Los Angeles residents rallied on Tuesday to protest Comcast’s bid to take over Time Warner Cable. The occasion was a key meeting of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on the merger.

An hour before the meeting, about 100 protesters gathered across the street armed with banners proclaiming “The Comcast-TWC Merger is Bad for California” and “Oppose the Megamerger!”

The takeover would give Comcast — one of the most hated companies in America — even more power over how we connect and communicate. At Tuesday’s protest, Arturo Carmona of Presente.org, the nation’s largest online Latino advocacy group, said that this deal is “perhaps the most dangerous merger we have seen in recent memory.”

The FCC and Justice Department will have the final say on the merger. But the deal would affect millions of people in California, and the CPUC vote could influence regulators in Washington, D.C.

Free Press teamed up with organizations including the Courage Campaign, California Common Cause, ColorOfChange.org, Consumers Union, the Greenlining Institute, the Media Alliance, Presente.org, The Utility Reform Network and the Writer’s Guild of America, West to spread the word about the hearing and galvanize people to take action.

“This merger is not about the consumers,” said protester Joe Stringer, a retiree. “These two companies want to merge so they can get more money. That’s what this is about.”

During the hearing, which was packed with protesters, the CPUC heard testimony from L.A residents, including small business owners and members of the creative community, on the proposed merger’s impact on the Internet.  “We have gotten an overwhelming response from consumers who are concerned,” said Michael McCauley of Consumers Union. More than 40 people opposing the merger spoke out before the meeting was cut off after two and a half hours.

The public largely opposes the merger, and public officials are beginning to concur. ColorOfChange.org submitted 8,000 petition signatures on Tuesday, bringing the total up to nearly 100,000 people urging the CPUC to reject the merger. Last week, CPUC Commissioner Mike Florio filed a proposal to deny the merger on the grounds that Comcast would have too much control over California’s Internet service market.

If the merger goes through, Comcast would serve over 80 percent of California residents, and would provide cable TV and high-speed Internet to over 2 million people in Southern California. The voices of L.A. residents are crucial at this point in the CPUC review. The CPUC previously recommended approval of the merger (with conditions), and Florio is the first commissioner to oppose that recommendation. The earliest the CPUC could vote on the merger is May 21, but Commissioner Carla J. Peterman indicated that there will likely be another hearing scheduled in the coming weeks, possibly delaying the vote.

If you agree that this awful merger shouldn’t happen, speak out now!

Tell Washington to stop the Comcast takeover.

Photo courtesy of Consumers Union