My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.
I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”
As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.
When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.
It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us. At least I was sufficiently terrorized. I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.
My hands were then zipcuffed very tightly behind my back, where they turned blue. I am now suffering nerve damage in my right thumb and palm.
I was put on a paddywagon with other nonviolent protestors and taken to a parking garage in Parker Center. They forced us to kneel on the hard pavement of that parking garage for seven straight hours with our hands still tightly zipcuffed behind our backs. Some began to pass out. One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before falling unconscious. The LAPD officers watched and did nothing.
At 9 a.m. we were finally taken from the pavement into the station to be processed. The charge was sitting in the park after the police said not to. It’s a misdemeanor. Almost always, for a misdemeanor, the police just give you a ticket and let you go. It costs you a couple hundred dollars. Apparently, that’s what happened with most every other misdemeanor arrest in LA that day.
With us Occupy LA protestors, however, they set bail at $5,000 and booked us into jail. Almost none of the protesters could afford to bail themselves out. I’m lucky and I could afford it, except the LAPD spent all day refusing to actually *accept* the bail they set. If you were an accused murderer or a rapist in LAPD custody that day, you could bail yourself right out and be back on the street, no problem. But if you were a nonviolent Occupy LA protestor with bail money in hand, you were held long into the following morning, with absolutely no access to a lawyer.
I spent most of my day and night crammed into an eight-man jail cell, along with sixteen other Occupy LA protesters. My sleeping spot was on the floor next to the toilet.
Finally, at 2:30 the next morning, after twenty-five hours in custody, I was released on bail. But there were at least 200 Occupy LA protestors who couldn’t afford the bail. The LAPD chose to keep those peaceful, non-violent protesters in prison for two full days… the absolute legal maximum that the LAPD is allowed to detain someone on misdemeanor charges.
As a reminder, Antonio Villaraigosa has referred to all of this as “the LAPD’s finest hour.”
So that’s what happened to the 292 women and men were arrested last Wednesday. Now let’s talk about a man who was not arrested last Wednesday. He is former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. Under Charles Prince, Citigroup was guilty of massive, coordinated securities fraud.
Citigroup spent years intentionally buying up every bad mortgage loan it could find, creating bad securities out of those bad loans and then selling shares in those bad securities to duped investors. And then they sometimes secretly bet *against* their *own* bad securities to make even more money. For one such bad Citigroup security, Citigroup executives were internally calling it, quote, “a collection of dogshit”. To investors, however, they called it, quote, “an attractive investment rigorously selected by an independent investment adviser”.
This is fraud, and it’s a felony, and the Charles Princes of the world spent several years doing it again and again: knowingly writing bad mortgages, and then packaging them into fraudulent securities which they then sold to suckers and then repeating the process. This is a big part of why your property values went up so fast. But then the bubble burst, and that’s why our economy is now shattered for a generation, and it’s also why your home is now underwater. Or at least mine is.
Anyway, if your retirement fund lost a decade’s-worth of gains overnight, this is why.
If your son’s middle school has added furlough days because the school district can’t afford to keep its doors open for a full school year, this is why.
If your daughter has come out of college with a degree only to discover that there are no jobs for her, this is why.
But back to Charles Prince. For his four years of in charge of massive, repeated fraud at Citigroup, he received fifty-three million dollars in salary and also received another ninety-four million dollars in stock holdings. What Charles Prince has *not* received is a pair of zipcuffs. The nerves in his thumb are fine. No cop has thrown Charles Prince into the pavement, face-first. Each and every peaceful, nonviolent Occupy LA protester arrested last week has has spent more time sleeping on a jail floor than every single Charles Prince on Wall Street, combined.
The more I think about that, the madder I get. What does it say about our country that nonviolent protesters are given the bottom of a police boot while those who steal hundreds of billions, do trillions worth of damage to our economy and shatter our social fabric for a generation are not only spared the zipcuffs but showered with rewards?
In any event, believe it or not, I’m really not angry that I got arrested. I chose to get arrested. And I’m not even angry that the mayor and the LAPD decided to give non-violent protestors like me a little extra shiv in jail (although I’m not especially grateful for it either).
I’m just really angry that every single Charles Prince wasn’t in jail with me.
Thank you for letting me share that anger with you today.
Patrick Meighan
Wow, Rick, talk about missing the point. Patrick understood what the consequences of his actions would be. He (and so many others, like me) would like to know why there are no consequences (at least, none that are personally suffered) for the Charles Princes of this country.
