Downtown Los Angeles — When I heard from LAist that there would be a huge protest in Downtown LA, I decided to photograph the event. (Chris Lin joined my photojournalism endeavors, too.)

We joined the growing crowd at the LAUSD headquarters before streets were starting to get blocked off. Around 3:30pm, it got packed out. Finally, the bullhorn-equipped leaders led the crowd from the back of a flatbed truck, surrounded by huge speakers powered by a generator.

A sea of red moved down 4th street. Chanting, signs and music blared as the crowd moved toward Pershing Square. (I also saw a fellow Flickr photographer, Luke Gattuso.)

As we got closer, we saw that a huge crowd already formed. A stage was set, a row of news vans were parked, helicopters were hovering, and police/safety officials were everywhere.

Leslie Miller from ABC7 Eyewitness News was at the entrance of Pershing Square. I think they were having camera issues, plus one person was harassing her a bit.

I made my way through the crowd, trying to capture a few more photos before we took off. There were some stands mocking Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with pamphlets and forms to fill out. A lot of people were seated on steps and benches, looking tired and fed up.

We didn’t stay for too long at Pershing Square. I simply wanted to capture the massive crowd.

I hope something positive came from this.

View my photos from this event at Flickr

Update 1/30/2009 — If you were taking photos at this protest and you’re on Flickr, you can share them in the UTLA Flickr group. Otherwise, e-mail your best ones directly to UTLA. (via UTLA.net)