Like nearly all activists in L.A., we were either out in the streets, or glued to social media to see what was happening to protest the injustice of the Zimmerman verdict. The following are bits and pieces curated from social media. Normally, we'd be asking people to post, but right now the most efficient thing people have is posting from their mobile devices to social media.
The daily protests continued, enabled by social media and electronic communications. Demos got planned and executed rapidly, without permission from the police.
A few more reports from Sunday:
http://www.vice.com/read/lots-of-people-protested-for-trayvon-martin-in-los-angeles Hollywood Bl. Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBJmAtPZw9M Local social media users and activists stated that news reports were erroneous. Brad Blog called up the W Hotel about the rush on Sunday and reported that the LAPD and NBC4 lied about $15,000 of damage.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10128 Police presence was increased substantially compared to the weekend.
A Monday night event at Leimert Park was called by Project Islamic HOPE. It turned into a long party with dancing. There was a split at the end and a separate group of people took off to march in the streets. Some images of people jumping on cars and vandalism ended up splashed by the corporate media. This set the tone for further coverage that protests were violent. Some called it wilding and opportunistic vandalism. Yet of the 14 people arrested, most were for failure to disperse.
Monday video by Jasmyne Cannick
http://instagram.com/p/bz6FiCLwUB/ Vine video by Ruben Vives
https://vine.co/v/hZYmjaV3dFe https://vine.co/v/hZV9rLMnYPL From Ernesto Arce, on Monday night:
"The black community in Crenshaw was LIVID tonight. People cussed us out once they saw our media badges, and told us to leave their neighborhood. I didn't take it personal cause I understand most media folks parrot status quo racism. One young man who gave me perhaps the greatest interview I've ever conducted told me to tell Mayor Garcetti and Chief Beck and all the other "bourgeois suits" and media to go home and stop bringing World War III to their neighborhood. He said LAPD and other law enforcement instigated the unrest, as usual. Those on Degnan Blvd in Leimert Park Village say Trayvon Martin was denied justice in death and black men can't get any in life. They say they're sick and tired of racist media garbage, disrespectful portrayals of black folks, and 'outsiders' who have no respect for African-Americans.
I couldn't agree more. Of all the communities I cover, the black community is the most honest, the most real, the most righteously indignant, and the most beautiful of all."
Also on Monday were other local gatherings. I don't know all of them, but they were in Long Beach, called by the BSU at Cal State, in Santa Ana by Naui Huitzilopochtli. Elite Ambitions had a peace bike ride to Inglewood.
http://www.laprogressive.com/inglewood-trayvon-protests/ Tuesday was a dispersed bunch of events across the southland, including one at City Hall.
Santa Ana Tuesday by Naui
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdNSnH50UJg Wednesday was a march on Beverly Hills, taking the conflict to the heart of the capitalist beast.
Wilshire and Beverly Hills by Silicon Cheef
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgmEIY5h0gY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPa2TzzLr4E Tony B video on police escalation, Tuesday events, media
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l44W_hPGtyc Thursday was a Fun Run in Westwood, where activists committed civil disobedience by jogging in the street to make a point about how police force is used on poor people.
The Westwood Fun Run didn't use Facebook to announce the event. They used Pastebin. Activists take note - don't announce your protest on facebook if its legality is questionable.
http://pastebin.com/6Ab7L7Pd Santa Ana turned out to support justice for Trayvon Martin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_BaZAnCLtw Friday was a cooling down day with a "Reading In Protest" event at Leimert Park. I found no notes online, so if you have photos or notes, please post them.
Finally, on Friday, Obama finally addressed the verdict and the protests
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/07/19/president-obama-speaks-trayvon-martin A national day of action was scheduled for Saturday. If you have photos and reports, please post them.
Interesting Links
Dream Defenders Occupy Florida Gov. Scott's Office - youth in Florida taking action to pressure the government to change
http://youngist.org/post/55820400987/breaking-dream-defenders-occupy-florida-gov Full set of Beverly Hills event by Paulo Friere Lopez
https://www.facebook.com/paulofreirelopez/media_set?set=a.653302098033119.1073741845.100000600038249&type=1 LA Progressive has many articles worth reading, and here are a few
From Outrage to Action: Organizing Out of Black Trauma by Jamala Rogers
http://www.laprogressive.com/trayvon-outrage-to-action/ Facing Reality: Race Matters by Hector Villagra, ACLU
http://www.laprogressive.com/race-matters-in-america/ The Color Line in American Criminal Justice
http://www.laprogressive.com/race-american-criminal-justice/ The main hashtags being used for the protests seem to be:
#J4TMLA #justicefortrayvon #j4tm