Thank you, Patrick. It is necessary for everyone to know about injustices to their neighbors. It happens regularly to people all over the planet we share, but many are consumed by “making a living” without realizing the consequence that their own children will have worse injustice because they did not stand up when they had an opportunity. It is my wish that militant beings will understand their mistake in choosing to support a hateful, hungry, greedy empire before being fed to the wolves themselves… Please choose real understanding now. 🙁
Rick – Apparently you skipped the part of Patrick’s letter about the crimes Charles Prince and others have committed with total impunity. You slam Patrick for standing up against the unpunished crimes of the 1%, yet you say nothing about the accountability or consequences the 1% should pay for the abominable frauds they perpetrated and did not go to jail for. At least Patrick had the courage to stand up on your behalf against the crimes Charles Prince and others have committed. You are nothing but a spineless coward who spits in the eyes of those demanding justice for all, including you. Shame on you.
@Rick: Are you serious? Do you believe that people should NOT have the right to peaceably assemble? Are you suggesting that what the police did was the right way to go? Are you suggesting that nerve damage and jail time is an appropriate “consequence” for taking a stand against fraud and injustice? Really?
@Patrick: I hope you can take this to the justice system as far as it needs to go, and I seriously hope that somebody got the events on camera. I suspect that the police choice of timing might be partly motivated by minimising the chance of good camera footage coming out of the event.
Rick = Pro-cop one percenter.
Funny stuff there. But I didn’t read where many surrounding small businesses went out of
Business or had to lay off many employees who have families to feed because occupiers
Decided to hang out a bit longer( with no great outcome) and disrupt the flow of patrons to these businesses
Many cannot afford to shut down more than a week without it causing major damage to their survival
The majority of people at occu-poo where skid row residents , junkies, or low lifes. They were invited there to
Make it appear that the numbers were larger than they were. I believe there could have been a better stragedy than this , I mean come on, this? What did you expect was going to happen let you live there
Permanently. What were the goals? After watching on tv for weeks I never got a clear indication of what occu-poers wanted done. That’s just my two cents. It woulda been five but the economy is bad
Patrick, protesting is fine. You have that right. You dont have the right to invade and occupy public or private land when rules specifically state there is no camping and that the park closes at a specific time. Those officers did their job dealing with mostly mentally ill, homeless, and other anarchist nut jobs who could hardly spell wall street, let alone know what or why this movement began. Next time march and protest legally, and when you are told the group has become unlawful, maybe you’ll leave.
Hey Rick,
If you ever stole a cookie from someone as a child, did an adult break your arm as punishment?
As children we not only learn about consequences, but the severity of punishment for certain actions. The point is that these people were not penalized fairly, not that they weren’t expecting something to happen for staying there.
Rick, thanks for contributing your condescension to this article. I can only imagine being wilfully coerced by the media due to your mediocre intellect and countless insecurities has prompted this useful and well-thought out response.
Wow, what a despicable excuse for a human being Rick is. There was no justification for the extreme (and illegal!) violence perpetrated against peaceful protestors.
If someone comes up to you on the street with a gun, and tells you they’ll shoot you if you don’t sit down, do you deserve to get shot because “actions have consequences?”
Rick, seriously? You think an appropriate consequence for misdemeanor nonviolent protesting is police brutality?
Thank you for sharing this with us, I have been following and participating in the occupy movement since I first found out about Occupy Wall Street (A WEEK AFTER IT STARTED, thank you mainstream media)
Everyone, as human beings… as Americans, as members of this world we live in. CALL AND WRITE LETTERS TO CONGRESS AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES!
I am 21, was accepted to many 4 year universities but chose to attend community college to save my family money. My dad is in the finance and banking industry, owning his own small business… He saw this coming a million miles away, we could have seen it before he was born…. Doesnt change the fact that california’s education system is a mess, its impossible as a new student to get classes you need. Schools are going broke
Our system of government is broken and its a sad sight. It makes me happy to see Americans, rather people all over the world unite for our rights.
PS: family guy is awesome.
Dear Patrick: Thank you for Being Peace. My wish for you is that your story will continue to circulate and that more and more people will begin to awaken to creating a world that is balanced and fair. We can do so much better.
Blessings to you with divine love,
Glenna Bain
So the cops won; you lost.
Corporations and the Government are in bed with one another.
