skyspider

[skyspider]

03/13/2021

Part one

Los Angeles City Hall Park

We were still in the early stages of the Pandemic. It hadn’t hit LA but a friend in New York had died after a month’s struggle which she documented in videos of herself, trying to talk to us, her friends, as breathing became more and more of a struggle. Eventually the videos stopped and after the silence of a month we learned she was gone.

The anti-mask battles had already started, I remember seeing videos of people going into stores screaming at retail workers that their rights are being infringed on. It seemed like a crazy abberation to me. Why should wearing a flimsy paper or cloth mask be such a big deal. But it was, or it became the the icon to represent a myriad of other resentments.

In the photo above, there is a man named Derrick Gates, he’s running for Congress in California, seeking Ted Lieu’s seat. He spoke at the rally that day in support of recalling the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom. He was a convincing speaker, with empathy, which was in contrast to many of the other people I heard. He is of course far-right, and his goals couldn’t be further from mine. There were probably about 50 people at that rally at most. A mix of speakers who stood on the steps of LA City Hall — many of them talked about the tyranny of masks, that the Covid virus was not real, just a bio weapon created to control the population; but before I was able to hear any of the speakers, I had an unfortunate meeting with a cast of characters who would become well known to me in the next several months.

In the video below, there is a man named Roman Drake, the one holding the sign that says SUPER STRAIGHT , The others, are Aaron Simmons, Lucas Isturiz, Angie Chang, and Armen Rezz. There was also a man named Frederick Craig.

The photo above shows Aaron Simmons the moment before he smacks my camera lens and shoves me off balance because he didn’t want to be photographed ( at a rally) in a public park on the lawn of LA City hall.

Aaron Simmons, Armen Rezz, Roman Drake

Angie Chang

Frederick Craig on the Bullhorn

Lucas Isturiz and Angie Chang

After Aaron Simmons hit my camera people surrounded me to ask why I was taking photos. I’ve been a photographer since 2014 and documented dozens of protests and rallies. They told me that since I was wearing a mask they assumed I hadn’t come in good faith. They asked me to take off my mask if I wanted to stay and photograph the rally. I did.

They were selling merch. I bought a t-shirt and put it on over my own black shirt which they believed marked me as “ Antifa”.

City Hall Park is direction front of LAPD headquarters but there wasn’t a single cop in the park, so after being hit, then surrounded, I felt vulnerable. And I really wanted to photograph the rally.

One of the things that Lucas Isturiz, Angie Chang, Aaron Simmons and Armen Rezz kept asking me was “ Where’s Chad Loder.” “ Say hi to Chad Loder!”

I had no idea who they were talking about at the time.