Verdict protest in South Los Angeles begins peacefully

Scores of protesters gathered Tuesday evening in Leimert Park for another night of demonstrations against the acquittal of George Zimmerman, hoisting signs reading “Justice for Trayvon.”

Officials expressed hope that the event would remain calm in the aftermath of the mayhem that erupted along Crenshaw Boulevard on Monday night. As of early evening Tuesday, the Leimert Park protest was peaceful. Children were mingled in the crowds.

More than 50 people gathered to demonstrate as the evening wore on. Cherry Thomas, 27, a hairstylist from West Los Angeles who was born and raised in Leimert Park, said her two sons were her primary motivation for coming out to protest Tuesday night.

“I don’t want to see the future of our community doomed. If we don’t stand up, the little bit of rights we do have will be diminished,” Thomas said. She said the violence that followed the peaceful protest Monday stemmed from a lack of family discipline and hip-hop’s glorification of violence.

She was joined by her friend Jennifer Anderson, 31, an emergency room nurse who lives in West Los Angeles. Anderson called the Zimmerman verdict “an assault on common sense and humanity.”

“If it’s not racism, then what is it?” Anderson said of the verdict. She has no children, but said that when she does, “I don’t want them to feel scared, to feel like they can’t defend themselves if a man with a gun is coming after them.”

Police passed out green fliers that said the department recognizes the right to peaceably assemble, but that vandalism, violence, trespassing or interfering with traffic would prompt them to label the assembly “unlawful.” Scores of officers turned out in patrol cars, on horseback and on foot.

More than a dozen volunteers from the Professional Community Intervention Training Institute, a nonprofit group that trains former gang members to defuse violence, said they were also there to keep the peace.

“We’re just here to make sure the community is safe,” said Aquil Bashir, a training specialist with the group.

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