'Tanks' in Westwood *

During an anti-war demonstration at the federal building in Westwood Tuesday night, two Marine armored vehicles lumbered up, stopped for a bit, then drove off. A post with video at la.indymedia.org set off a swirl of reaction at lefty websites outraged that "tanks" were deployed to intimidate protesters. According to witnesses and the video, however, the Marines in the Styker vehicles seemed as bemused as the protesters were angry. Commenter "Steve" at Indy Media checked into it this morning and wrote that the armed trucks had driven up the San Diego Freeway from Camp Pendleton to participate in today's Veterans Day parade in Westwood, exited at Wilshire, and became lost in the midst of the demonstration. They hung out for a few minutes then left, trying to get un-lost.

* Thursday: Today's CityBeat runs a brief (not online that I can find) confirming via the LAPD that the two armored personnel carriers were headed to the nearby National Guard armory. They took the wrong exit off the freeway, and when they stopped at the red light at Wilshire and Veteran were briefly surrounded by protesters. The cops interceded to clear the path and point the trucks back to the armory.