Protest over police acquittal in homeless beating case turns violent

A protest over the acquittal of two former California police officers in the beating death of a homeless man turned violent Saturday, with 13 arrests and the assault of a TV camerawoman, police said.

The protest against Monday's acquittal of two former Fullerton officers in the 2011 death of Kelly Thomas drew about 200 people, police Sgt. Jeff Stuart said.

He said most of the protesters were peaceful, but some took over intersections, blocked streets and vandalized business.

Video broadcast by KCBS-TV showed one person whose face was partially covered by a bandanna striking the camerawoman. She fled into her news van, and her crew called 911 when a group surrounded the vehicle, Stuart said.

The attack prompted police go declare the protest an unlawful assembly. Officers in riot gear came to disperse the crowd, and arrested at least 10 for not complying, Stuart said.

In addition, police arrested the assault suspect and two others for scrawling an obscenity and an anarchist symbol on police property.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Thomas' father thanked the demonstrators at a rally in front of the Fullerton Police Department. He said that without their protests in the summer of 2011, his son's case might not have ended up a trial at all.

"If you were here for 2011, for the protests," Ron Thomas said, "give yourself a hand. You are the people, you made this happen."

Thomas on Tuesday told Al Jazeera's America Tonight "the decision to literally acquit them on all charges is very shocking. At least a bare minimum excessive force, but they didn't even get that."

Kelly Thomas, 37, died five days after a violent confrontation with six officers in July 2011. A surveillance camera captured him screaming for his father and begging for air as the police kneed him, jolted him with an electric stun gun and used the blunt end to strike him around the face and head.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press