A Movement of Young Activists

May 30th, 2020 the Mayor of California ordered the police a stand-down order during the BLMLA marches. Scores of opportunists & masked armed looters took advantage, damaging commercial & personal property & engaging in open theft, vandalism, & violent destruction of property

My neighbors—all mostly helpless, narrowly escaped. The only one showing some courage to do something was knocked unconscious with a skateboard — he suffered trauma to the back of his head & was carried away. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of the situation until it was too late. I called the police & they told me to stay home. By the time I got there, I witnessed the break-ins around me that were bonkers in their scale & frequency that went on into late hours of the night, by the same criminals that looted my store & took everything — pure crime. Police were literally driving by as the jewelry store across the street was looted & my store was already completely robbed.

Police Chief Michael Moore kept hundreds of police in clustered units, doing nothing under Mayor Garcetti's 'stand-down order'. Cops were antagonizing protestors, while businesses in the vicinity were looted & burned literally two blocks away. I witnessed police squad vehicles driving past live crime scenes, ignoring looting. Why didn't the police go after the looters & leave the protests? Both sides, every time. The police aren't there for you. 'Protect & serve' is a lie. Special scorn should be given to LAPD Chief Michel Moore & Mayor Garcetti for serving up the entire heart of the city to thieves & arsonists.

The protesters were honoring Dr. Melina Abdullah, lead organizer of Black Lives Matter’s LA chapter (BLMLA), who led call & response chants of “disrupt white capitalism” a concept she believes is the root cause of police violence in America. Melina Abdullah, who is also a college professor, went on to drop a string of expletives that foreshadowed what was to come after the rally would end. “F*** the police,” she shouted into the megaphone. “F*** white capitalism. F*** The Grove. F*** 3rd & Fairfax. F*** Beverly Hills.”

By nightfall, stores at every shopping district Abdullah mentioned had been vandalized & looted, & several LAPD cruisers in the Fairfax District were set on fire. Abdullah’s 16-year-old daughter, Thandiwe Abdullah, also addressed rallygoers. She co-founded the Black Lives Matter Youth Vanguard & has been speaking at local protests for several years. In 2018, she was honored by Time Magazine as one of the most influential teens in the country.

“I know you want to cry, I know you want to tear some shit up,” Thandiwe said. “If you want to set some corporations on fire, you know what? I don’t care about Target burning. I don’t care that capitalism burns. I don’t care that white people in their f***ing office buildings are upset. I don’t care that you can’t go nowhere because you’re stuck in f***ing traffic. I don’t care that you can’t get to your job or your doctor’s appointment or to wherever the f*** you want to go.”

How it went down: A city permit was given to Black Lives Matter to hold an event at Pan Pacific Park on May 30th in the afternoon — a small park, not an event park — it looks crowded with 200 people in it. Whoever gave the permit should be fired — this was the first mistake that led to violence, theft, & hundreds of millions of dollars in damage for many miles. At Pan Pacific Park, Dr. Melina Abdullah, lead organizer of Black Lives Matter's LA chapter, led call & response chants of "disrupt white capitalism."

Before the event ended, Melina Abdullah shouted into a megaphone: "F*** the police! F*** white capitalism! F*** The Grove! F*** 3rd & Fairfax! F*** Beverly Hills! (The Daily Wire) — this was the 2nd mistake. Melina Abdullah was deliberately stoking a very large crowd into destructive action in the middle of the day as the event was ending. She knew exactly what she was doing.

Organizers ended the rally while it was still peaceful, acknowledging the situation could potentially become 'unsafe' for some people in attendance. A BLMLA leader said over the bullhorn. "The action is officially closed," he announced. "Whatever y'all do from here on out ain't my business." Tensions began to rise after the protesters began moving toward Beverly Hills & other areas. They were met by LAPD, which issued an 'unlawful assembly' order & instructed participants & onlookers to leave. The LA Times described the scene that developed as 'a tense standoff' with police shooting rubber bullets & striking demonstrators with batons.

At this point, putting too many people in too small an area, firing them up with angry rhetoric, then telling them to leave the park in the middle of the day left the police in an untenable position. Should they direct the large crowd one way or another? This crowd was amped. A total mess ensued. Many were driven North, to Melrose Avenue, only five blocks away, where the police would not go for four hours. Who's fault?

The next mistake was LAPD's strategy of handling what was inevitable. There would be parts of this crowd plus opportunistic rallygoers spreading out to tag, rob, & burn for many square miles.

All LAPD had to do was criss-cross and block critical streets with squad cars and bullhorns. It would have scattered the crowd. Wherever there were broken windows, put a car in front of it with police standing guard. It would have stopped all the fires and continuous looting that went on for hours.

Law enforcement officials, current and retired, criticized the LAPD response, saying it was riddled with flaws—from acquiescing to protesters gathering in huge numbers in a business district like Fairfax, to delaying two moves that would have increased manpower sooner—mobilizing the entire police force into action by canceling off-days and vacations, and calling in the National Guard—as they were given warning well-ahead of time.

Charles Sid Heal, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff's commander, said the LAPD decision to allow protesters access to an area like the Grove and Farmers Market was a miscalculation. Keeping crowds away from vulnerable areas is a vital part of crowd control, he said. "That means place sentries where you don't want them to go in advance." (LA Times)

“We were very deliberate in deciding to disrupt spaces of white affluence. We want to make sure that it's not just black people who are suffering at the hands of white supremacy, that if we can bring a little bit of the pain that we feel to white communities, then maybe they'll have a vested interest in ... & disrupting these systems that kill our people." — Melina Abdullah