Police Throwing Flash Bangs into Crowd "Like Beads at Mardi Gras" at 5th & Olive
Posted by Goldy on Wed, May 1, 2013 at 8:23 PM
Brendan is on the scene at 5th & Olive where a tense standoff is blowing up into an all out confrontation between angry protesters and angry police. Pepper spray has been "liberally deployed," reports Brendan, and police are now throwing flash bang grenades into the crowd "like they are beads at Mardi Gras"—I could hear several go off near Brendan. "I would not be surprised if someone is hurt right now," says Brendan.
For their part, protesters are throwing fireworks back at the police, along with other debris. Brendan says he say a bottle of water and a rock thrown at police.
"Whatever it's original intent the protest became a tense standoff," says Brendan, after police attempted to arrest several protesters. Other protesters fought back, and Brendan can't be sure if the arrests were made. And one point he believes that several protesters were pinned inside a van, with police surrounding them and protesters surrounding the police. Eventually the police used a rain of flash bang grenades to break through the crowd and start forcing the protesters back up Pike.
Later, as the crowds moved on, Brendan came upon a man named Brian who was limping away, his leg bloodied, after police threw as many as three flash bang grenades at his feet. "He's quite certain that they shot him on purpose," reports Brendan. At that point Brendan disconnected after reporting police "tackling some kid."
developing....