The killing of a 13-year-old boy by police in South Los Angeles has exposed unresolved tension between the black community and police in a city scarred twice in the last 40 years by riots. The shooting of Devin Brown at the end of a pre-dawn car chase on Feb. 6 triggered immediate outcry. Quickly, the word "riot" was in the air - in reaction on the street and from officials wondering if public anger would send the nation's second-largest city spiraling into a repeat of the violence of 1965 and 1992. Amid candles, flowers and balloons placed at the scene was a homemade sign that called the Los Angeles Police Department a "cancer" to the community. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, issued a statement saying her immediate reaction was, "Once again, the police in our community acts as judge, jury and executioner." Mayor James Hahn pushed Police Chief William Bratton to finish a revision of a moving-vehicle shooting policy begun a year ago, then got the city Police Commission to immediately approve it. Bratton also released preliminary investigative details to counter what he termed misinformation that was being deliberately spread. But with investigations by police, prosecutors and the FBI still incomplete, it is unknown whether the shooting will be ruled justifiable or not, and what the community's reaction will be. State Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represented much of the area as a city councilman from 1991-2002, said there was "nothing to be gained by predicting violence or by that eventuality presenting itself." "It would be a huge setback for this city if that were to take place." [more]
- Pictured above: A man who identified himself as General Maxwell shows a sign to LAPD officers driving past 83rd and Western.