Six arrested during South L.A. protest against police brutality

Protests against police brutality in South L.A. led to six arrests Monday night, the same day riots broke out in Baltimore, after demonstrators refused to obey police orders to disperse, LAPD officials said.

The L.A. demonstrations involved up to 50 people and started outside the LAPD’s 77^th Division station on Broadway and ended blocks later at Broadway and Florence Avenue about 11 p.m., said Sgt. Rick Rodgers.

The civil rights protest was just one among many across the country as demonstrators in Baltimore protested the death of Freddie Gray, who was injured in police custody and ultimately died April 19.

The Los Angeles demonstrations weren’t far from where Ezell Ford, 25, was shot and killed by the LAPD last summer.

On Monday night, three men and three women were arrested--four for allegedly refusing to obey officers’ orders, one for failing to disperse and one attempting to free another person in custody, Rodgers said.

There were no reports of violence, police said.

The LAPD, meanwhile, remained on a so-called “Blue Alert” that requires officers to travel in pairs after Baltimore police warned law enforcement agencies across the country that they had gathered intelligence about a “credible threat” by the Black Guerilla family, Crips and Bloods to “take out” law enforcement officers.

Most Los Angeles police officers on patrol already ride with a partner, but the directive ensures that everyone does.

Demonstrators also gathered in Oakland holding signs that read “Rest in Power Freddie Gray,” KCBS reported. The California Highway Patrol blocked freeway intersections in case demonstrators attempted to walk onto the highway – a common occurrence with Bay Area protesters in the last six months of civil rights demonstrations over multiple fatal police shootings across the country involving black men.

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