Disneyland under siege
The Magic Kindgom's hometown of Anaheim suffers a deadly wave of police brutality and racial violence
Topics: Occupy, Anaheim, Disney, Politics News
A protester is arrested by police officers as protesters try to occupy the intersection of Anaheim Blvd. and Broadway to demonstrate against recent police shooting in Anaheim, Calif. (Credit: Reuters/Alex Gallardo)Images coming out of Anaheim, Calif. — best known as the home of Disneyland — would suggest that the Magic Kingdom is under siege. Police SWAT teams, donning military fatigues and clutching what look like grenade launchers, blocked streets around the park just days after riot cops sent a barrage of less-than-lethal ammunition, including a gnashing police dog, into a crowd of men, women and young children; militarized police watched over street gatherings from surrounding rooftops.
The militaristic spectacle comes in response to an upsurge in already regular police brutality protests in Anaheim. In the past 10 days Anaheim police shot dead two young Latino men — the fourth and fifth fatal police shootings in the area this year alone (four of which involved Hispanic men). This is Anaheim, outside of the Happiest Place on Earth™; a long-festering situation of inequality and police aggression falling — as is so often the case — along racial fault lines and beyond the media gaze.
Ten days ago, police handcuffed Manuel Diaz, 25, as he lay face-down in the grass outside an apartment block. The unarmed young man did not resist — he had already been shot in the back of the head after an incident that police have not described. Just a few hundred feet away police violently dispersed a crowd that gathered to see the commotion; video footage of beanbag and rubber pellets aimed at close range, as well as a police dog unleashed and bounding at a distraught woman carrying her baby, soon went viral. The very next day, Joel Mathew Acevedo, 21, also was shot dead by Anaheim police officers. Acevedo reportedly had opened fire on police, but was fatally shot while running away. Since then, protests both riotous and calm have brought SWAT teams to Anaheim, keen to neutralize dissent in Disneyland’s home.
Continue Reading CloseNatasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.


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