More than a dozen protesters disrupted a Los Angeles Police Commission Tuesday to speak out against officers involved in the fatal shooting of Ezell Ford a year ago Tuesday.
Los Angeles Police Commission President Steve Soboroff halted the meeting, citing disruption from members of Black Lives Matter and other activists in the audience during public comment.
The protesters refused to leave the board room for about 15 minutes during which they chanted “Justice for Ezell Ford,” with individual protesters verbally confronting a line of police officers at the front of the room.
One protester, 11-year-old Thandiwe Abdullah, addressed the officers, saying “I live in fear of you,” adding that she could be killed by “any one of you.”
The protesters eventually agreed to leave the meeting after an LAPD lieutenant declared the protest an “unlawful assembly,” but said they wanted to first deliver three “subpoenas” to Chief Charlie Beck and the two LAPD officers, Sharlton Wampler and Antonio Villegas, who were involved in the confrontation with the unarmed Ford.
Black Lives Matter member Anthony Ratcliff, one of the people who delivered the subpoenas, said activists demand that the officers and Beck attend a Nov. 14 “people’s liberation tribunal,” where members of the community will give testimony about their interactions with the police.
Beck and the officers were not at the meeting, but Commission Executive Director Richard Tefank said he would accept the subpoenas and give them over to the city attorney. Tefank said Beck was on vacation.
Black Lives Matter activist Melina Abdullah said they want Wampler and Villegas to be fired, saying that they should not be on active duty after the police commission concluded that one of the officers acted improperly when he shot Ford.
Ford, 25, was fatally shot by police Aug. 11, 2014, near 65th Street and Broadway.
—City News Service