By Aaron Miller-
Relatives of the victims of deadly police shootings and about a hundred protesters joined the co-founder of Black Lives Matters in Los Angeles, Dr Mellina Abdullah, for a weekly protest to vote out Lacey, L.A.’s first Black D.A.
Abdullah- an academic and civic leader, has spearheaded weekly protests outside Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s office for the past three years, for her failure to prosecute officers who kill civilians—especially those of colour.
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The daughter of a union leader herself, Dr Abdullah has been an avid fighter of the BLM course, even before the movement was globally recognised in the last few months, following the death of George Floyd.
Her prominent credentials as professor and the chair of the department of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, sets her apart from many protest leaders.
Failure
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Abdullah wants to see Lacy, a 2020 election candidate, booted out for her failure to prosecute police officers who have unjustifiably killed black people over the decades. U.S police have an appalling history of using excessive brutal force on Afro Americans.
Standing in front of the Hall of Justice, Abdullah, told protestors, “What we can’t do is allow ourselves to be distracted. We have a purpose. Seven years ago when Black Lives Matter was birthed; it was birthed as a sacred calling; a sacred duty.
”We can’t pretend as if a revolutionary movement or a point in black freedom struggle is not going to be met by opposition. It will because we are trying to tear down the system of white supremacy.”
Speeches
The protest today began a little after 3 p.m. with a series of speeches from organizers as well as three relatives of police killing victims and the Black Lives Matter Youth Vanguard. Protesters surrounded a stage erected in front of the Hall of Justice’s steps. Law enforcement blocked off streets leading to the gathering, as chants of “f**k the police” and “Jackie Lacey must go” echoed among the protesters.
Diversion Program
The controversial DA is among the country’s first district attorneys to advocate diversion programs for mentally ill offenders and establishing a conviction review unit.
The 62-year old mother of two who is hoping to clinch a third term in office also stressed that she’d made attempts to meet with BLM representatives, telling a local news channel in an interview that she has “tried to reach out” to them several times to have discussions, but they declined.
Abdullah told The Eye of Media that Lacy was being dishonest, stressing that BLM representatives have pursued talks with Lacey for three years, but she repeatedly refused to engage with them.
“The reason she doesn’t want to meet with us is because she might get yelled at by some of these families,” said Abdullah. “They have a right to yell. That yelling does not compare the slightest to the murder of our people.”
Among the speakers at the rally was Helen Jones, the mother of John Horton who died in 2009 inside LA County jail, and whose severe injuries to his liver, kidney, and skull raised suspicions that he didn’t die by suicide as alleged by his jailers.
“Lacey should have talked to us a long time ago,” said Jones. “Now she’s crying because everybody knows what she’s about and that’s why she wants to talk. But we cannot let Jackie Lacey sit in this office no more.”
Hopes
Abdullah said she had high hopes when Lacey became district attorney in 2012 because she was the first woman and first African-American to serve as L.A. County District Attorney since the office was established in 1850.
But Abdullah’s hopes dwindled once it became apparent Lacey had turned a blind eye to police abuse and the unjust murders of African-Americans.
“We’ve always had skin folk who ain’t kinfolk,” said Abdullah. “White supremacy has always used faces who will prioritize their own individual advancement above what’s good for the community. We call those kind of folks sell outs. Jackie Lacey is one of those people,” she added. 
Dr Mellinah Abdullah
Defence
Lacey, however, is unwavering in the defence of her record as it relates to the prosecution of police officers. According to the D.A.’s office, police in L.A. County have shot and killed 342 people during her tenure.
“I’m like everyone else. I look at the news and see the number of people who are killed by police and I say to myself why is this happening, but as the top prosecutor, when I actually get the cases, there’s so much more to the story,” she said.
“The other part of the story is that the law is skewed heavily in favour of allowing officers to use deadly force if they feel their lives were in danger or if they feel someone else’s life is in danger and in the cases I have reviewed, it is difficult to overcome the presumption that the force was reasonable.”
Excuses
Activists reject Lacey’s excuses, and accuse her of taking a compromising stance instead of fighting for black victims of police brutality in Los Angelis. They say there are plenty examples of black examples of black victims of police brutality where cops had no good reason to feel threatened, and who have used deadly force.
Los Angeles DA : Jackie Lacy
Lacey’s handling of the case against Ed Buck-a Democratic Donor- drew this observation from activists Jasmyne Cannick and Nana Gyamfi in a July 2019 op-ed.
“Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s failure to charge Ed Buck for the deaths of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean was not because of a lack of evidence or probable cause. Her failure was a direct result of a lack of interest and political will. All of which was the reason that the sheriff’s department sought outside help from their federal counterparts to finally bring Buck to justice.”
To put it bluntly, says Abdullah, “Just because you’re black it doesn’t mean you’ll advocate on behalf of black people. Think of every person who has sold their soul for individual advancement: that’s Jackie Lacey.”
Frustration
One protester, Sydney Cane, told this organisation: ” the continuous protests are absolutely necessary to highlight the frustration of black people in the hands of evil cops in the U.S. Black lives matters (BLM) has been a much needed campaign because the lives of black people in America has been too cheap. It’s often a matter of life and death when black people in America are stopped by the police”.
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