We are their bosses and not the other way around.”Ĭouncilmember Michelle Chambers added “ We want transparency from the Sheriff’s Department. For far too long the Sheriff’s Department has gone unchallenged regarding their accountability to the cities that pay them millions and millions of dollars each year. The sheriff tells us what the priorities are and it should be the other way around. “ In Compton, we’re not even allowed to dictate our own priorities as it relates to law enforcement. “ It’s time for the Sheriff’s Department to be accountable to the cities that contract their service,” said Mayor Brown. Over five-thousand Compton residents attend a protest against police brutality outside of the Compton courthouse on (Photo by Damion Lowe) ![]() They also want all of the patrol cars in Compton to have the city’s seal on them like in other cities the Sheriff’s services are contracted in. Other demands include requiring that a majority number of the Sheriff’s deputies assigned to Compton have a certain amount of years experience and that the Sheriff’s Department stops sending new deputies to Compton and using the city as on the job training. “ Since I pressed that record button, my life has been turned upside down,” said Asia Hall, the Compton resident who recorded the video.īoth she and Price say they have seen squad cars parked outside their homes and are in fear for their lives.Ĭompton Mayor Aja Brown and City Attorney Damon Brown sent a letter to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva outlining what they say are non-negotiable reform priorities.Īmong the demands made on behalf of the residents of Compton was that the deputies involved in the beating of Dalvin Price be immediately transferred out of the Compton Station while the investigation is pending. Last week, Price stood alongside his grandmother and the woman who caught the incident online and told the media about the harassment they’ve experienced since the video became public. ![]() They treated me like an animal, like I wasn’t a human being.” “ I was trying my best to comply with everything they were saying but I was still treated like I didn’t have any rights,” said Price at a press conference last week. Compton native Andre Spicer, also known as Hub City Dre, marches with residents against police brutality (Photo by Damion Lowe) ![]() County jail records show Price wasn’t booked until six hours later, on the morning of June 1. near the intersection of Rosecrans and Pearl Avenue. Price can be heard on the recording saying, “I’m on the ground,” as a third deputy joins and begins to strike Price’s right torso with his knee.ĭeputies broke several of Price’s ribs and then made him sit in a Sheriff’s patrol car for five hours after the incident, which happened around 11 p.m. The cellphone recording begins when Price has already been forced to the ground by two deputies. The victim turned out to be 24-year-old Dalvin Price who said that on May 31, he was just going home when the sheriff’s pulled him over. Just days after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers–a cellphone video surfaced on social media showing a Black man being beaten by Compton Sheriff’s deputies. Compton Mayor Aja Brown marches in Compton against police brutality (Photo by Damion Lowe)īut celebrities were outnumbered by Compton’s everyday citizens who are fed up with the lack of consequences faced by sheriff deputies who kill and victimize residents.Ĭommunity leaders, Compton Cowboy Randy Hook, gang interventionist David Cox, Sylvia Nunn Angel’s, Leroy Brown and hundreds from Compton’s community-based gang reduction and intervention initiative Compton Empowered all hit the street to join their community in calling for a change. He was joined by fellow Compton native DeMar DeRozan of the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets Russell Westbrooks. ![]() Among the marchers were Grammy award winner and Compton native Kendrick Lamar. Led by Mayor Aja Brown and Councilwoman Michelle Chambers, thousands walked the 1.3 miles between the Gateway Center and the Martin Luther King Jr. On June 7 over five thousand people participated in a march against police brutality–but to be more specific–Sheriff’s deputy brutality. Today Compton residents and elected leaders no longer look at the Sheriff’s Department as the answer, but more as the problem.
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