Third in a series
Re “Ali Believes He Has Succeeded Because He Laid Out a Plan”
[img]2008|right|Mr. Ali||no_popup[/img]Admittedly, community/protest organizer Najee Ali was unable to hermetically seal, to a 100 percent degree, the sometimes-yahoo behavior of certain lunatics who turned up early last week at his Leimert Park demonstrations against the acquittal of George Zimmerman.
But the serious effort was there by Mr. Ali, and that was crucial. Afterward, no one blamed him for the lunatics.
A centerpiece to Mr. Ali’s demonstration was confined to sending a message rather than attracting hordes of offended persons.
“I was mindful of what happened 20 years ago after the verdicts came out about the Rodney King beating,” he said. “I wanted a central and safe place for people to gather.”
Mr. Ali began strategizing a week before the Florida jury made its decision that shook the world, “when we knew the closing arguments were going to be announced.
“I got on all the social media outlets, black radio, and I contacted City News Service, which sent out my announcement over their wire: The media knew that Leimert Park in South L.A. was going to be a focal point for demonstrations.”
When the demonstrations started later the same night the verdict in Sanford came down, a week ago Saturday, what was Mr. Ali’s message?
“No. 1, our message was going to be the same, regardless of the verdict. Had George Zimmerman been found guilty, we would not have had a celebration. It would have been to let people know we did achieve justice through our hard work.
“But the Trayvon Martin Movement does not stop there. We are going to continue to try and repeal the Stand Your Ground law in Florida.
“(As part of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network), we will be working with local elected officials to repeal the Stand our Ground laws in the 24 states that have them, and to see that no more Stand Your Ground laws are implemented,” Mr. Ali said.
“This is a growing movement that we will keep working on. That is our plan.”
Was it important to remain within certain (behavioral) guidelines so you did not clash with police?
“Very important. That is why our initial protests were so successful. There were no police confrontations with what we were doing. Police from the Southwest Division (of LAPD) observed what we were doing and let us get our message out to the community. That was important.”
But there was an ugly distraction.
(To be continued)