They’re both corrupt.
Police hate protesters.
So, nothing new learned here, but you earned some injuries because???
The Gov has learned a lot since the 60s on how to handle non-violent protesters.
You can’t win. Go ahead and vote whoever you think is going to help you in; he’ll only turn as soon as he does the oath.
Keep grazing sheeple. You’re slaves; you’ve been slaves; get used to it.
Did you hear the Kardashian’s are fighting among themselves?
What do you think about the new American Idol season coming up?
We also learn reading comprehension as children Rick, apparently you did not.
You guys had 48 hours to get out of there, peacefully and on your own accord. You’d been squatting on public land for 2 months, costing me and my fellow taxpayers thousands of dollars to take care of you. Enough is enough… you made your point, you got your message across, whatever it was. What exactly did you expect? You want sympathy for getting hurt, while knowingly disrespecting a court order and orders from the police? Do you blame the paper company when you get a paper cut? Do you blame the coffee maker when you burn your tongue? Have you ever, EVER, accepted responsibility for your irresponsible actions?
Yeah, cry me a freakin river… you don’t have a CLUE what suffering is, though you got a taste of it in jail for a day. There are people who can’t make bail. There are people whose entire lives are a jail of some sort. Instead of whining, do some good. Don’t worry about the wall-street crooks. They haven’t messed up your life. YOU and those who choose to do nothing but whine; that’s who’s messed it up. Instead of sitting there for two months, go do something useful! Go feed a homeless person! Go paint an old lady’s apartment. But no, the usual American attitude. Me Me Me, Whine, Whine, Whine. Fix my problem, it’s your fault, I’m the victim, the world is conspiring against me. Christ, give it a break and count your blessing. Sincerely, you and every single one of your fellow peaceniks — don’t have a clue how lucky you really are.
We ought to question government’s claim that it is there to protect and serve us.
What exactly is a government, besides a group of people with an incredible concentration of power?
The question is not how we can prevent that power from being used for evil – that question has been asked often enough. It’s time to realize that there is no solution to that question, and the real question we should be asking ourselves is whether that power ought to exist at all.
Sounds to me like the police did everything they were supposed to and you did nothing you were supposed. These protests are not worth your time and, in my opinion, they are only making things worse. Please stay home.
Dislike. :C
@Rick: if you can’t see that the consequences so far outweighed their actions that it’s beyond ridiculous, then you’re just choosing to look away and not see what’s right in front of you. If you would actually read the article, he said he chose to get arrested. He understood the consequences.
I love when Rick, the boot licker, gets all high and mighty. Well, you deserved to have you head caved in for going over the speed limit. You broke the law, you deserve to be beaten! Trolls, the lot of them.
Thank you for your service to this country. People needed to see this through your eyes.
Dear Patrick, I love you. Thank you — as a writer to another writer, who knows how much easier it is to stay in the old comfort zone and tell oneself “I can make my social commentary from afar, thanks,” — from the bottom of my heart. You’re in the history books now. Thank you.
RICK,
As a child you (or most of us) learn that there are consequences for our actions. if you talk back, you don’t get desert. If you don’t want to do you’re homework you don’t get to watch TV. This is more the equivalent of refusing to practice your violin, so your father forces you to sleep outside in the winter without a jacket, which is (for good reason) illegal. There is a legal process to dole out punishment. This is not it. There are also constitutional guidelines specifically in place to protect people from an unfair or overly severe punishment. They were not followed. If you were ever in a situation in which the police asked you to leave and you decided you wouldn’t, for whatever reason, I’m sure that you would expect to be treated better than this. To be treated like a fellow human being. Actually, I’m pretty sure you’d be screaming about the violations of your rights just as much as this (and thousands of more) person is.
I thank you in advance for not attacking me personally, as that does nothing but make you look stupid.
