By CHIE AKIBA
LOS ANGELES (CN) – In the trial over the violent break-up of the immigration rally, a camerawoman testified that a policeman knocked her camera off her shoulder and shoved her to the ground, and then turned against Fox TV reporter Christina Gonzalez. 
“The police officer threw her around like a rag doll,” the camerawoman said, “and Christina was yelling, ‘You can’t do this!’”
Camerawoman Patricia Ballaz resumed her testimony in the ongoing trial over the baton-swinging charge of the Los Angeles Police Department that sent demonstrators and journalists alike hurtling back and down to the ground.
Under direct examination from her lawyer, Browne Greene, Ballaz described May 1, 2007 at MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles as an ordinary scene and an ordinary news day. It was like any other work day, Ballaz said. People were picknicking and music was playing in the park.
But as reporters moved closer to the police, they saw people screaming and running in the other direction. Ballaz said she then saw a policeman hitting another news reporter. “He was just an average man doing nothing,” Ballaz said. “I had no idea why this was happening. It was like a war zone.”
She testified that after the beating she took from the LAPD, she had to have multiple sugeries on her hand, elbow and ankle and may still need more surgeries. Greene showed pictures of Ballaz’s hands and elbows that were taken after the surgery. The pictures showed distinct stitch marks on her hand and her arms.
“How painful is it to have surgery on your hand all the time?” Greene asked.
“It’s painful all the time … and you can’t do much except take pain pills,” Ballaz said. “I can’t, I can’t do much of anything.”
When Greene asked Ballaz what all these surgeries and physical obstacles mean to her, Ballaz answered, “It means the life I knew before is gone … I feel like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for me.”
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In this May 1, 2007 photo, Los Angeles Police Metro Division officers advance on a crowd during an immigration rally in MacArthur Park.