Police try to buy videos from witnesses after releasing attack dog on families and firing rubber bullets

A screen capture from the event with the dog about to attack

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

Police in Anaheim, California have a lot of explaining to do after attempting to buy the videos captured by witnesses after shooting people with rubber bullets and releasing an attack dog on a crowd including a mother and her child.

Usually, we see people get arrested, brutally beaten, or labeled “professional agitators” for legally filming police activities. Trying to actually buy the video from the witnesses is, at least in my opinion, a novel tactic in the ongoing war on accountability.

The video (at the bottom of the post) is nothing short of disturbing as it shows police shooting seemingly wildly into a crowd which includes young children and, most troubling of all, it even shows police releasing a dog which heads straight for a mother and her child.

The mother was able to react quickly enough to get her child out of harm’s way but a bystander wasn’t so lucky. We see the dog clamp down on his arm in the video as he is struggling to break free from the jaws of the police attack dog while officers try to separate them.

The individuals gathered in order to protest the shooting – which they maintain was unjustified – of a young man at the hands of police.

The shooting occurred on Saturday around 4 PM in front of an apartment complex after a foot chase, according to Orange County Sergeant Bob Dunn, quoted by the Associated Press.

Dunn refused to even say why exactly they shot the man, instead opting to say that the details of the incident are currently under investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

While the family of the man shot by police as well as neighbors all identified him as Manuel Diaz, Dunn could not initially confirm the individual’s name.

However, later the above linked story was updated in order to reflect that 24-year-old Manuel Diaz was identified although there is still an investigation into what actually led the police to kill him.

The 16-year-old nice of Diaz, Daisy Gonzalez, informed the Orange County Register that her uncle probably fled because he had previous negative experiences with law enforcement.

an angry group of people began yelling and throwing bottles at them.

While the people did not look all too aggressive, they were referred to as “an unruly crowd” and the scene was described as “a near riot.”

From the clips published from eyewitness video, we cannot see anything of the sort. We only see cops shooting rubber bullets left and right at women and children, releasing an attack dog and families fleeing the chaos.

One person interviewed by KCAL 9 mentioned that they saw a water bottle go flying before the attack began, indicating that the throwing of a water bottle might have been what sparked the police action.

Indeed, the Associated Press reports that Dunn stated that the entire encounter began when “an angry group of people began yelling and throwing bottles at them.”

In an attempt to explain away the attack dog getting out and heading straight for a mother and her child in a stroller before attacking a man’s arm, Dunn claimed that the dog was “deployed accidentally.”

UPDATE: Several hours after the original publishing, the Associated Press story above was changed significantly. It had previously been at least twice as long as it is now, and the mention of just bottles being thrown at police has changed.

Now they report that the killing of Diaz, “sparked a melee in the neighborhood as some threw rocks and bottles at police. Officers fired rubber bullets and pepper spray to suppress the crowd.”

The mention of the video, the mention of the attack dog, etc. are all mysteriously gone, although they added that five people were arrested during the incident.

Personally, I see this type of response as indefensible from law enforcement. Police officers should in no way be justified in firing upon women and children with highly dangerous weaponry because people are throwing bottles and now supposedly rocks as well.

Whatever the rationale might be, when you see this response on video it becomes very clear that it is in no way warranted and just goes to show how far gone some members of our law enforcement community already are.

Thankfully there are still some good police officers out there.

Unfortunately, since they seem to be getting increasingly rare, we’re seeing these heroes become targets for harassment or in one case even a detainee in a psychiatric ward.

If we don’t do something to show just how reprehensible and unacceptable this behavior truly is, we can only expect police insanity. If we do nothing, all we can do is hope that it’s only people getting arrested for dancing.

Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at [email protected] with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy.

RELATED ACTIVIST POST ARTICLE WITH ADDITIONAL VIDEOS AND UPDATES:
Chaos Erupts After CA Police Open Fire on Unarmed Crowd Including Women and Children

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This article first appeared at End the Lie.