#BlackLivesMatter Activists Openly Discriminated Against by LAPD Police Commission

PM Beers
September 29, 2015

(ANTIMEDIA) Los Angeles, CA — The Los Angeles Police Commission (LAPC) recently approved new rules for public decorum at their weekly meetings. On September 15, new commission president Matthew Johnson stated he wants to listen to what the public has to say.

Moments later, he voted “yes” to new rules that would restrict public comments. Before that, Johnson ordered the removal of three members of Black LivesMatter (BLM) from the meeting for being what he described as “disruptive.”

Many people of all races “disrupted” this meeting, yet only black people were denied access to the meeting. A woman who had not submitted a comment card was speaking off-topic on an agenda item — and racist hate speech flowed from her mouth as outraged people began shouting from the audience. Activists speaking off topic — criticizing the LAPD — were interrupted by previous commission president Steve Soboroff and not allowed to speak off topic during prior meetings.

On September 22, the police commission continued their blatant targeting of members of Black Lives Matter. Los Angeles activists disrupted the meeting again, but this time it was standing up, shouting, and chanting. Melina Abdullah,Dawn Modkins, and Michael Johnson of BLM did not speak out of turn during this meeting. When a police officer tried to remove Dawn Modkins from the meeting, she refused to leave and moved several chairs away from the officer.

At this point, commission president Matthew Johnson ordered the room to be cleared. Everyone was instructed to wait in the lobby. Attendees were then told they would have to go back through security to re-enter the meeting. The three members of BLM who had purposefully not disrupted the meeting were told specifically they would not be allowed to re-enter. At one point, an LAPD officer announced no one else would be let back into the meeting. Most of the people waiting in the security line were black. Some people were allowed to return to the meeting, some were not. How a person conducted themselves in the meeting did not appear to be factor in that decision. Anti-Media was denied re-entry as well. It is interesting to note that police collaborator Najee Ali was allowed back into the meeting.

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