2 avoid jail in 2015 protest of police shootings
They are sentenced to probation for blocking the Metro Blue Line.
Two Los Angeles activists who were facing possible jail time for blocking a Metro rail line last year during a downtown protest against police shootings were sentenced to probation Wednesday.
Anthony Johnson, 58, and William Bannister, 44, were convicted of disorderly conduct and trespassing on a railway during the protest days after the police killing of Walter Scott in South Carolina.
Despite a city prosecutor’s call for them to serve time, Superior Court Judge Lynne Hobbs sentenced both men to two years’ probation. They must also perform community labor, Hobbs ruled.
The men said they were wrongly convicted and blamed their arrests on the L.A. Police Department’s misinterpretation of a permit the group had for the protest.
“I’m not a criminal despite what the jury decided,” Bannister said before he was sentenced. “I’m John Q. Everybody Else, who just wants to see something different.”
Deputy City Atty. Jennifer Waxler, who prosecuted the case, and a spokesman for the city attorney’s office declined to comment on the sentences.
The two men were among dozens arrested across the country on April 14, 2015, when people took to the streets to protest a spate of police-involved killings of black men.
Charly Keunang, a homeless man on L.A.’s skid row, was shot and killed by police in March 2015 after struggling with several officers — a videotaped incident that drew national outrage. One month later, video emerged of North Charleston, S.C., Police Officer Michael Slager fatally shooting Scott in the back as he appeared to be running away.
Fourteen people were arrested after demonstrators staged a “die-in” and lay on the Metro Blue Line tracks, blocking rush-hour traffic near Washington Boulevard, police said.
One of those arrested was a juvenile; the status of that case was unclear.
Three other defendants were convicted of blocking the tracks and disorderly conduct and were sentenced to two years’ probation and community labor or service, said Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.
Charges were dropped against three additional defendants after a jury acquitted them on disorderly conduct charges and could not reach verdicts on trespassing charges, Wilcox said. Five others pleaded no contest.
Ultimately, none of the defendants were sentenced to jail as a result of the arrests, Wilcox said.
More than two dozen people showed up in support of Bannister and Johnson. Many of them jeered Waxler as she tried to argue that Johnson’s previous arrests on suspicion of unlawful protest were grounds for sentencing him to jail time for the 2015 incident.
Johnson, who had no prior convictions, told the judge that he believed the charges were merely an attempt to squelch protests against perceived police brutality across the city.
“There was a necessity for anyone who cares about humanity to shine a spotlight on these murders,” Johnson said of the protests. “This is about the police continuing to hurt people, and people needing to stand up.”