I’m very grateful for the lack of greater violence during the eviction by LAPD of the Occupy LA protestors last week. It was an amazing news assignment.
Not one I would have chosen, but one that I’m glad to have been involved with. With a pregnant daughter on her last night in town, I would have been just as happy to skip the riot and been at home.
My total hours for the day clocked somewhere around twenty-three. Yeah, I know, ka-ching!
The only reason I wound up with so much overtime is that a lot of us were on the clock from early in the AM to cover the Conrad Murray sentencing.
If you were on that assignment, you got moved two blocks over from the criminal courts building to the LAPD headquarters directly across from the South lawn of City Hall.
Just a stone’s throw from the middle of any potential mayhem.
Considering past protests (hi, Carl Stein), mayhem affecting me personally didn’t seem far enough outside the realm of possibility.
I’d been running the satellite truck and didn’t get pulled for any camera or ground crew assignment. It made me feel a little sidelined, but there’s always that bittersweet feeling when you might be avoiding getting hit in the head with a baton or have crap (figuratively and literally) hurled at you.
I did manage to snap a couple of still shots from the middle of the OLA encampment.
Not my best shots, but I’d left the big camera at home in the hopes my new smaller camera would be a suitable replacement.
It wasn’t.
Then again, I’m just glad I had any sort of still camera with me. Can’t say I’d trust my memory to recall the smaller details of the night.
Things moved slowly for the most part. I was able to do some actual camera work from an overhead perch that I’m really better off saying less about.
My fellow Photogs probably still feel that I got off with an easy assignment compared to the crews who were live with handheld shots for several hours.
I think we were all potentially exposed to the dangers of the situation.
As grueling as things were for everyone that night. By the time the sun came up the next morning, we were probably all just thankful that it never got worse than it did.
I’m still recovering from the week, but as always, I’m looking forward to the next big thing.
