KTLA

L.A. youth group demands defunding police, other reforms during protest

Demonstrators gather at a rally outside the Reagan State Building Friday in downtown Los Angeles in June 2020 to advocate for the removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus outside the State Capitol in Sacramento. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)

A youth-led group of hundreds of protesters rallied Friday afternoon outside Los Angeles City Hall as demonstrations continue amid a widening national debate about police brutality and racial injustice in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

The demonstration, sponsored by the Youth Justice Coalition, was billed as a march, rally and open mic for families and youth “impacted by state violence,” according to a flier.

In a social media post advertising the event, the coalition called for taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the budgets of city and county law enforcement and prosecutorial and probation agencies and redirecting them to fund youth centers, jobs and the establishment of comprehensive youth development departments.

As the event got underway, posters with faces of Black victims lined the metal blockades in front of City Hall. Black Lives Matters graffiti and messages of “Defund the police” were peppered across the building’s concrete exterior.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.