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LOS ANGELES It's been nearly three years, and the protests outside Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey's office are only getting bigger.

What started as several hundred people gathered outside the Hall of Justice has swelled into the thousands as demonstrators call for the ouster of Lacey, the first Black district attorney in the nation's most populous county, for failing to prosecute police officers who kill civilians.

"We've tried everything with her," said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter-L.A. "We had a deep desire to have things be different."

Lacey, who is seeking a third term, fell shy during a March primary of getting enough votes to avoid a runoff in November. She will face off against former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascn, a longtime Los Angeles police commander who helped reshape the department following the Rampart corruption scandal of the late 1990s.

While Gascn is regarded as the reform candidate, Lacey is seen as the law-and-order pick. She has strong support from the law enforcement community, including the union representing Los Angeles police.

"Jackie Lacey is the only candidate we feel that will keep Los Angeles County safe while successfully being able to implement meaningful reform in the court system," said Dustin DeRollo, spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Protective League. "We have serious concerns about her opponent."

DeRollo cited Lacey's reputation as a district attorney who stands up for victims of crime. But Abdullah said that consideration does not extend to victims of police brutality.

"That's the general approach to victims of police violence," she said. "When you're killed by police, you're not considered a victim."

Abdullah said she had high hopes when Lacey became district attorney in 2012. She was not only the first Black person to become the county's top prosecutor but also the first woman.

"We tried to engage her in friendly ways for two years," Abdullah said. "We thought we could move forward, but the murders kept piling up."

According to a Los Angeles Times report tracking officer-involved killings throughout the county, more than 880 people have died at the hands of law enforcement officers since 2000. In almost every case the district attorney's office found a shooting justified or decided not to bring charges, The Associated Press reported.

Lacey was raised in Crenshaw, a majority-Black neighborhood in South Los Angeles. Her mother worked in a garment factory and her father for the city's lot cleaning division.

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Lacey attended law school at the University of Southern California and joined an entertainment law firm before moving to the Santa Monica city attorney's office. She joined the district attorney's office in 1986 and rose to second-in-command under Steve Cooley, who served three terms as district attorney from 2000 to 2012.

During her time in office Lacey has assembled specialty teams to handle environmental cases, sex trafficking crimes and child and elder abuse. She also created a unit that reviews claims of innocence by people convicted of felonies.

One thing she hasn't done, opponents say, is protect people who suffer abuse or die at the hands of law enforcement officers.

"Just on the assumption that she's Black and she's a woman, I assumed that she'd care about issues that impact our community the most," said Los Angeles resident LaTangia Oliver, who attended a protest outside Lacey's office this month. "It's about just the charges not saying you'll be successful, but just bring up the charges."

Lacey first became a target for Black Lives Matter-L.A. in 2014 after the shooting death of Ezell Ford, 25, by Los Angeles police. Officials said Ford tackled an officer to the ground and reached for his gun. He was shot during the scuffle. Ford's loved ones said he suffered from a mental health disorder and was not committing a crime when he was stopped.

Ford's family settled a wrongful death lawsuit after Lacey's office declined to prosecute the officers involved because physical evidence corroborated their account that Ford posed "an immediate threat" to police.

Following Ford's death, Abdullah and other Black Lives Matter-L.A. organizers requested a meeting with Lacey. Abdullah said she left the meeting hopeful that the district attorney's office would continue looking into officer-involved shootings and that it would evaluate them fairly. But as more people died during police encounters, the relationship soured, Abdullah said.

Lacey has refused to meet with Black Live Matter-L.A. organizers over the years, Abdullah said, a claim the district attorney denies.

"Throughout my time as DA, I have always been more than willing to sit down and have an open dialogue with the Black Lives Matter Organization," Lacey said in an email. "As an African American woman, and lifelong Democrat I have consistently pursued criminal justice reform and I strongly feel that BLM can play a very meaningful role in this debate. Unfortunately, in recent times the organization has rejected my offers to have constructive conversations."

Despite her contentious relationship with organizers, Lacey has been endorsed by top lawmakers, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and several Los Angeles County supervisors.

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But many of the endorsements came in before protests erupted throughout the country after George Floyd's death in Minneapolis police custody, and support for Lacey appears to be waning. U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who represents Burbank, withdrew his endorsement Saturday.

"This is a rare time in our nation's history," Schiff tweeted. "We have a responsibility to make profound changes to end systemic racism & reform criminal justice."

