First of two parts
[img]2008|right|Mr. Ali||no_popup[/img]Sitting with the noted community organizer Najee Ali this afternoon in his West Jefferson Boulevard office, talking about his current series of Trayvon Martin protests in Leimert Park, an insistent fresh-air feeling threaded through his conversation.
Attired in a mint green shirt, worn outside, and dark trousers, Mr. Ali was as serenely relaxed as a father of 10 enjoying a Sunday picnic in the woods with only his wife for company.
Entering his robustly mature phase a year after releasing his colorful autobiography, “Raising Hell,” Mr. Ali’s hard-fought calmness reflects the infectiously middle-aisle attitude that he has brought to the successful Justice for Trayvon protests he has organized the past four nights for the community of South Los Angeles.
Happily gone are the brutal old days of the early ‘90s and early ‘00s.
In those good-riddance times, he regularly clanged and clashed with law enforcement authorities.
Grievances of the black community were historic and topical, with a heavy, scuffing accent on notorious LAPD abuse.
Yet yesterday morning, there he was at a press conference he had called, standing proudly with an officer from Southwest Division.
These are new times.
Mr. Ali admits now that there are many good cops.
While his accusations against LAPD abusers were bullseyes, at times he applied too wide of a brush, he acknowledges. Unfairly, he tarred the entire department instead of concentrating on the specific offenders.
Not only was in the presence of a once odious uniformed cop, the former rivals were on the same side.
By numerous accounts, the Ali-organized protests in Leimert Park – closely scripted and supervised – effectively made their point with the nearer and distant communities.
For a night or four, Mr. Ali was a battle-tested Swiss watchmaker. The well-behaved Trayvon-committed crowds responded as if they were flawless timepieces.
Importantly, the LAPD, once a fierce enemy, not merely a rival, placidly stood by, as if they were observing an ancient Middle Western farmer shearing his sheep on a sweaty summer afternoon.
From years of organizing all manner of protests that routinely failed to receive favorable reviews, Mr. Ali showed this time he has learned well.
Nearly everything that has happened in Leimert Park under Mr. Ali’s aegis the last four evenings may be copied as a model for future protests.
He planned. He organized. Well in advance. Accustomed to having a crowd, he had written out a specific strategy – for scoring with the millions of Angelenos, black and otherwise who were not there, that a correctable injustice had been rendered.
Where were you Saturday night when the Zimmerman verdict broke?
“I was about to enter the mosque. Within seconds,” he said raising his slender cell phone with his right hand, “I received several text messages from friends concerning the not-guilty verdict.
“I immediately made my way to Leimert Park because I had already organized a plan to have a rally at the park, regardless of the verdict.”
When did you start planning? Would it have been different if the verdict had been different?
“The plan would not have been different. Either way, I wanted the community to gather in Leimert Park.
“No. 1, Leimert Park is the heart and soul of black L.A., the gathering point for the activist community. It is my headquarters. It didn’t matter what the verdict was. It was going to be our meeting place.
“Because of the disappointing verdict, I wanted to have a plan for the community to have safe space, a place where they could vent their anger, their frustration, their disappointment.
“We were not going to be destructive. We wanted this to turn into a constructive event.”
(To be continued)
