Things turned out to be pretty peaceful over the weekend at a number of gatherings to protest the shootings in other states of black men by police.
A police spokeswoman had promised that there would be a “sufficient number of officers” in attendance at rallies Saturday in downtown and south Los Angeles aimed at denouncing the recent spate of fatal police shootings of black men. The officers were there, but the protests went off without significant difficulties.
Officer Rosario Herrera of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relation Section said authorities were aware of a noon rally and march at Florence and Normandie Avenues, but did not disclose if there would be any special policing efforts, only to comment that “we will have a sufficient number officers.”
A 5 p.m. rally, held under the banner Black and Brown Lives Matter, was expected to take place at LAPD Headquarters, 100 W. First St., under the organization of Union de Barrio-Los Angeles.
“We stand in solidarity with the people of Ferguson, Oakland, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, Fresno and all communities who have experienced police terror,” according to the group’s manifesto, on its Facebook page, which also mentions Omar Abrego and Ezell Ford, who died after separate confrontations with the LAPD in 2014.
—City News Service