Tired of being attacked because of the color of their skin or because of where they live, activists in Los Angeles called for the elimination of the hiring – according to what they say is ‘excessive’ – of police officers. Sheriff and school police and that the money be used to improve communities.
The complaints exploded on Tuesday during the first anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, who died of a Minneapolis police officer.
On social media, dozens of students from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) spread the hashtag #PoliceFreeLAUSD with which they asked to the police leave the school grounds. In return, they asked to use the budget to invest in programs that help improve students.
Angeles Soriano, Alliance William & Carol High School graduate Ouchi from South Los Angeles said LAUSD students are tired of being attacked.
He added that it is unfair that African American students, who make up 8% of the student population, occupy the 26% of arrests for misdemeanors.
Most alarmingly, one in four students of color detainees are at the elementary level, indicated the study “ Policing Our Students ” by Million Dollar Hoods.
“We want the budget of $ 50 millions be spent on resources for Latino and African American students such as counselors, social workers and other things that help them and do not trauma them, ”said Soriano.
He added that his family has experienced the unjust arrest by the Los Angeles police in South Los Angeles.
“My brother of 15 years ago he was recently arrested while shopping for food. He was pushing a cart [de mandado] and the police stopped him to question him, ”he said. “We feel like they attack us just because of how we look.”
The School Police (LASPD) is an independent department that has more than 200 Sworn Police Officers, civilians serving LAUSD schools and surrounding areas.
It is the fifth largest police department in Los Angeles County and the fourteenth largest in California.
Real America News tried to get a reaction from the agency about this topic but at press time there was no response.
Students from across LAUSD – Hamilton, Dorsey, King Drew, Eagle Rock, Hawkins, Garfield, Roosevelt, LA High & others, organized a virtual action TODAY demanding a # PoliceFreeLAUSD !
Continue to show up to class using the zoom profile graphic & stay tuned for calls to action! https://t.co/He1Wrp3n 50 pic.twitter.com/v8FyLY0OlK
– #StudentsDeserve (@LA_StudentsDsrv) May 26, 2021
Movement against the Los Angeles Sheriff
The movement to stop funding the authorities also extended to the Los Angeles sheriff.
City activists said they are tired of authorities protecting the “capitalist-imperialist” system instead of protecting the masses.
Noche Díaz, activist and spokesperson for the Revolution Clubs group, said that Los Angeles County Sheriffs, like other police and military forces, only “serve and protect” their own benefits.
“Killings by the police have continued been ingrained in the entire system and cannot be reformed with fair policies or reintegration, “he said.
” We call on all those who are tired of seeing this and other injustices to join us to learn and be part of the projection that we are organizing now for a revolution in this country, to put an end to this entire system. ”
The group has planned a protest for the 12 June in front of the Westmont Sheriff’s Station in South Los Angeles. Díaz said that they chose this town specifically because these agents in particular are the “symbol of violence” that terrorizes and unjustly oppresses people.
The activist indicated that regardless ethnicity, killings against people by agents is a cause for outrage.
“Many times people face [esto] it is’ my oppression ‘and the other’ your oppression ‘… But everyone has to deal with the issue, it has to be done together “, said the activist.
Joe Veale, former member of the Black Panthers, said that when he participated in patrols against the police in the years 80 s there wasn’t a specific plan like there is now.
“Now we have a revolutionary club that there wasn’t before,” said Veale, who is an activist by National Get Organized for an Actual Revolution Tour.
“The system must be replaced with a security system that meets the needs of the people.”
Dio as an example that if a person has a crisis episode, the police cannot come with weapons to confront him but instead an expert arrives who can deal with the situation.
“People are now teaching that we can organize for a revolution and nothing less than that,” said the activist.
Specific
The protest against the sheriff will be on Saturday 12 June 2: 00 pm, starting from Los Angeles Southwest College on Imperial Avenue and walking to the sheriff’s station in the 550 W. Imperial Highway.