USA-POLICE/CALIFORNIA Protesters gather outside Los Angeles mayor's house over police shooting

Record ID: 150727

  • Title: USA-POLICE/CALIFORNIA Protesters gather outside Los Angeles mayor's house over police shooting
  • Date: 9th June 2015
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 8, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS IN FRONT OF LOS ANGELES MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI HOME VARIOUS OF SIGNS AND MEMORIALS IN FRONT OF HOME (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARCUS HIGGINS, DEMONSTRATOR FROM THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT, SAYING: "There are three demands that we have for the mayor. The first one is to fire Chief Beck. The s
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6JOWLIV729AYEET20G23HV8Y6
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: About a dozen demonstrators gathered outside the home of the Los Angeles mayor on Monday (June 8) to protest against an apparent preliminary decision to clear two police officers in the shooting death last year of an unarmed black man.
    The demonstrators said they planned to remain in front of the house until a Police Commission meeting on Tuesday, highlighting continued anger over the shooting death of 25-year-old Ezell Ford on Aug. 11, 2014.
    The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Police Chief Charlie Beck and an inspector general, who acts as an independent watchdog, determined that the two officers who shot Ford, one Asian and one Latino, were justified in doing so.
    Los Angeles police representatives declined to comment on the report, which cited unnamed sources. Police have said Ford tried to grab one officer's gun during a struggle.
    The preliminary finding from the police chief and the inspector general will be taken up on Tuesday by the Police Commission, which will make a final decision on whether the use of force was justified.
    Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement on Monday he had called Ford's mother and left a message to say his heart "goes out to her and her grieving family.
    Ford died two days after the fatal police shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, that triggered a wave of protests over use of force by authorities.
    The roughly dozen demonstrators from the Black Lives Matter movement set up their protest on Sunday outside the mayor's official residence, Getty House. By Monday they had posted signs on a gate near the residence and on a nearby tree, and set up a memorial for Ford with flowers and candles.
    "There are three demands that we have for the mayor," said protester Marcus Higgins.
    "The first one is to fire Chief Beck. The second one is reparations for the family, no matter what color, that they get reparations for the family that had been murdered because they were unarmed and got killed by their station, the Los Angeles Police Department. When I say that I mean all the stations because Chief Beck oversees all of them. The third one is that the private meeting that is going on tomorrow we don't want it private anymore. We want it open for everybody to see. That is the three demands that we have."
    Early on Monday, protesters blocked Garcetti's vehicle as he was leaving the residence, according to local television station KTLA. Police said the mayor eventually left in a different vehicle, the station reported.
    Garcetti went to Washington to meet with federal officials, according to his office.
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