Dijon Kizzee Protest Leaders Accuse LA County Sheriff's Deputies Of Excessive Force
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Community activists accused Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies Friday of using excessive force when responding to protests over the death of Dijon Kizzee.
Kizzee had been riding a bicycle on Aug. 31 when he was stopped by police for a vehicle violation. He was shot and killed during the stop.
With emotions running high this year in the wake of the high-profile deaths of unarmed black people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, angry protests over Kizzee's death erupted immediately. People have been demonstrating in South LA since Kizzee's death, and some of them have erupted in violence.
But the violence has come from the sheriff's deputies, protest leaders alleged Friday.
"The weapons that the protesters have come with are words, signs, prayers, and sometimes bubbles. Yes, bubbles," Dee Barbadillo of the National Lawyer's Guild said. "And yet for four nights in a row, this community was subject to attack. Bean bag guns, rubber bullet guns. It's absolutely terrifying to feel the effect of pepper bullets being sprayed at you and then to immediately have that feeling followed up by a flashbang above your head…."
Several arrests have been made during the protests.
