Los Angeles, CA – Thousands of supporters from South LA, along with multiple political forces, continued to denounce the killing of 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) at a protest on September 12. Kizzee was shot 20 times by deputies from LASD’s South LA station for an alleged vehicle code violation that ended in a fatal altercation on August 31. Kizzee’s family called for murder charges against the sheriff deputies responsible for his death.

Organized by Coalition for Community Control of Police, Black Lives Matter-LA and several other organizations, the action started at the site where deputies shot and killed Kizzee. Protesters then marched through the neighborhood until arriving at a nearby intersection next to the sheriff's station. They were met with sheriffs in riot gear who blocked the main road of Imperial Highway with barricades and military vehicles.

Several families who have lost their sons to police killings denounced the LA County Sheriffs and LAPD. The groups called for prosecution of the police, the ousting of LA’s District Attorney Jackie Lacey, and voting Trump out in the 2020 November elections. Carlos Montes with Centro CSO spoke of the unity and solidarity that exists between the Blacks and Chicanos. He called for community control of the police and Black power, saying that once Black people are free, we will all be free!

Since the killing of Dijon Kizzee, actions at the South LA station have ranged from press conferences to protests. The South LA County South LA Sheriff's station has met these organized and spontaneous actions with violent repression and has shot teargas, rubber bullets and flashbangs at participants, including journalists and photographers. Participants have compared deputy repression to a warzone. In a few instances, the sheriffs declared the protests an unlawful assembly within five minutes, which they used as justification to instigate violence and ultimately ambush and arrest protesters for being present or “looking like protesters.” Sheriff press conferences have labeled protesters as “outside agitators'' to further divide and confuse the public on the actions occurring at the station.

#LACA #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #Antiracism #BlackLivesMatter #PoliceCrimes #California #BLM #DijonKizzee