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appeared to walk back his support for Lacey this month, saying in an interview that aired on NBC Los Angeles that it may be time for a change. Garcetti's father, Gil Garcetti, was a two-term district attorney.

Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and co-author of a sweeping police reform bill, said Tuesday that it's past time for police officers to be held accountable when they brutalize civilians.

"For years our communities have watched, officer after officer, no charges be brought," she said during a criminal justice reform panel with Garcetti and other mayors. "That has led to the explosion that is happening in all of our cities now."

Lacey defended her record, saying in a statement that she is "proud" of "taking on systemic racism and reforming criminal justice, from bail reform to reducing juvenile cases by nearly 50 percent to increasing our office's focus on mental health treatment instead of incarceration."

Gascn, who immigrated to Los Angeles from Cuba as a teenager, picked up an endorsement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who called him a "national leader in criminal justice reform and a powerful advocate for rethinking our approach to public safety and ending mass incarceration."

Gascn said Lacey's fractured relationship with communities of color has compromised the district attorney's office.

"When you break the social contract by looking the other way, you lose the moral authority," he said. "Then you see what you're seeing now, calls to defund the police and not wanting them in your community."

Black Lives Matter-L.A. doesn't endorse candidates, but Abdullah said recent interactions with Gascn were much more favorable than her contentious relationship with Lacey, whose husband pulled a gun on protesters in March.

It's the role of the people to hold elected officials responsible, Abdullah said. "It's not personal. It just is what it is."

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Why Black Lives Matter-L.A. is trying to take down the county's first Black DA - NBC News

Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and other protest groups are asking a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order and injunction to forbid the Los Angeles Police Department from using baton strikes and rubber bullets to control crowds during future protests, arguing that such use violates demonstrators constitutional rights and has caused a plethora of injuries.

With protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police bringing calls to end police brutality, lawyers for the protesters on Wednesday asked a federal judge to end LAPD practices that they say have fallen short of their constitutional duties.

The LAPD has used so-called rubber bullets and batons indiscriminately to disrupt and disperse protesters with many serious injuries resulting, attorney Paul Hoffman wrote on behalf of BLM-L.A. and more than a dozen protesters injured by police officers. The images of baton-wielding LAPD officers and protesters injuries unacceptably increase the cost of public participation in these important exercises of First Amendment rights.

The injunction effort comes as part of a class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month by the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Black Lives Matter and Los Angeles Community Action Network, which accuses the LAPD of repeatedly misapplying the law to clear the streets. The lawsuit says demonstrators constitutional rights were violated and many were left bloodied and bruised.

The filing by veteran civil rights attorneys on behalf of protesters echoes many of the findings of a Times review of dozens of instances of police force during the recent protests. That investigation found that demonstrators suffered a range of injuries at the hands of the LAPD, from minor bruising from baton strikes and falls as police skirmish lines advanced, to serious injuries to their genitals and heads from foam and sponge bullets and beanbags being fired into crowds, sometimes from close range.

In court documents filed Wednesday, recent UCLA graduate Tina Crnko described how shortly after LAPD Chief Michel Moore, clad in riot gear, used a weak bullhorn to address protesters at 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue on May 30, advancing officers fired foam projectiles.

She said she was struck in the left bicep and rib cage. And without warning, she said, she was struck by a rubber bullet on the forehead above my right eye, causing temporary deafness, profuse bleeding from her forehead and likely sustained permanent nerve damage on the top of her skull.

Lawyers for BLM-L.A. and protesters also argue that the LAPD manipulated ever-changing curfews and improper declarations of unlawful assemblies in order to suppress marchers constitutional rights.

That resulted in thousands of arrests with arrestees packed into unventilated buses for as long as 12 hours with over-tight handcuffs. The lawyers are requesting that those cited at protests be released within 15 minutes and those booked for a misdemeanor spend no more than an hour in custody, given the availability of mobile booking technology.

They are also asking that protesters held on buses be in conditions that meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus, with masks and adequate social distancing.

Deon Jones said he suffered two broken bones in his face after being hit by a projectile fired by an LAPD officer during a protest this month.

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The lawyers argue that anyone subject to such a warlike display of police weaponry would think twice about coming to engage in First Amendment activity.

The LAPD has limited how police use force during the nearly 20 years since the infamous Rodney King beating. But the lawsuit argues that the department is ignoring its own rules and acting in an unreasonable manner by indiscriminately firing so-called less-lethal projectiles at protesters, causing many serious injuries.

