Larchmont Chronicle SPECIAL SECTION
JULY 2020
SECTION ONE
8A
Melrose Mac counters devastation with uplifting mural painting party By Caroline Tracy On May 30, Sandy Nasseri, founder and owner of Melrose Mac, like many citizens concerned in the wake of George Floyd’s death, followed television coverage of the protest marches originating at Pan Pacific Park. As a business owner, she never thought to board up her already highly secured storefront at Melrose and Highland. However, by 6:30 p.m. that May 30 evening, she grew concerned, as protesters had mobilized far to the east and north of Pan Pacific Park — at Melrose Ave. and Poinsettia Place, mere blocks from Melrose Mac. “We have 36 security cameras on property — which includes a retail storefront, corporate offices and a lab — and what we began to see was horrifying.”
MEMORIAL MURAL to the late George P. Floyd Jr. was painted on the side of Cup Foods in Minneapolis, which is where Floyd allegedly presented a counterfeit $20 bill and outside of which he was restrained and killed by Minneapolis police officers. The mural artists are Xena Goldman, Greta McLain and Cadex Herrera, with contributions from artists Maria Javier, Rachel Breen, Niko Alexander, and Pablo Helm Hernandez. The words “I can breathe now” were suggested by an African American community member, Anjel Carpenter, and were added to the mural by an anonymous community member. Photo courtesy of @munshots from unsplash.com
Minneapolis killing sparks nationwide protests
n Generally peaceful marches in Los Angeles were marred in demonstrations’ early days by bands of criminals
By Larchmont Chronicle Staff A video of the brutal killing of a 46-year-old Black man by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25 sparked nationwide peaceful protest that was accompanied in some places by violent crime from riotous mobs vandalizing and looting, especially on the weekend of May 30 and 31. In the subsequent days of June, hundreds of thousands of concerned people have continued to march in numerous peaceful protests across the nation in support of Black lives. Say his name George Perry Floyd Jr. was a tall man, 6 feet 6 inches, who had moved from Houston to work in Minneapolis and who FAMILIES help neighborhood was recovering from the corobusinesses clean up the day fol- navirus at the time he was lowing local criminal rampages.
They watched the first breach on a live security trasmission (she was with her sister and husband, Sean Nasseri, co-owner of Melrose Mac, and their children). “We watched four guys approach and throw a huge geode crystal they had looted from a store on Melrose right through the window. There were chainsaws to cut through security bars — these were professionals. Ultimately, we took a big hit to the sales office side of our building, where the looters lit a fire and where our lab and demo gear was based.” City unprepared Nasseri is vocal about her disappointment with the police and the City of Los Angeles in general during this time. “We were calling the police for (Please turn to page 8F)
killed. Knowingly or unknowingly, Floyd allegedly presented a counterfeit $20 bill at Cup Foods, a neighborhood market in Minneapolis, on Memorial Day, May 25. Police were called. Floyd was arrested and brutally restrained, including by a police officer who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck on the ground for more than eight minutes while Floyd said he could not breathe. George Floyd died. That officer and the three officers in attendance or assisting have been arrested and criminally charged with various degrees of murder and aiding and abetting murder. The ensuing protest demonstrations have focused on that crime against George Floyd and on many other reported instances of racism in
policing and racism elsewhere throughout the country and the world. Protestors say they are trying to bring attention to systemic racism they say is prevalent in society and social institutions beyond what is within police departments. Local organizers and leaders of the protest marches in Los Angeles have included Black Lives Matter - Los Angeles. On the May 30-31 weekend, sometimes in close proximity to the vast majority of peaceful protestors, mostly unaffiliated mobs of criminals rioted and took advantage of the situation to vandalize property, break into commercial buildings, burglarize the contents, set arson fires, and in some instances physically assault people
trying to defend the property or objecting to the vandalism. Curfews Following the combination of peaceful protests and violent criminality on May 30 and 31, curfews were enacted throughout Los Angeles County for various times, even starting in the afternoon (for example, 1 p.m. on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills). Also, and just as happened during the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King verdict, the California National Guard was mobilized, and its presence was very visible in shopping districts around the county, including on Larchmont Boulevard. At some protest marches that started peacefully and (Please turn to page 8F)
JUNE 2, 2020 at Getty House, the official residence of the Mayor of Los Angeles in Windsor Square, where hundreds of Black Lives Matter protestors peacefully demonstrated on the sidewalks and in the street.