Thread: L.A. police appeal for calm after riots

L.A. police appeal for calm after riots sparked by officer shooting dead knife-wielding immigrant father

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:43 AM on 9th September 2010
Comments 18

Police in Los Angels are appealing for calm after a second night of rioting followed the fatal shooting of a drunken knife-wielding Guatemalan labourer by a veteran of the force.

Officers were forced to fire non-lethal weapons on Tuesday night as around 300 rioters gathered outside a downtown police station and pelted it with with eggs, rocks and bottles.There were 22 arrests and no injuries were reported.

There had been similar scenes the previous night when four people were arrested on suspicion of inciting a riot, after three officers were slightly injured by rioters who threw rocks and bottles.


Battle lines: Supporters of Manuel Jamines push a wheelie bin (top right) towards a police skirmish line near the scene of his shooting


Vigil: Supporters show their solidarity with a makeshift shrine for Manuel Jamines near the scene of his death

The rioting follows the death on Sunday afternoon of Manuel Jamines, 37, who was shot twice by a police officer near the city's MacArthur Park, a poor area packed with recent immigrants from Central America.
Police Chief Charlie Beck has vowed to conduct an exhaustive investigation into the killing, which began when someone flagged down three bicycle officers to tell them a man was threatening people with a knife.

According to Chief Beck, the officers told Jamines in Spanish and English to put down the weapon but instead he raised the knife above his head and lunged at veteran officer Officer Frank Hernandez.

Eyewitness accounts from six civilians, nine police and two fire fighters indicate Hernandez fired twice 'in immediate defence of life,' said Chief Beck.

'This was a very brief moment in time, just 40 seconds between first contact and the time of the shooting.'

Jamines, 37, died at the scene. The police station which has become the focus of the rioting is just two blocks from where Jamines was killed.


A woman with unknown injuries is placed in an ambulance, but police reported no injuries after Tuesday's riot

Police recovered a bloodied six-inch knife at the scene, but it is not yet known where the blood on the knife came from.
Beck has declared the department's Force Investigation Division will conduct a thorough and transparent inquiry and the three officers involved in the shooting have been temporarily reassigned during the investigation.

However, that has not satisfied the protesters.

'The officer who did this should be subject to discipline and a thorough investigation,' said Juan Flores, 39, a cook who knew Jamines.
'We want to know, is he on vacation or is he fired?'

Jamines had a wife and three children - ages 13, eight and six - in his hometown of Mazatenango, Guatemala, and arrived in the U.S. six years ago, finding work as a day labourer.


Flames: A fireman prepares to put out a bin fire lit by rioters

Jamines was drunk at the time of his shooting, but he wasn't dangerous according to his cousin Juan Jaminez.

'Killing a drunk isn't right,' said Juan Jaminez.

He described Jamines as a friendly, hard-working man who liked to drink on the weekends but wasn't violent.

Critics have said the officers should have used a non-lethal weapon to subdue Jamines, but Beck has pointed out the officer involved in the shooting didn't have a baton or stun gun with him.

In LA bicycle officers frequently do not carry the same selection of non-lethal weapons found in patrol cars for ease of mobility.

Not everyone in the Central American community agrees that the riots are the correct way to proceed though.


Civil unrest: Frightened residents watch as LAPD police tackle the rioters and, right, Rodney King, the black motorist whose beating by Los Angeles police officers sparked riots in 1992


LA riots: More than $1 billion of damages were caused as the city burned during the 1992 riot
'It's bad, what the police did, but what's worse is the silly stuff that people were doing here,' said Mexican housewife Juana Neri, 57, referring to Monday's violence.

'We are not in our country, and with the problems that Hispanic immigrants have these days, it's better not to cause problems.'
MacArthur Park is an evocative site in recent LA race relations because on May 1, 2007, it was the scene of a clash in which police pummelled immigration rights marchers and reporters with batons and shot rubber bullets into the crowd.

Dozens of protesters and journalists were injured. Police said it began with a group of 'agitators' outside the park throwing objects at officers.

LA is also still haunted by the 1992 LA Riots which were sparked by footage of black motorist Rodney King being violently beaten by three LAPD officers. Thousands of people were involved in the rioting, arson, looting and even murder that followed with damages running into $1 billion and a death toll of 53.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... ather.html

This reminds me of the last time I went to Nogales. I went once, it was so trashy and dirty I would never go back.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

This reminds me of the last time I went to Nogales. I went once, it was so trashy and dirty I would never go back.

Gotta love that razor wire around the Dollar Mart. Real nice neighborhood it looks like!!

It looks like some areas in Little Havana and most of Hialeah.

Damn what a DIRTY neighborhood! It's filthy! ALL illegal invaders and anchor babies! I have yet to see a neighborhood where these invaders infiltrate that does not look exactly like this!

Look at all the lawlessness! And you still don't believe these invaders would think twice about voting in our elections! There is not a single law these thugs respect in this country! This incident is indicative of that!

Now you can say they are Citizens No way in hell. Get them the Hell out Of our Country along with others. Joe, hurry up. We want someone who has Gut.s Sure in hell the gov. doesn't have the guts. From the look I would want to see the Birth Certificate first. That is a start. Come on you guys you have to be tough.

i hope the IA's come out in force and burn everything down ....

it's going to take a super event to wake people up ... i guess a few people dying everyweek isn't enough ...

This is from a newspaper in England and explains the situation in more detail than any NY newspaper has yet.