Watch CBS News

Police Brutality Protest To Cause Rolling Closures Through Downtown LA

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Afternoon commuters were urged to avoid a stretch of downtown Los Angeles, where a rally and march to protest what activists decry as police brutality will be staged Thursday.

Los Angeles and New York are among dozens of cities that will be part of the 20th "National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation," according to activists.

About three dozen people gathered outside Los Angeles Police Department headquarters outside the Police Administration Building at 100 W. First Street for a march that was scheduled to end at Sixth and San Pedro streets.

LISTEN LIVE FOR KNX 1070 TRAFFIC UPDATES

The group says they chose the location near Skid Row because they claim more people have been killed there than anywhere else in the city.

One of the organizers of the march, Reverend Frank Wulf, pastor of the United University Church near USC, told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO he would like to see more dialogue between police and the community.

"They need to be meeting directly with people like the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and people like Black Lives Matter in order to talk about why it is that we've seen around this country, not just in Los Angeles but around this country, to continue to be having shootings of people by police, many of them unarmed," said Wulf.

There are expected to be rolling street closures between west First and west Seventh, and Spring and San Pedro streets, police said.

Activists plan to march to downtown sites "where people have been killed by police," according to Stop Mass Incarceration Network.

(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.