Protesters return to downtown Los Angeles to decry police killing in Minneapolis
Downtown LA #DowntownLA
Black Lives Matter protesters swarm a CHP vehicle in front of LAPD headquarters Thursday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Protesters filled the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the second evening in a row Thursday, with demonstrators gathering outside Los Angeles Police Department headquarters to decry a black man’s death in police custody in Minneapolis.
The demonstration, organized by the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter, was on a smaller scale than the day before.
Some of the protesters briefly surrounded a California Highway Patrol vehicle, and at least one kicked the cruiser, but the car drove off before it was visibly damaged.
Anger over the killing of George Floyd, who died when a white Minneapolis police office knelt on his neck for several minutes, has flared in cities nationwide.
On Wednesday, demonstrators spilled onto the 101 Freeway downtown and blocked traffic in both directions. One man was injured after clambering atop a California Highway Patrol cruiser, which sped off as protesters bashed in the rear windshield.
On Thursday, a crowd gathered outside LAPD headquarters on 1st Street. Demonstrators had defaced the building with anti-police graffiti the previous night.
In response to the video of officers kneeling on Floyd’s neck, the Los Angeles Police Protective League’s Board of Directors said in a statement,` “What we saw in that video was inconsistent and contrary to everything we have been taught, not just as an academy recruit or a police officer, but as human beings. Reverence for life in every incident a police officer encounters must be the floor and not the ceiling.”
Long Beach Police Department Chief Robert G. Luna said in a statement released Thursday that the actions of the officers in the videotape “are directly in conflict with the oath we have taken to protect and serve, and also violate the public trust that we have worked so hard to build in our communities.”
City News Service contributed to this report.