5th & Spring Downtown LA Chalk Walk Protest Draws Riot Police (VIDEO)

Riot police formed skirmish lines in the streets of downtown Los Angeles Thursday night in response to what appeared to be a demonstration over the right to draw with chalk.

The action, called Chalk Walk, was meant to protest a slew of arrests in the past month of people who were writing with chalk on the street. A Facebook page for the event, which showed 172 people planned to attend, decried the arrests and described them as "an attempt to stifle dissent." Event organizers also wrote: "We will chalk it out all over Art Walk letting people know about the dangers of chalking."

Cheryl Aichele, spokesperson for Occupy LA, told The Huffington Post that at first, the protest went smoothly.

"Everyone was peaceful. The tone was jovial for Art Walk," said Aichele. "I didn?t see anyone being violent or aggressive."

Around 8:40 p.m., police started receiving reports of a disturbance near 5th and Spring streets, close to the monthly Downtown LA Art Walk that attracts hundreds of residents to the neighborhood. About the same time, journalist Nancy Casanova, who happened to be downtown for the event, tweeted a photo of a woman on the street being arrested for "chalking."

After that arrest, tweeted Casanova, protestors began throwing objects at police.

At least one officer was injured, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Around 9 p.m., police issued a citywide tactical alert over the "unusual occurrence." Aerial footage showed officers forming skirmish lines throughout the neighborhood, and separating protestors from media and other onlookers.

By 11 p.m., CBS2's footage of the skirmish line revealed that the crowd was mostly dispersed.

Several people were arrested, said LAPD Officer Karen Rayner to HuffPost, although she couldn't confirm the exact number. When asked if drawing on the ground with chalk is illegal, Rayner said, "It's not vandalism because it's not permanent, but I don't really know."

Some chalk messages, written on sidewalks and buildings, conveyed anti-police phrases like "F*ck the police," "F*ck LAPD" and "Welcome to the police state." Broken bottles also littered Spring Street. The aftermath of the protest was eventually obscured by the still-ongoing Art Walk event and large crowds of barhoppers who frequent the area on Thursday evenings.

Charlie Shepard, who was in the area for Art Walk, told NBC4 that he was shot with a rubber bullet.

"I was walking down the street and I saw a group of people. I was just here for Art Walk, I didn?t know anything was gonna happen," Shepard said.

ABC7 reported via Twitter that the police also released pepper balls:

At the time of this writing, police couldn't confirm or deny the use of dispersal tactics on the crowd.

This story is developing...

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/13/5th-spring-downtown-la-chalk-protest_n_1670194.html

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