East Oakland cookout funds second autopsy in LA Sheriff’s cover-up

Oakland, CA – On April 25, around 20 community members attended a cookout and rally at Arroyo Viejo Park in East Oakland. The gathering was organized by the Oakland Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression to raise funds for the second independent autopsy of Jalani Lovett, who died in custody at Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail in 2021.

Community members bonded at Arroyo Viejo Park over food, music and an educational program about police violence and deputy gangs in Los Angeles. Jalani Lovett and his mother lived in East Oakland for years before Jalani moved to LA to start his music career.

Lovett died under suspicious circumstances after being held in solitary confinement. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner labeled Lovett’s death as a drug overdose, despite his body showing severe signs of physical trauma that were omitted from the autopsy report.

Terry Lovett, Jalani’s mother, who has been fighting for a proper investigation into her son’s death for four years, stated, “Nobody should go to jail and lose their life. Jail is not a death sentence.” Terry believes a second autopsy could help her get the case reopened after it was dismissed for lack of evidence of foul play.

Xa’miel Thompson, treasurer of the Oakland Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, emphasized the cases of brutality in the jail, saying, “LA Men’s Central Jail is known for numerous white supremacist Sheriff Deputy gangs who engage in ritualistic torture and murder of Black and brown inmates.”

Jules Damey from Oakland Jericho, an organization fighting to free political prisoners, said, “This same system kills our comrades on the inside. They face countless human rights violations from brutality from guards, indefinite solitary confinement holds, having medical treatment withheld, and not being provided adequate nutrition.”

“We have to understand that the only way we are going to justice for our people in the jails and our streets is to build the struggle for community control of the police, a historic demand of the Black Liberation movement, of the Black Panther Party, and other oppressed people’s movements. We want LA Men’s Central Jail shut down until there is real accountability for the inhumane conditions, torture and deaths,” said Romaine Charite of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

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