'Zombie Takeover' to Protest Echo Park Gang Injunction Saturday

The Youth Justice Coalition on Saturday will hold a "zombie takeover" bicycle ride and Thriller-themed flash mob to protest the city's recent gang injunction in the Echo Park area.

The event will feature a bicycle "ride for freedom" followed by local youth and community leaders reinacting Michal Jackson's "Thriller" dressed as police turned into zombies.

Youth Justice Coalition's Kim McGill said that the "Thriller" flash mob will be a creative way for local youth to peacefully protest the city's gang injunction.

"The zombie theme was chosen by youth," McGill said. "Based on the increased police stops in the injunction zone, youth decided that the zombies should be police and the charcter originally protrayed as 'Michael Jackson's date' could be community youth attacked at the end by the zombies."

Following the flash mob, local leaders will speak against the gang injunction. McGill said organizers hope to promote other alternatives to gang injunctions including safe passage programs, utilizing interventionists in schools, job training, arts education and other justice programs.

"The Los Angeles City Attorney argued for, and rammed through, a permanent gang injunction without reaching out to community leaders who had met with him, without responding to a letter from more than 200 residents requesting that the injunction effort be halted, and without participating in a forum to hear concerns from the larger community," organizers said in a news release.

Saturday's activities begin at 2:30 p.m. with the bike ride and continue at 6 p.m. with the "Thriller" reenactment at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park Avenue. Video screenings and speeches will follow the flash mob from 6:30 until 8 p.m. in Echo Park, organizers said.

The bicycle ride will start at Echo Park, 1200 Colton Street, ride down Temple Street to Main Street and City Hall then end in front of the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office at 200 North Main Street.