LA Black Community Leaders Call for Restraint if Grandy Jury Doesn't Indict Darren Wilson

Black community leaders in Los Angeles called for restraint today if a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, decides not to indict a white police officer who fatally shot a black teenager, sparking months of protests.

Protests are expected in Los Angeles and elsewhere, especially if Officer Darren Wilson does not face criminal charges for the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb.

Pastor J. Edgar Boyd of First AME Church urged demonstrators to remain peaceful and law-abiding while expressing their feelings if there is no indictment in Missouri.

“It’s our First Amendment right to demonstrate peaceably, so we’ll do that,” Boyd said. “We’ll also organize ways for persons to express their discontent in a civil way.”

Multiple community groups have announced plans to rally at Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards on the afternoon the Ferguson grand jury decision is announced. It is unknown when a decision will be announced.

Boyd said the news that Missouri has already activated the National Guard and declared a state of emergency as a precaution leads him to believe that Wilson probably won’t be held to answer for Brown’s death.

“That decision reeks of the notion that (Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon) knows what the decision will be and it will not result in an indictment,” Boyd said. “I am appalled that such drastic measures are taken at this time. This action certainly has the potential of inflaming tensions in and around Ferguson and possibly in many other places across the country.”

Meanwhile, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, announced a three part “instant-response action plan” in the event Wilson is not charged.

The plan includes sending “peace monitors” into the Crenshaw District immediately following the Brown decision; the start of a nationwide petition campaign calling on outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for a “fast track” federal civil rights prosecution of Wilson; and a campaign in which black and Latino residents will discuss with police officers and officials ways to improve their interactions on the street.

“The instant-action response plan provides L.A. residents, activists and police and city officials a way to ensure calm in the city,” Hutchinson said. “And equally important, provides short- and long-range constructive and productive ways to insure that another Michael Brown tragedy does not occur in L.A. and other cities.”

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said department officials are working with St. Louis authorities in hopes of having some advance notice of a planned announcement so officers can be prepared. He also said the department has reached out to the black community to call for peaceful protests.

“We’ve done significant outreach in all our communities,” Beck said. “All our commands are ready to increase deployment if that is needed. We believe the outreach we have done will ensure that people are not only able to protest if they so desire, but will protest in a lawful matter.

“This is an issue that we are all concerned with, but I believe the relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department and the communities that are most concerned is very strong,” he said. “And we have made sure we have had discussions with leadership all over the city about what our position is and how we will support their lawful demonstration of either support or discontent with whatever the grand jury does.”

—City News Service

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