] a significant confrontation between police and a small group attempting to incite a disturbance occurred. Individuals in the crowd blocked Alvarado Street and threw rocks, bottles and other debris at police officers and people passing by […] An unlawful assembly was called, and in a short period of time, the crowd dispersed.” It remains unclear if this is full truth surrounding the events of May 1, 2006, but preconceived notions of MacArthur park made the LAPD’s narrative believable to many Angelenos. In the same report, the LAPD admits that officers mishandled certain events on May 1, 2006, and thus, seeking to improve, trained officers in crowd control techniques. The LAPD then admits this training was inadequate, as evidenced by the events of May Day 2007[7].

On May 1, 2007, thousands gathered at MacArthur Park in protest once again, this time seeking amnesty for all undocumented immigrants. The 2007 demonstrations were separate events with different organizers from the 2006 marches, but the general atmosphere, and demographic of those in attendance, was similar to the 2006 march[8]. When protesters on the periphery of MacArthur park began to spill out onto the street, police drove motorcycles through the crowd, agitating the protesters. Inaudible orders to disperse were issued, in English, to a predominantly Spanish-speaking crowd. After the indistinct orders were ignored, LAPD officers engaged protesters with excessive force[9]. Despite the organizers possessing the proper permits, the LAPD treated the peaceful protest like a meeting of notorious delinquents assembling at a known hotbed of crime. A photograph taken by a Los Angeles Times photographer shows police officers brutalizing a cameraman uninvolved in the protest, proving that officers acted without provocation[10]. The evidence showing that officers initiated the violence was overlooked, and instead, news outlets used visual cues and selective phrasing to make it seem like the lawful good had prevailed against some evil force[11]. Perceptions of MacArthur Park itself helped to validate this misinformation. However, the truth would come out that the LAPD was in fact, not only responsible for inciting the violence, but supervising officers did nothing to stop the violence once it began. An official report from the LAPD states, “Notwithstanding the problems in planning, tactics, command and control, situational awareness, training and individual responsibility, the larger issue was the fact that not a single supervisor or member of the command staff involved attempted to intervene […] The failing leadership, breakdown in supervision, and breakdown in personal discipline, caused those without full situational awareness to take action without understanding how their decisions might affect the final outcome”[12]

Although the LAPD was proven to be at fault and forced to pay out a substantial settlement, the long-term ramifications were unfavorable the immigrant rights movement. Whether it was calculated or coincidence, the violence at MacArthur Park on May 1, 2007 contributed to an additional three billion tax dollars being allocated toward border security in July of that very same year[13]. Despite the LAPD admitting fault, the damage of the media misrepresenting the facts had already been done. Paradoxically, the false account of the events of May 1, 2007, distorted by a false narrative that undocumented immigrants are criminals, were used to reinforce the false narrative that undocumented immigrants are criminals.

[1] Main, Kelley et al. “Placemaking in a Translocal Receiving Community: The Relevance of Place to Identity and Agency” Urban Studies, January 2015, Vol. 52, No. 1. pp.71-86

[2] Costanza-Chock, Sasha. “The Immigrant Rights Movement on the Net: Between "Web 2.0" and Comunicación Popular”. American Quarterly, Sep. 2008, Vol. 60, No. 3, The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.851-864.

[3] Dionne, Kim Yi. “The May 1 Marchers in Los Angeles: Overcoming Conflicting Frames, Bilingual Women Connectors, English- Language Radio, and Newly Politicized Spanish Speakers,” Urban Affairs Review. 2015. Vol. 51. pp.533–562

[4] Wong, Kent. “A New Labor Movement for a New Working Class: Unions, Worker Centers, and Immigrants,” Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. 2015. Vol. 36, No. 1 (2015), pp. 205-213

[5] Los Angeles Police Department Report to the Board of Police Commissioners: An Examination of May Day 2007, http://lapd-assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/Final_Report.pdf

[6] “Mayday March LA 2006.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2q4ze4Rlf8

[7] Los Angeles Police Department Report to the Board of Police Commissioners: An Examination of May Day 2007, http://lapd-assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/Final_Report.pdf

[8] Dionne, Kim Yi. “The May 1 Marchers in Los Angeles: Overcoming Conflicting Frames, Bilingual Women Connectors, English- Language Radio, and Newly Politicized Spanish Speakers,” p.543

[9] Santa Ana, Otto. “Framing Peace as Violence: TV Coverage of L.A.’s May Day 2007” NACLA Report on the Americas. January 2009. pp.69-101

[10] Loomis, Rick. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/los-angeles-ca-kcbs-cameraman-carl-stein-was-hit-twice-by-news-photo/564061291

[11] Santa Ana, Otto. “Framing Peace as Violence: TV Coverage of L.A.’s May Day 2007” NACLA Report on the Americas. January 2009. pp.69-101

[12] Los Angeles Police Department Report to the Board of Police Commissioners: An Examination of May Day 2007, http://lapd-assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/Final_Report.pdf

[13] Costanza-Chock, Sasha. “The Immigrant Rights Movement on the Net: Between "Web 2.0" and Comunicación Popular”. American Quarterly, Sep. 2008, Vol. 60, No. 3, The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.851-864.

Sources

Costanza-Chock, Sasha. “The Immigrant Rights Movement on the Net: Between "Web 2.0" and Comunicación Popular”. American Quarterly, Sep. 2008, Vol. 60, No. 3, The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.851-864.

Dionne, Kim Yi. “The May 1 Marchers in Los Angeles: Overcoming Conflicting Frames, Bilingual Women Connectors, English- Language Radio, and Newly Politicized Spanish Speakers,” Urban Affairs Review. 2015. Vol. 51. pp.533–562

Loomis, Rick. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/los-angeles-ca-kcbs-cameraman-carl-stein-was-hit-twice-by-news-photo/564061291

Los Angeles Police Department Report to the Board of Police Commissioners: An Examination of May Day 2007, http://lapd-assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/Final_Report.pdf

Main, Kelley et al. “Placemaking in a Translocal Receiving Community: The Relevance of Place to Identity and Agency” Urban Studies, January 2015, Vol. 52, No. 1. pp.71-86

“Mayday March LA 2006.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2q4ze4Rlf8

Santa Ana, Otto. “Framing Peace as Violence: TV Coverage of L.A.’s May Day 2007” NACLA Report on the Americas. January 2009. pp.69-101

Wong, Kent. “A New Labor Movement for a New Working Class: Unions, Worker Centers, and Immigrants,” Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. 2015. Vol. 36, No. 1 (2015), pp. 205-213