Almost 2 weeks after 2 LASD deputies fatally shot #DijonKizzee protesters are meeting just yards from where he was killed in South LA. They’ll be marching soon. One organizer says: “We want the community to see us and feel us.”
Today follows week of nightly protests outside South LA sheriff’s station. @NLG_LosAngeles held press conference outside station Friday to share witness accounts of police brutality.
Deputies responded by closing in on the group, 1 grabbed a legal observer. IG: vishal.p.singh
Hundreds marching now for #DijonKizzee and #AnthonyWeber, a teen killed by sheriff’s deputies in 2018 in same neighborhood as Kizzee
Re: protesters. The LA County sheriff has been raising the “outside agitator” narrative. Says out-of-staters are inciting violence.
South LA resident Tiara Lucas watches marchers go by. She doesn’t care where they’re from:
“When you see an injustice, it strikes you to move.”
Tiara Lucas is a TSA agent whose mom lives right by where #DijonKizzee was shot in South LA.
She’s not satisfied with LASD. Says last year, she was sitting in a car outside the house with the window rolled down, when a deputy reached inside & unlocked it w/o explanation.
Marchers are on Imperial Highway. They can’t get close to the South LA station as on previous days.
Deputies in riot gear have cordoned off several blocks of Imperial, boxing out protesters who decide to hold a rally at Imperial & Normandie instead
Shaunta Whiting, a social work student from Torrance, was passing thru South LA when she saw a large deputy presence on Imperial hours before the marchers arrived—what she saw as intimidation. She went to her optometrist appt then drove back to protest w/signs she had in her car
Shaunta Whiting is heartened to see non-Black protesters coming from outside South LA to demonstrate. “because people in the community are afraid of the police.”
Scene outside the South LA sheriff station - Raymond & Imperial - behind a yellow barrier people are calling the slinky.
These siblings live w/mom & little brother in an apt across from the sheriff’s station in South LA, right in front of the nightly protests.
Dante, 13, says it’s not safe to play hide-n-seek anymore: “They (the deputies) see us running, they might think something suspicious.”
During the protests, the family has had deputies shine a light into their bathroom window as they peered out.
Dante, 13, has been hit with a chemical irritant. The fumes seeped into their place. “I felt like I was going to choke to death.”
The flash bangs and shooting projectiles are keeping Tia, 15, up on school nights but she’s more worried about Black boys her brothers age. (Mom notes she’s a straight-A student.)
Protesters still at Normandie and Imperial, with speakers calling for murder charges for the deputies who killed #DijonKizzee. No interaction with deputies blocking off Imperial.
Protesters for #DijonKizzee prepare to march back to 109th, where the day began. Dozens of deputies stay put on Imperial outside their station
Protesters for #DijonKizzee have just turned onto W. 109th Pl, headed back to his memorial.
“What do we want? Murder charges!”
Sequarier McCoy - Dijon Kizzee’s aunt...sister to his deceased mom -- was thankful for the turnout of hundreds of protesters today.
“We need people to come…These are our streets. They don’t belong to the sheriff.“
Dijon Kizzee’s aunt Sequarier McCoy shares her dream of creating a community garden filled with snap beans & bell peppers on the empty plot by where her nephew was chased down by deputies.
“Something was taken but still we want to give back.”
Sisters Evelyn and Veronica live up the street from the Sheriff’s station in South LA. They say they’re sleep-deprived from the noise of flash bangs and helicopters and that the chemical irritant used by deputies has wafted into the house they share.
The sisters wish protests would end by 7 or 8 p.m. so they could get some rest. But older sis Evelyn says her bigger problem rests with how Dijon Kizzee was killed.
“There’s no more trust with any law enforcement right now."
Ricardo Miranda, an artist from Pasadena, jokes he is an “outside agitator ”—which he calls a trope used to make people watching TV at home think the protests are “fake.”
He says he’s out on the streets in part for those who can’t make it like the elderly, those on probation
Sheriff Villaneuva blames out-of-staters for protests. This South LA resident is from NJ, says LA is full of transplants.
“Let’s pay attention to the fact that the Sheriff’s department doesn’t even live here..They’re the one’s who are coming in & terrorizing the neighborhoods”
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There's never been a complete list of the people of Japanese descent incarcerated during WWII.
So a team of scholars & volunteers scoured 10's of 1000's of historical documents to come up with all the names — a way to give them back their identities. laist.com/news/wwii-monu…
In news stories, we use the estimate "more than 120,000" when describing the number of Japanese Am's and nationals incarcerated during WWII.
The team has now confirmed 125,284 people by name. The list is printed in a 1,000-page book that will be @jamuseum for the next year.
The team thinks they've got the list 99.5% right but to get it to 100% they're asking survivors and descendants to offer any corrections/omissions.
Aside from the "Book of Names," there's a searchable database going live this weekend: ireizo.com.
Dr. John Cheng, the 52-yr-old man killed in the Laguna Woods shooting yesterday, had tried to disarm the gunman. Other parishioners were able to then hogtie the suspect. "W/o the actions of Dr. Chang, it is no doubt that there have been numerous additional victims in this crime."
OC Sheriff say it's believed the suspect David Chou "was upset about political tensions between China and Taiwan" when he attacked the Taiwanese American Presbyterian congregation in Laguna Woods on Sunday, killing 1 and wounding 5.
FBI has opened a federal hate crimes investigation into Laguna Woods shooting to determine what type of fed'l charges can be brought against David Chou b/c "we have discovered evidence that the individual was motivated by some type of hate."
Up until several years ago I didn't know one of the worst massacres of Chinese people happened in downtown LA.
So many times without knowing it, I've walked past spots where people were strung up and shot. Apparently, I wasn't alone. laist.com/news/la-histor…
LA's 1st Asian Am councilmember Mike Woo is part of a group trying to get a memorial built for victims of the 1871 massacre.
Hard to say where. The attacks played out across LA. But they started on Los Angeles Street, near El Pueblo. Only marker now is a sidewalk plaque.
On Oct. 24, 1871, there was a gunfight btw 2 Chinese men. A white rancher who entered the fray was shot dead. That led a mob to form around a building (no longer there) where many Chinese men were seeking refuge. They were shot at and dragged outside to be hung.
CA has $5.2 BILLION to give out in rent relief. You can get 100% of back rent paid from April 2020 thru this Sept if you've struggled financially bc of covid & are income-eligible.
Applying can be hard if you don't know English well. Here’s ways to make it easier:
If you text “rent” to 211211, you can get help figuring out if you qualify in one of 11 languages.
Aid is available to those who earn no more than 80 percent of the median income for their area. For a family of 4 in the LA area, that’s just under $95,000.
You can also call for interpreter help: 1-833-430-2122. It’s available for Vietnamese, Mandarin, Spanish, Korean, Tagalog and Cantonese.
San Gabriel Valley is coming out big tonight for the victims of the Atlanta shootings. I’d estimate 1000+ btw 2 vigils.
People feeling the loss hard in this swath of LA Cty, which has 1 of the country’s largest concentrations of Asian residents. 10 cities have Asian majorities.
Leaders from these Asian-majority cities - Arcadia, Rosemead -- kick off a vigil in downtown San Gabriel.
Emotions run strong.
San Gabriel’s mayor Chin Ho Liao shouts “We have to stop the hate! We are Americans!”
Crowd in San Gabriel is older, more immigrant (I hear Mandarin and Cantonese being spoken) than those attending another vigil happening next door in Alhambra.
That one is being put on a 22 yo first-time organizer Betty Hang. Will come back to hers.