Blaine
The LAPD has beena and always will be a big piece of corrupt trash. My husband has been arrested for MINOR misdemeanors such as driving w/suspended license has told me plenty of stories. In fact Burbank PD arrested him and denied him any medical attention when he was hit by a massice Lincoln Navigator while making deliveries (which was legal because he was @ workd) They took him straight to LA County jail where he was left to rot for 10 days because of a malfunction in the computer records. They never took off a warrant he had previously taken care of for not serving community service. To this day he still has severe back problems and we are STILL tied up in court for compensation from the insurance companies. That was July of 2009. Oh yeah, he also happens to be a Hispanic male. He describes the sheriffs that run LA County jail as more violent and worse pieces of shit then the inmates they have in there. I don’t know about the women’s jails but in Men’s Correctional facility you get beat up whenever and where ever they feel like it. in fact.. one of the asinine reasons for a severe beating is if you say ANYTHING bad about “The Duke” aka… John Wayne.. yes.. JOHN WAYNE.. there is a picture of him hanging in the reception center.. and that is one of the “unofficial” rules. I watched live broadcasts of the arrests. conveniently the live newscast was CUT OFF the INSTANT the police got to the ‘inner-core’ of the protesters.. EVERY SINGLE CHANEL on tv simultaneously STOPPED their broadcast…. must’ve been cos it stopped being “interesting” Shame of the LAPD but more so on the elaborate show that was put on by Government officials, FOX News, CBS, and NBC, (ABC didn’t even air the live footage) to fool us into thinking that they had done no harm and Occupy LA protesters were doing something horrible. But most of all, shame on the rest of us (including me) who failed to be strong enough to actually go out there on join you guys in your protest. I wish I could’ve been there but working 5 days a week to support my husband (who hasn’t been able to work since his back injury) and 2 kids prevents me from really having any time or energy for anything else.
One day, the arrogance of these pigs, and their sympathizers, will haunt them.
The answer to your question is that the government (and therefore the police) are corrupt. They treat those with money well because they get paid off. They knew you didn’t have millions so they treated you like an animal. Such is the sad state of the American government. They are in bed with Wall Street you know, and they hate to see you protesting against their sugar daddy.
Wow, Rick. Where did you grow up? Where I grew up, we were taught the police were our friends and there to help. My parents never informed me that we don’t have the right to peaceful protest and that the police might destroy personal property, throw it in the park and blame me for the mess. Maybe you’re younger than I am and that’s covered in schools now.
Cool story, Rick. We also learn as children to not let the bullies take our lunch money. It takes enormous guts to stand up to a bully armed with batons, pepper spray and firearms. The police, the city of LA and anyone who condones this type of law-enforcing should be ashamed.
Rick!?!?
You may want to absorb what Patrick has just written down for the world to see. Try to read what he is trying to tell us.
– Protest peacefully and voicing your concerns? Assaulted, charged and jailed.
– Steal billion and billions of dollars with millions of witnesses. Destroy the savings, homes and lives of millions? Given huge bonuses, able to keep what they’ve stolen and given another chance to further destroy our economy.
Seems you have not been taught simple ethics.
Patrick Meighan, thank you so much for sharing your story. I am sure it will awaken many to the realities that have befallen so many(Occupiers) in their sincere desire to shed light on the corruption going on around them and how deep the deception runs.
To Patrick: Thanks for speaking out and standing up for what you believe in Patrick. I hope your wounds heal completely and quickly.
To Rick: The lesson of consequences for your actions is a great one to impart to your children and everyone eventually learns it one way for another. What are the consequences of your actions or inaction, more likely, going to be?
@Rick. Like so many others you miss the point which is truly pathetic.
Regardless of whether or not you support the cause that the occupy crowd strives for you should at least recognize the idea of suffering the consequences you know will happen because you believe that if your pain brings change that the benefit will outweigh the cost you have paid.
Without civil disobedience African Americans would still be considered hardly human and the KKK would be a respected organization. Speaking of the clan, they get treated with more respect during their demonstration than Occupy does. Kind of sad that people view Occupy as lower than racist scumbags.
It’s entitlementarianism. They are entitled, you are not. They have more access to political power. You do not. All you have to do to fix this is become a billionaire.
@Rick – you have to keep reading:
“I’m really not angry that I got arrested. I chose to get arrested … I’m just really angry that every single Charles Prince wasn’t in jail with me.” Clearly, Patrick expected to get arrested, but he didn’t expect the petty and inhuman treatment of the Occupiers.
There is a lot of confusion right now, and people are forgetting what truly makes this country great. This, and all of the stories like it from around the country, make me sick that so many are so blind.
I hope this story shines a little light.
Thank you Patrick.
As children, we also learn about our rights to peacefully assemble, our rights to protest, our rights to reasonable search and seizure. Apparently, the LAPD did not.
