By Evelyn McDonnell, Contributor
Carson march for justice By Alex Witrago p. 4
Greed: It’s what’s for dinner By Leslie Belt p. 11
[See Rally, p. 2]
Remaking Justice By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
The murder of George Floyd was a feature, not a bug, in the eyes of a growing number of critics, activists and ordinary Americans who’ve now watched police respond to peaceful protests with hundreds of instances of violent attacks, carried out with reckless abandon for all the world to see. The long-held belief that police are synonymous with public safety simply doesn’t jibe with what the whole world is watching daily on TV and social media. In a Monmouth poll, 78% of respondents said protesters were either fully (57%) or partially (21%) justified in their anger — an unheard of level of support for any protests in U.S. history. “What people in the streets have won is a permanent, generational change to the mainstream view of policing,” Minneapolis City Council Member Steve Fletcher tweeted on June 2. “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace [See Justice, p. 8]
June 11 - 24, 2020
By Greggory Moore p. 10
for a call to vote for change in November (agreed). Instead of singing Lean On Me, Alright, We Shall Overcome, or even, I don’t know, This Land is Your Land, a woman wailed (beautifully) The Star-Spangled Banner — as if we were at a political convention, or a football game.
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n Saturday, June 6, San Pedro had its first large gathering in response to the protests that have swept the world since the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. There had been smaller protests, in front of the San Pedro police station and city hall, but that morning’s event was the first to draw several hundred people in a march from the police station to city hall, followed by speeches. It looked like a demonstration; there were “I Can’t Breathe” posters and chants of “No Justice! No Peace!” Some social media commentators called it a Black Lives Matter protest. But that activist organization was not involved in the event. Instead, it was organized by three unlikely bedfellows: The San Pedro chapter of the NAACP, the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Division, and the office of Los Angeles 15th District City Council Member Joe Buscaino. Organizers hailed this as a breakthrough alliance. But skeptics — and I am one — feared that this was not a breakthrough coalition, but a cooptation. First, the march was channeled onto empty roads where there was no chance to engage onlookers or passersby or generally make an impact, which is pretty much the point of a march. One of the participants was controversial LAPD Chief Michel Moore, who led his officers into violent confrontations with protesters in Los Angeles earlier in the week and at one point blamed those protesters for Floyd’s death. [He later had to walk that comment back.] Buscaino, a former cop, is against the cuts to the police department already agreed to by Mayor Eric Garcetti, let alone the foremost demand of Black Lives Matter: Defund police. Indeed, no concrete changes were demanded or offered at the rally, except
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Dr. Cheyenne Bryant, President of the San Pedro/Wilmington chapter of the NAACP, with Danielle Lumpkins who sang The Star Bangled Banner, top, community activist and president of the Muslim Democratic Club Najee Ali, right, City Councilman Joe Buscaino, left, LAPD Chief Michel Moore, far left, and march organizer Joseph Santiago, standing. Photo by Arturo GarciaAyala
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