L.A. activists sentenced to probation for 2015 protest of police shootings

Two Los Angeles activists who were facing possible jail time for their roles in a downtown protest against police shootings that blocked a Metro rail line last year were sentenced to probation Wednesday morning.

Anthony Johnson, 58, and William Bannister, 44, were convicted of disorderly conduct and trespassing on a railway during a 2015 protest days after the police-involved killings of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Walter Scott in South Carolina.

Despite a city prosecutor’s call for them to serve time, Superior Court Judge Lynne Hobbs sentenced both men to two years’ probation. Both must also perform community labor, Hobbs ruled.

The men said they were wrongly convicted and blamed their arrests on the L.A. Police Department’s misinterpretation of a permit the group had for the 2015 protest.

“I’m not a criminal, despite what the jury decided,” Bannister said before he was sentenced. “I’m John Q. everybody else, who just wants to see something different.”

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Anthony Johnson and William Bannister were sentenced to two years’ probation for their roles in a 2015 Los Angeles protest against police shootings that was deemed unlawful. City prosecutors had sought jail time for each.

Deputy City Atty. Jennifer Waxler, who prosecuted the case, and a spokesman for the city attorney’s office declined to comment on the sentences.

The two men were among dozens arrested across the country on April 14, 2015, when people took to the streets in California and other states to protest a spate of police-involved killings of black men.

Charlie Keunang, a homeless man, was killed by police in March 2015 after struggling with several officers in a videotaped shooting on L.A.’s skid row that drew national outrage. One month later, video emerged of North Charleston, S.C., police Officer Michael Slager fatally shooting Scott in the back as he appeared to be running away.

Two days before the L.A. protest, Gray had died in Baltimore, touching off ugly demonstrations that evolved into riots across that city.

Fourteen people were arrested after demonstrators staged a “die-in” and lay on the Metro Blue Line tracks, blocking rush-hour traffic near Washington Boulevard, police said.

One of those arrested was a juvenile; the status of that case was unclear.

Three other defendants were convicted of blocking the tracks and disorderly conduct and were sentenced to two years’ probation and community labor or service, according to Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

Charges were dropped against three additional defendants after a jury acquitted them on disorderly conduct charges and could not reach verdicts on trespassing charges, Wilcox said. Five others pleaded no contest.

Ultimately, none of the defendants were sentenced to jail as a result of the arrests, Wilcox said.

More than two dozen people showed up in support of Bannister and Johnson. Many of them jeered Waxler as she tried to argue that Johnson’s previous arrests for unlawful protest were grounds for sentencing him to jail time for the 2015 incident.

Johnson, who had no prior convictions, told the judge he believed the charges were merely an attempt to squelch protests against perceived police brutality across the city.

“There was a necessity for anyone who cares about humanity to shine a spotlight on these murders,” Johnson said of the protests. “This is about the police continuing to hurt people, and people needing to stand up.”

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.

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