Rick I’m afraid you’re wrong. While I can’t say what you were taught as a child I can speak for my own upbringing. My parents taught me to treat other people with the same basic respect that I want myself. I was taught that sharing is essential and that violence is a terrible thing to be used only in self defense. I was taught to raise my voice when I saw injustice and to not back down as long as it continued. I was taught about compassion for my fellow human, even if he is a prick named Rick whom I disagree with…prick. I was taught not to allow mistreatment of other humans, even the ones who mistreated me. I was taught that this country was great only as long as our rights stood whole. I’m sorry you didn’t have parents like mine. No matter what their faults, they gave me compassion for humanity and the courage to follow through. I hope someday you discover those same values….Prick.
Rick — what consequences do you think the LAPD should suffer for its actions?
Rick, are you serious? As children, we learn that America is unlike any other country. What sets us apart from most countries is Freedom of Speech. We have the “right” to peacefully protest. The LAPD has and will always be known as a bunch of over-zealous pigs, lead by bigger pigs.
@Rick, tell that to all of the Charles Prince’s who NEVER experience a single day of consequence. How can you sit there and believe for a moment that there are consequences for every action? As children we learn about TRUTH and JUSTICE, as well. There was none here.
Thank you for writing Patrick. I am personally split on this subject, the Occupy movement doesn’t have a clear disernable message with action that people can get behind IMHO. But I also don’t belive Rick above understands the purpose of protest.
Sorry to hear about your hand, and even more sorry to hear that we have such discord in this country.
I envy you. You have shown your children the importance of ‘walking your talk’. I’d like to think I’d have joined you were my circumstances different, but I don’t know. I just don’t know. If the Occupy Movement does nothing other than show us our First Amendment Rights don’t exist anymore, it has done a tremendous thing. But it looks like the “freedom of the press” part isn’t getting much face time either. @Rick: I think the fact that he accepted being arrested indicates he did accept the consequences of his actions. You might want to read the last few lines again and see what he’s upset about.
Rick, I guess you should have read all the way to the end of the article. You seem to have completely missed the point about who suffered consequences for his actions, and who did not.
@Rick: so what about the 80+ of us who were arrested on the sidewalks, 4 blocks away, having left the park when told, having left the street for the sidewalk when told, having waited patiently when told we could go through in 5 minutes, including at least 3 people who were just on their way home from clubs/bars? Because by your logic, my actions should not have led to those
consequences.
What about the consequences for the actions of the LAPD/sheriffs who violated our rights, leaving us on a bus without bathrooms/water for 8 hours, not booking us or giving us phonecalls for 15 hours (whereafter our 48 hours began)/ not accepting our bail/ not feeding us for days/ not allowing us to speak with lawyers/ not allowing some of us our medications?
When do the police get to learn that actions have consequences?
Man, I’m sorry you had to go through that man, police are corrupt and always will be. We need more people like yourself, and less like Rick. Hey Rick, you’re a sociopath if you didn’t know it yet.
to bad they didn’t pepper spray you guys. I only wish I could take that many days off, but I have to work to pay the taxes that were used to pick up after you dirty basta@#$ds
@Rick – You are missing the point entirely… Did it not shock you to read about the way our government has allowed the police to behave with such inhumanity? I can’t even waste more time explaining to you why you sound so ignorant. @Meighan – Thank you for the eloquent and explicit account… (I hope Jon Stewart of The Daily Show reads your article!)
@ Rick: He was not surprised to be arrested, and even stated he was “really not angry.” The point of his story was not to complain about the way he had been treated, but to bring to light the fact that how he and the other Occupiers were treated is grossly inconsistent with the treatment of those criminals who commit billions of dollars in fraud.
Protesters will be beaten, protesters will be arrested, protesters will be harassed.
When will we beat, arrest, and harass the criminals who’ve destroyed our economy, our homes, and the foundation of our nation?
this is much different than the glowing reports i read of the encampment’s demise. thank you for sharing a first hand account of your experience. unacceptable – wake up, america!
“As children we learn about consequences for our* actions.”
Is that what you learned in school today, “dear little boy of mine?” (apologies to Tom Paxton 🙂 )
*our = only if you’re NOT part of the 1% who own the $,$$$,$$$,$$$’s, then yes, there are consequences imposed upon you for having the courage to exercise any of your inalienable rights!
All the police brutality in the world couldn’t keep Qaddafi, Mubarak, Chauchesku, the Soviets, Mussolini or even the French nobility in power.
In fact, police brutality was the trigger for violent revolution in every case.
Violent police ARE anarchist terrorists.