200 March in Pre-Mother’s Day Protest Against Brutality, Gates

More than 200 protesters marched quietly through downtown Los Angeles and rallied loudly in front of police headquarters Saturday in an eve-of-Mother’s Day demonstration calling for the ouster of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.

Led by mothers dressed in black, the silent procession was escorted by police along Broadway to the Civic Center. It marked the latest in a series of protests against police brutality since the videotaped March 3 beating of Rodney G. King.

“I want to set the example with my son that we don’t just take what they dish out,” said Marian Thomas, speaking of her 17-month-old son. She boasted that the boy talked in complete sentences, then encouraged the boy: “Say ‘I’m not going to take it.’ ”

At Parker Center, the protesters rallied in front of a black marble memorial to 169 Los Angeles police officers killed while on duty. The protesters displayed names of more than 250 people they said had been unjustly killed or injured in encounters with law enforcement officers since 1978. Speakers described their own beatings at the hands of Los Angeles police officers.

Protesters--including some that raised signs complaining of a “Daryliction of Duty”--said Gates should be held accountable for a wide range of problems within the department. Several expressed outrage over the Los Angeles County Grand Jury’s decision not to indict officers who witnessed the beating of King, but did not strike him.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) led the crowd in chants of “Gates must go!” and voiced support for Police Commissioner Melanie Lomax, who has been criticized for providing commission documents to lawyers involved in the movement to oust Gates.