Activists protesting Police Commission's ruling in fatal shooting draw small crowd in Westlake neighborhood

An hour into a protest near MacArthur Park objecting to Tuesday's Police Commission ruling, activists mostly from outside the neighborhood led a small crowd at 6th Street and Union Avenue.

They encouraged locals to hold up signs and chant along with them against what they called police brutality and racism. Many people in the area stopped to stare. Most just walked past.

"We're gonna have to do an Egypt on them, a Libya on them," said Bilal Ali, an organizer with Coalition L.A. "We need a new Police Commission."

Juan Quino stood quietly watching with a few friends. He hadn't heard about the commission's ruling, but remembers hearing the shots from his nearby apartment when 37-year-old Manuel Jamines, a Guatemalan native, was killed.

"I don't know many details, but I'm here to support them," Quino, also from Guatemala, said, pointing to the protesters surrounding a woman who was now yelling into a megaphone.

Earlier Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Department's oversight body ruled that Officer Frank Hernandez, a 13-year veteran assigned to a bicycle unit in the LAPD’s Rampart Division, acted within department rules when he fatally shot a knife-wielding Jamines last year in an encounter that triggered days of unrest.

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-- Esmeralda Bermudez in the Westlake District

Comments

[inmyopinion]

"activists mostly from outside the neighborhood".....nuh said, go home

[LstAnglrs]

Sadly, one huge possibility was overlooked. Did the Hernandez police shooting officer have any issues with Guatemalans since he is of Mexican descent?

Could that have been a factor in his easy trigger finger shooting of this apparently drunk, in-personal-crisis man?

The other officers didn't shoot so they didn't see the same threat. Thats telling.

I say this because knowing Spanish and looking "Mexican" I'm exposed to some serious inter-latino racism. Just the other day, just but a mere block away from where this occurred in Westlake, I overheard and found myself in the middle of some inter-latino racism and racist remarks about Guatemalans by several Mexicans. I couldn't believe it.

But many don't know about these issues that plague the Latino culture. Its like divide and conquer and some tyrants will take advantage of that. I think it was a racially motivated shooting and the evidence is weak from what I've seen.