Zinzun, Police Abuse Critic, Arrested at Anti-Castro Rally

The head of an organization estalished to combat police abuse was arrested in southwest Los Angeles on Sunday on suspicion of throwing a brick at anti-Castro protesters, police said.

Michael Zinzun, a former Black Panther who heads the Coalition Against Police Abuse, and another man were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the incident at the intersection of Adams and Hobart boulevards, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Dan Walliser.

Zinzun and two other men interrupted the anti-Castro rally, first by shouting at the 150 demonstrators and then by picking up bricks off the street and throwing them into the crowd at about 6 p.m., Walliser said.

Police were observing the rally because they were concerned that violence might break out between the protesters and another group of 150 people watching a pro-Castro film in a nearby building, the lieutenant said.

Zinzun, 43, of Pasadena and Wayne Henderson, 39, of Los Angeles were being held at the Southwest Division in lieu of $5,000 bail each.

“Zinzun would have hit this old lady with a brick if another guy hadn’t batted it out of the way,” Walliser said.

But an associate of Zinzun’s who refused to identify himself said Sunday in a telephone interview that Zinzun merely spoke to the anti-Castro protesters and was arrested because he is a vocal critic of police.

Zinzun has successfully sued police twice. In 1983, his organization was a plaintiff in the $1.8-million lawsuit that resulted in the dismantling of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Public Disorder Intelligence Division. Zinzun also agreed to a $1.2-million settlement with the Pasadena police over a 1986 incident that left him blind in one eye.

Last May, a Los Angeles jury awarded Zinzun $3.83 million in a high-profile defamation and civil rights lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and Asst. Police Chief Robert L. Vernon. But the case was overturned in July by a Los Angeles judge who found flaws in the case, but said he did not condone Vernon’s actions in using a police computer to obtain information that Zinzun says cost him a seat on the Pasadena Board of City Directors, now called the City Council.