CRENSHAW : Concert Organizers: Incident Overblown

In the wake of a disturbance last weekend at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza during a concert that shut down a college festival, event organizers said police response and media coverage misrepresented a minor incident as a major disturbance.

“What you saw in the upper-level parking lot was peaceful and positive,” said Taylor Michaels, west coast regional manager for Spike’s Joint West, a promotional-merchandise shop owned by actor-director Spike Lee, which was a concert sponsor. “The media has a responsibility to accurately and fairly recount the news.”

Confusion ran rampant about 3:30 p.m. on May 22 during the “School Daze Summer Jam,” a musical event that began at noon. The crowd of about 4,000 began stampeding across the upper-level parking area and on through the plaza after some bursting balloons were apparently mistaken for gunshots.

The Police Department declared a tactical alert and dispatched 50 to 60 officers to evacuate the mall and its parking lot. The entire mall was closed about 4 p.m., cutting short a daylong celebration of college students that began with an 8:30 a.m. walkathon to benefit the United Negro College Fund.

Although there were some media reports of looting, violence and gang conflicts, police made no arrests and reported only one minor injury.

Michaels criticized news reports that characterized the event as a rap concert. She noted that the show included reggae, rhythm and blues and hip-hop performances, along with a fashion show and a step show by local fraternities and sororities.

Mall General Manager Glenn Clark said that no stores suffered structural damage or reported any loss of inventory. Robinson’s-May reported apprehending a youth who was trying to break a glass case to take some merchandise.

“There was just too many people for the police to handle,” said Sterling Crockett, manager of a Foot Locker shoe store.

The mall provided 18 security guards, Clark said. In addition, extra police officers were assigned to the mall’s police substation, and Spike’s Joint West hired about 25 guards.

Ollie Rasbury, co-owner of In the Mix recording studio, said that though she understood the management’s decision to cancel mall events the following day--including a singing competition the studio had planned--it was disappointing.

“I know these things are hard to predict, so I can’t really blame them for their decision,” she said. “There were some kids who took advantage of a situation to go kind of crazy.” The competition has not been rescheduled.

Rasbury’s partner, Charlene Powell, said the allowing the concert was a bad call. “There were just too many people here, thousands,” she said. “We didn’t have as much business because the kids’ cars in the lot kept regular customers away. And the merchants weren’t adequately informed or prepared for what might happen.”