Los Angeles City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson attended Black Lives Matter protests on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He said he was happy to be able to talk to police officers and protesters about what’s happening.
“These overhead shots are great, but it’s nothing like being on the ground, talking to people face to face,” he said. “I think what’s hard for the media to articulate, particularly if you’re shooting from a helicopter, is just the pain, anguish, despair, and disgust that has been laid bare in our streets over the past 72 hours. People have just hit their tipping point where they’re like, ‘Look if we don’t stand up now, when are we going to stand up?’”
Councilman Harris-Dawson said the time to stand up to police brutality in America is now.
“Our forebearers in this country threw a police riot because they didn’t want to pay the shipping and handling on a box of tea, and so who are we, with that legacy, to stand down and be silent watching events like we’ve watched over the past few weeks?” he asked.
The councilman is referring to the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer. Former officer Derek Chauvin pressed down on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes. Floyd told the officer he couldn’t breath and later died from asphyxiation. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Wednesday marks the seventh day of Black Lives Matter protests in Los Angeles. Many peaceful protests have been interrupted by looters and vandals, but Councilman Harris-Dawson isn’t concerned about the businesses that have been destroyed right now.
“What I like to tell people is the only thing that I’ve seen taken or destroyed that can’t be replaced is the lives of George Floyd and the hundreds of unarmed people that have been killed by police,” he said. “I guarantee you that whatever was in Nordstrom - give us a few weeks, we can get it to you. What I can’t get you is an interview with George Floyd, and so I think we’ve got to focus on that.”
The councilman said it’s too soon to discuss looting and vandalism since George Floyd’s death was just one week ago.
“I think it’s sacrilege to talk about broken windows and products when we haven’t even had a chance to bury the man,” he said. “I think our focus has got to be squarely on that, and I think it’s precisely because we take our focus off of that that people end up being so angry that they engage in very dangerous, very destructive antisocial behavior.”
Councilman Harris-Dawson said protesters won’t settle down until they see change and action.
“If the other officers in Minnesota were arrested and arrested quickly, I think that would help. If there was an arrest made in the Breonna Taylor case in Kentucky, that would help. And I think if our authorities in Los Angeles County announced some change in policy that guaranteed more transparency and more accountability for officers that we have here in our own backyard, I think that will go a long way,” he said.
Note: Charges of aiding and abetting a murder were brought against the other three Minneapolis officers on Wednesday.
While Councilman Harris-Dawson supports the Black Lives Matter protests, he’s relieved that there’s been no looting or vandalism in South L.A.
“South L.A. has made the sacrifices and taken the blows for the fight against police brutality and lack of accountability,” he said. “I think when you walk around and you see the graffiti and you see the businesses that sustained some of the most damage, and some of the iconic places that are symbols of wealth and success in this community, but they’re also symbols of the economic divide around people who have so much that they have lots and lots to spare and show off, and people who don’t have anything to lose.”
Neighborhoods that have suffered significant damage are Downtown L.A., the Fairfax District, Beverly Grove, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Van Nuys.
“People are going to areas that they believe the establishment values, and they’re avoiding areas that they believe the establishment doesn’t value,” he said.
Councilman Harris-Dawson said the protests that happened in South L.A. this weekend remained peaceful.
“One thing I like to point out to people is we had three protests in South L.A. on Friday and Saturday. There were never any problems at all of them. People worked with the cops. They coordinated. They got the street closures. They did their thing. They had 100 people, 50 people, 200 people. It went off fine,” he said. “I think there’s not the kind of anger toward South L.A. and South L.A.’s establishment as there is toward some of the places you’ve seen being focused on.”
Councilman Harris-Dawson doesn’t approve of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s decision to bring in the National Guard to help maintain order during the protests.
“Being out on the street, you see hundreds of people from folks in their 80s and 90s to folks in their teens and early 20s expressing problems with policing, and I just thought it was way off for a city for us to say, ‘Ok citizens, we hear you. Here are more police.’ I thought that was the opposite of what you should do.”
Instead, Councilman Harris-Dawson would have used more LAPD officers or asked citizens to volunteer to help keep the peace.
“I was particularly concerned about calling people into our city that aren’t from our city. If we need more forces, we’ve got 400 LAX officers, we’ve got 400 LAUSD officers who… the schools are closed,” he said. “We could have used our neighbors. We could have enlisted volunteers from our community. I just thought there was a better mobilization of forces than calling in armed guards to police citizens of this city.”
A little more than 16.19 percent of the city’s revenue is allocated to police, according to L.A.’s 2019-2020 budget summary. Councilman Harris-Dawson thinks LAPD should get less funding.
“I think we’ve got to look at police funding and how we prioritize that over and against other things. I think that deserves a very hard look,” he said.
On Wednesday, L.A. City Council President Herb J. Wesson announced that he and his colleagues introduced a motion to "reduce the operating budget of LAPD for the upcoming year
Councilman Harris-Dawson also wants police officers who are accused of wrongfully killing unarmed black men to be prosecuted.
“Even when our chief of police has called for one of his officers to be arrested, they haven’t been arrested,” he said. “And so I think we’ve got to put more pressure on the District Attorney’s office to actually follow through and prosecute. And don’t tell me that you’re going to lose the case. The prosecutor loses cases all the time, so the idea that that’s a reason not to bring charges, I think is erroneous. And I think the people in the street have demonstrated that they’ve had enough of it.”
At the end of the day, Councilman Harris-Dawson considers himself to be an activist.
“When you’re an activist, that means you do activist work wherever you are. So if I was a university professor, I’d be an activist professor. If I were in the media, I’d be an activist journalist. I happen to be an elected official, and I’m an activist elected official,” he said. “I do not at all accept the status quo. I operate inside the government as an agent of change to the status quo and happy to stand along other colleagues that do the same.”
Let Inside the Issues know your thoughts and watch Monday through Friday at 8 and 11 p.m. on Spectrum News 1.