'Block Garcetti': Protests Over Mayor's Possible Biden Cabinet Selection Met With LAPD Beatings

Los Angeles residents, including children and the elderly, protesting the appointment of LA’s mayor to Joe Biden’s inaugural committee were met with beatings courtesy of the LAPD. They say it was self-defense.

Protesters have been demonstrating outside Mayor Eric Garcetti's house for almost two weeks over homelessness, transportation, and police brutality. The beatings quickly took off on social media and prompted condemnations from Calfornia politicians.

The protestors fear that Garcetti's presence on the inauguration committee signals the possibility of a cabinet position and argue the “failed mayor” would be a disastrous pick to head an agency like Housing and Urban Development.

Demonstrations have been ongoing outside of Garcetti’s residence since Nov. 23 over budget cuts to housing and social programs along with a lack of COVID-19 relief. There has been a police presence before, but until Sunday, there were apparently no reports of violence between police and protestors.

Protesters were told that police presence was necessary as threats had been made against Mayor Garcetti.

That changed on Dec. 6, when police advanced on the crowd. LAPD Captain Stacy Spell released a statement saying that the protestors had violated city code by using a bullhorn after repeated warnings, Fox News reports. Spell said that protesters had moved in on the four officers trying to make the arrest, prompting them to defend themselves with batons.

The unnamed bullhorn user disappeared, and no charges have been filed for the incident. Spell said that one officer bumped his head on the ground and may have a concussion, prompting an “officer needs help” call and the declaration that the protests were an unlawful gathering.

Video of the incident shows at least 9 officers advancing on the crowd and surrounding an elderly woman who had fallen on the ground as the crowd retreated. They lash out with batons, pulling a vested woman from the crowd and search her as residents shout, “There are children here!” and “You can’t advance on somebody and then tell them to back up!”

The woman who was arrested was identified as Jamie Penn, the Sub-District 3 representative for the Wilshire Center Koreatown Neighborhood Council. Officers said Penn had "forcefully attempted to remove the suspect who sounded the noise from police custody." She told the LA Times she had simply tried to help up the elderly protestor who had fallen and was held for around five hours before being released.

Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter L.A., told KTLA the officers had advanced “without cause.”

"I don't know how the person could have been arrested for attempting to intervene in an arrest when no one was arrested, no one was doing anything that was illegal or violent,” she said.

A protest that same day at the same location over COVID-19 stay-at-home orders saw zero police presence.