LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Black Lives Matter activists who have been camped
outside Los Angeles City Hall since early last month delivered a petition with
more than 8,000 signatures to Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office today to demand that
he fire police Chief Charlie Beck.
The activists were joined by the mother of a woman who died in a
detention cell earlier this year, actor Matt McGorry and representatives of the
Asian American, Latino and faith communities.
The delegation handed over two boxes of signatures, gathered through an
online petition at Color of Change, to Deputy Mayor Jeff Gorell, Garcetti’s
adviser on public safety issues.
Gorell said he will pass the signatures on to Garcetti, who has been out
of town for most of the 28 days that Black Lives Matter activists have staged
a sit-in outside City Hall. The sit-in began after the Police Commission upheld
the actions of officers involved in the fatal shooting of 30-year-old Redel
Jones, a black woman.
Over the past several weeks, Garcetti has attended the Democratic
National Convention in Philadelphia, taken a four-day vacation and is now
observing the Olympics in Rio as part of a delegation seeking to host the 2024
Olympics in Los Angeles.
Prior to leaving on his trips, Garcetti expressed strong support for
Beck. He said he offered to meet inside City Hall with a small delegation from
Black Lives Matter, while suggesting that he does not want to be met with
shouting. The activists have responded by calling for a public meeting with the
entire group.
Black Lives Matter member Jasmine Abdullah today characterized
Garcetti’s absence as part of a pattern that began when he appeared to “run
away from us” at other protests and encounters with the group.
Abdullah warned there will be “political consequences” if Garcetti
continues to ignore them.
“We are not sitting out here just to sit out here,” but are taking
actions such as circulating the online petition and amassing more support from
the community, she said.
“If you really care about this city like you say you do, and you want
to win in this next election, you better come home,” Abdullah said, directly
addressing Garcetti in what she jokingly described as a “love letter.”
She acknowledged that Garcetti has offered to meet with five of the
Black Lives Matter members in his office, but she such an arrangement puts
their group at a disadvantage.
“They are doing what they do best, which is divide and conquer, and try
to pick their leaders,” she said. “We decided he needs to come downstairs.
It’s all right, he can come downstairs, these are his stairs, and ours, he can
come talk to everybody as a whole.”
After being pursued from public event to public event by Black Lives
Matter members, and since being shouted down at a South Los Angeles town hall
by the group’s members, Garcetti has had minimal engagement with Black Lives
Matter members.
He has instead increased his interactions with other faith leaders,
nonprofit organizations, activists and even hip hop artists like The Game and
Snoop Dogg, often referring to these relationships as evidence black leaders
are working with his office and the Los Angeles Police Department to improve
policing and public safety.
Despite LAPD’s roll-out of community policing and other programs to
enhance relations with black and minority communities, Black Lives Matter
activists contend LAPD still has the highest number of police shootings of any
department in the country. They also allege Beck has been too lenient on
officers who have fatally shot residents, and is unresponsive to families
regarding the deaths of people in police custody.
Lisa Hines, the mother of Wakiesha Wilson, a 36-year-old black woman who
was found dead in her cell on Easter Sunday, spoke during the news conference
today about her experience trying to find her daughter after she failed to show
up for a court hearing.
Hines said the police department unnecessarily delayed telling her of
her daughter’s death, and that she had to make several phone calls to the LAPD
before she was given a phone number — without any further explanation — to
the coroner’s office.
“If this was your child and you were looking for her, and somebody gave
you a number to call … and when you do call the number, the coroner’s
office answers, what would be going on in your body mind and soul?” she said.
Hines said she is “still devastated” and has so far not gotten any
more information about how her daughter died, which she blames on Beck.
“He’s the leader of the police station, and all he can do at the Police
Commission meetings is sit there with a blank stare on his face when I’m
talking,” she said.
The Black Lives Matter activists’ demand for Beck to be fired was echoed
by representatives of other groups who also expressed dissatisfaction with
the chief.
McGorry, who stars in the Netflix show “Orange is the New Black” and
the ABC drama “How to Get Away With Murder,” said he was there “in
solidarity with White People 4 Black Lives,” a group of white people who
support the Black Lives Matter movement.
McGorry, noting that Black Lives Matter activists “have been camped out
here for nearly a month now and have been requesting a meeting,” said
Garcetti’s absence comes off as “incredibly disrespectful.”
He added he was recently “disgusted” by an encounter with an officer
who casually assured him that he shouldn’t “worry,” because “we beat him
up,” apparently referring to a person involved in a police incident in his
neighborhood.
“A police chief that has an environment that allows that to be OK, a
police community where that can thrive … is not okay,” McGorry said.
Audrey Kuo, from API for Black Lives, said, “We are rising in
solidarity with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and we are demanding that Eric
Garcetti fire Chief Beck.”
Black Lives Matter, outside City Hall for about a month, demands firing
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