Black Lives Matter Protests Outside Police Headquarters To Draw Attention To Deadly Cop Shootings
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The group Black Lives Matter held a protest at LAPD headquarters to call attention to deadly police shootings around the nation, most recently in Baton Rouge and outside Minneapolis.
CBS2's Jeff Nguyen said well over 100 people attended the peaceful protest.
The group formed a circle at LAPD headquarters -- many held signs that said "Black Lives Matter" and others held flags.
The group held the protest in conjunction with Brown Lives Matter.
The groups listened to various speakers who all wanted to focus attention on a series of deadly police confrontations.
The controversial incidents included Ferguson, Missouri (Michael Brown), Baltimore (Freddy Gray), Baton Rouge (Alton Sterling) and Minneapolis (Philando Castile.)
They were also protesting the deaths in the LA area of Odell Abrego (beaten to death) and Ezell Ford (shot).
Protesters began gathering around 5 p.m. with many chanting "Hands Up, Don't Shoot."
The protest was expected to last until about 7 p.m., Nguyen reported.
A member of Brown Lives Matter said they wanted to remain peaceful and non-violent.
"We are here to say we will do anything and everything possible," he said, "to stop them for killing our people. We are political organizations and we want to do things peacefully. However, we can only be non-violent when people are non-violent to us."
A black protester said that there was a lot more to be concerned about in America for black citizens than foreign-born terrorism.
"There is so much more terrorism against black and brown people today than ISIS could ever have done," he said, "In six months, already, there have been 500 people shot by the police."
"I've called the police in many instances," said Victoria Preciado who came to the protest from Inglewood with her husband and infant daughter. "They never show up. I'm a teacher, so my students have countless stories about different instances where police officers have harassed their family members themselves and so we're fed up. We're not taking it anymore."
Saturday evening, Nguyen reported from USC where another protest was being held. Hundreds more gathered there.
"Someone please tell me, what am I supposed to do?" said Maria Myles.
She said she drove all the way from Northridge to attend this peace rally.
"I cannot rest because my son doesn't live with me. He's on his own he's an adult. But I worry about him. I worry about his safety. I also worry about my husband's safety," she said.
USC student Mykaila Williams says she organized this demonstration because she wanted a place for black students to lean on one another -- on a campus where they are outnumbered.
"It's kind of tough because I run into circumstances in which people aren't willing to have a discourse in which we are exchanging knowledge. It's really more so them trying to get me to understand where they're coming from," Williams said.
