The ACLU has announced that it will file a lawsuit on behalf of the journalists and legal observers who were injured Monday night at the rage against the machine concert. The police opened fire into the crowd on Monday injuring dozens with rubber pellets and pepper spray and trampling people as they attempted to flee the scene outside the Staples Center. The ACLU has said protest organizers, journalists and legal observers were targeted because of their strategic roles in documenting police violence at the scene.

Guests:

• Garrick Ruiz, with RISE UP, the Direct Action Network here in Los Angeles. He himself was hit numerous times by police pellets.
• Carol Sobell, was a legal observer and the lead negotiator with the police over the use of the space at the Rage Against the Machine’s concert earlier this week. As we reported on Democracy Now! there was a major police riot in the streets, where people were shot with pellets and trampled by police on horseback. She also was hit during the action by police pellets.
• Tom Hayden, a State Senator in California. He is a veteran activist, one of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society in the early 1960s. He was also one of the Chicago 8 who were put on trial in Chicago in 1968, following the mass protests in the streets during the Democratic Convention.