The L.A. Times does it best to spin this as “youths” who “broke away” from the “peaceful” demonstration — so you see, it’s not really the fault of Trayvon supporters:
A peaceful protest of the George Zimmerman verdict in Los Angeles turned violent Monday after youths broke away from the main demonstration in Leimert Park, stomped on cars, broke windows, set fires and attacked several people.
KCBS-TV/KCAL-TV reporter Dave Bryan and his cameraman were among those who came under assault. One of the two journalists was taken to a hospital with a possible concussion, Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Andy Neiman told The Times.
Protesters also stormed a Wal-Mart in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, pushing their way through as guards scrambled to close security gates. A short while later, LAPD officers wearing helmets and carrying batons swarmed the store as others marched through the parking lot.
Young vandals who entered the Wal-Mart stormed in, threw merchandise on the ground and yelled, shoppers told a Times reporter. Some tried to break open the jewelry glass displays.
Ah yes, the time-honored manner of protesting perceived injustice in the criminal system: by stealing stuff. But don’t forget attacking people of a different color: that’s always important too.
The violence also included the apparent assaulting of bystanders and the hurling of hunks of concrete at officers on Vernon Avenue, the Los Angeles Police Department said. No injuries were reported.
. . . .
A masked man struck a waiter in the head with a hammer while the worker was trying to keep the windows protected at the Flora Restaurant and Bar, which had been vandalized over the weekend during similar protests, local media reported.
The waiter was seen bleeding and was treated by paramedics, according to reporters with the San Francisco Chronicle and the Bay Area News Group, which includes the Oakland Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News.
Garbage was set on fire and fireworks were thrown at police officers, officials said, while graffiti was scrawled across buildings — one message said “REVOLT,” according to KTVU-TV — and some burned U.S. flags. Windows were shattered at a Men’s Wearhouse, a Comerica bank branch, and Youth Radio, according to police and media reports. A KPIX-TV reporter said vandals broke into the CBS affiliate’s television truck.
If we could be assured that media people who were attacked and had their property destroyed were the very ones who spread a phony narrative about Zimmerman’s actions and racism; who elided exculpatory statements in 911 calls; who filled the papers and airwaves filled with images of a younger and smaller Trayvon Martin; who suppressed the material from his Twitter account . . . if we could be assured that the people who perpetrated these assaults on the truth were the very people suffering the results of their distortions, we could write this all off as karma. If you told me that the people responsible for the NBC distortions were beaten by an angry mob, I would register my regret by downloading an mp3 of Alanis Morrissette’s “Isn’t It Ironic?” (a silly song that I despise) and blasting it out of my computer speakers while sipping a cool glass of lemon-flavored iced tea. But just as every white person is not the Hispanic George Zimmerman, not every media person is the scum at NBC News who chopped up the 911 call to smear Zimmerman.
I hope they know who is secondarily to blame, after the people who attacked them and vandalized their stuff. That would be their brethren in the media. Let them report that story.
P.S. Eric Holder is already taking sides after the verdict:
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday called the killing of Trayvon Martin a “tragic, unnecessary shooting,” and said the Justice Department will follow “the facts and the law” as it reviews evidence to see whether federal criminal charges are warranted.
I won’t go so far as to say the jury found the shooting necessary, but it may have been — and at a minimum, the jury found that Zimmerman believed it was necessary, and that that belief was reasonable under the circumstances. I am going to assume that this is just disgusting pandering from a partisan, dishonest, race-obsessed clown who knows DoJ is never going to pursue a prosecution. But I don’t trust him, and I can’t trust DoJ while he’s running it — and just as Florida mounted a baseless, politically motivated prosecution, so too might the feds under a race hustler like Holder.
Hey, assaulted media people? While you’re looking for people to blame for your busted heads, you might consider looking at people like Holder, and Barack “Trayvon could have been my son” Obama.