William Grigg

lewrockwell.com

July 22, 2012

One day after a lethal shooting rampage in Aurora, Colorado left twelve people dead and scores injured, another eruption of criminal violence left one dead and several others injured in Anaheim, California. The perpetrators of the second assault were officers from the Anaheim Police Department, who used “non-lethal” rounds — such as rubber bullets, which are reliably lethal at close range — to disperse a spontaneous protest that coalesced after the “officer-involved shooting” of a young man in the neighborhood.

Cell phone video of the police assault shows a wall of officers in riot gear directing “non-lethal” fire at a group of unarmed and terrified civilians — including several small children, who were shielded by a man who appeared to be their father. Another officer unleashed a police dog, which immediately attacked a stroller containing an infant. A bystander who interposed himself — and was mauled by the dog for doing so — probably saved the child’s life.

Those acts, in which private citizens protected the innocent from criminal violence at the hands of the State’s armed servants, were just as heroic as those of the three men in Aurora who died protecting their girlfriends during the shooting rampage.

Local news accounts, which retailed the department’s version of events, described the crowd as “unruly” and the protest as a “near-riot” in which angry citizens “encircled” the officers and “began throwing things, including bottles and possibly rocks, at them,” in the words of a Los Angeles Times report.The police also claimed that “several fires” had been started in trashcans. None of those claims have been been corroborated by video evidence or eyewitnesses. Nor have the police explained why the police gunned down the young man, referred to only as “Stomper,” after he and two others fled when approached by the cops.

Immediately after the shooting, several residents confronted the police to demand answers. The Anaheim PD — sensing an ominous tremor of righteous outrage on the part of a neighborhood that has endured seven “officer-involved shootings” this year — reverted to type as an army of occupation: Within a matter of minutes, the unarmed protesters were outnumbered by heavily armed cops in body armor.

In the wake of the Aurora massacre, the public has been encouraged to believe that because of private gun ownership, every public gathering place can be transformed into the scene of a massacre. The Anaheim police rampage illustrates how quickly the State’s armed enforcement caste — which, according to “gun control” activists, should have a monopoly on firearms — can turn any neighborhood into an urban war zone.

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