Centro CSO protests LAPD’s National Night Out

Los Angeles, CA – A dozen local activists disrupted a National Night Out event held at Boyle Heights’ Hollenbeck Police Station on Tuesday, August 6. The determined Chicano activists are part of Centro CSO, a local grassroots organization that mobilized to disrupt LAPD’S propaganda event. Centro CSO demanded accountability and to “jail killer cops.”

Organizers brought banners, chanted and marched the streets in protest of the “peace march”

organized by the Los Angeles Police Department. The protesters were declaring that there can be “No peace without justice!” The police program was disrupted, the protesters did not let the captain from LAPD Hollenbeck station give his speech, as they yelled out the names of Chicanos murdered by officers from Hollenbeck station.

The yearly National Night Out propaganda event is organized by police departments all across the United States in an attempt to wash the blood off their hands, but Centro CSO was there to make sure that the police department knew that their crimes will not be forgiven, and that accountability is needed!

Protesters waited at the end of the march with a banner reading “LAPD, stop killing brown and Black people!” and “Jail killer cops!” Activists were vocal in uplifting the names of Christian Escobedo, Jesse Romero, Jose Mendez and Omar Gonzalez, who were all murdered by LAPD officers that work out of the Hollenbeck Police Station.

They also called out officers of Hollenbeck Police Station who have murdered Chicanos, such as Eden Medina, who murdered both Omar Gonzalez and Jesse Romero within the span of 12 days around this time of year in 2016.

Although most of the Night Out attendees were supportive of the protest and saw the contradiction of LAPD holding a “peace march” while they continue to murder Chicanos – some of the pro-police people in the audience became violent and aggressive. The protesters were able to keep each other safe.

“There can be no peace without justice. The audacity for LAPD Hollenbeck Station to hold a ‘peace march’ while they continue to murder and harass Chicanos without accountability is something we can’t have,” said Gabriel Quiroz Jr, an organizer with Centro CSO and one of the chairs of the Police Accountability Campaign within Centro CSO. “We have to stand up and fight back.”

To join Centro CSO in the fight against police brutality and oppression, reach out to them at centrocso@gmail.com or follow them on social media to stay updated: “Centro CSO” on all platforms.

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