The suit cites as an example a peaceful protester being shot in the face with an LAPD rubber bullet as she attempted to return to her car, fracturing her jaw. The suit notes that even bystanders were hit, including a man in a wheelchair who was struck in the back of the shoulder blade.

The lawyers cite a prior decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on non-lethal force during protests in Davis, where the court found the use of projectiles excessive.

I have never seen so many shots fired to the head, said Carol Sobel, one of the attorneys, of the less-lethal projectile rounds. We need action by the court because our clients are under real threat by batons and projectiles as well as hours in handcuffs.

Lawyers for the city asked for a day to reply to the extensive allegations, and were given until Friday to do so.

Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Moore said the actions of police officers who clashed with protesters in recent weeks are under review. Ten officers have now been taken off the street and assigned to desk duties pending internal investigations into their actions during recent protests. Those investigations are among more than 50 that have been launched by the LAPD.

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Black Lives Matter seeks restraining order to prevent LAPD use of batons, 'rubber' bullets on marchers - Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES An estimated 30,000 people converged in West Hollywood on Sunday to protest systemic racism and police brutality and to shine light on the specific needs of Black LGBTQ people. The event which took place just ahead of the 50th anniversary of L.A.'s first pride event, originally called the Christopher Street West Parade started out as a Black Lives Matter solidarity march, but it ultimately showed the divisions between two overlapping civil rights movements.

The event's initial organizers found themselves the recipients of backlash when they announced their plans in early June: Christopher Street West, or CSW, the historic, mostly white-led organization that typically produces the annual LA Pride Festival and Parade, never reached out to coordinate with Black Lives Matter activists about the march. In addition, it hired an event organizer who applied for a police permit for the parade a move seen as offensive by many Black activists in the midst of anti-brutality protests.

For many people at the march Sunday, the backlash highlighted how the growing Black Lives Matter movement had the power to force ostensibly progressive LGBTQ organizations to grapple with blind spots and long-unaddressed histories of exclusion.

CSW canceled its solidarity march shortly after the backlash, and Gerald Garth, one of the few Black board members at CSW, formed a new council with a group of Black LGBTQ leaders. Together, they announced a new march, dubbed the "All Black Lives Matter" protest, without CSW's involvement. The result was Sunday's all-day event, featuring a march starting on Hollywood Boulevard and ending in West Hollywood, as well as lively performances, art and nonstop dancing.

"Putting Protest Back in Pride" originally aired on the Weekend Report on Quibi. Watch the full video here.

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"A big part of the conversations that I had to have often was that even though things were well-intended, that didn't make it any less wrong or impactful," Garth told NBC News. "And plus, too, through the lens of CSW being this legendary white agency proposing this Black effort, [the] community really received it as CSW, you know, aiming to co-opt or, you know, capitalize."

Luckie Fuller, an artist and trans activist, said a formal police presence "would've kept people from coming out here."

"It would've hindered a lot of our voices, and it would've dampened our voices," Fuller said.

Obtaining a police permit for its annual event, however, is part of the 50-year history of L.A.'s annual pride celebration. While New York held the very first pride march on June 28, 1970, later that same day, L.A. held the "worlds first permitted parade advocating for gay rights," a fact Christopher Street West still highlights on its website to this day.

Miss Shalae, a Beyonc impersonator who performed at the march, said that when she first moved to Los Angeles, she couldn't persuade white-owned LGBTQ bars and clubs to book her for performances. She didn't have faith that CSW would learn from mistakes without a change in leadership.

"They're not giving us a seat at the table, which I feel like is super important. How can you know what we want without asking us what we want?" Miss Shalae said. "And it is definitely a time for that to change, absolutely."

CSW's executive director, Madonna Cacciatore, said it is committed to making sure that doesn't happen again. "And we're having the hard conversations now, to be honest with you," she said. "Because there's been a history, not only with our organization, but, you know, everybody's being asked to re-examine themselves and to look at ourselves through a different lens. We have been, you know, we always try to do the right thing. We sometimes don't do it well."

For some, the new march and the organization's apology were too little too late.

Ashlee Marie Preston, a Black trans writer and former CSW board member, decided she wouldn't attend. "What made me so frustrated about all of this is that I have direct relationships with people on the board," Preston said. "It's this idea that saviorism is solidarity. ... When we say Black Lives Matter, we need to also emphasize that Black leadership matters and that we have to trust that leadership."

Still, many in the crowd hoped that CSW and other similar organizations would learn from this year's mistakes. Brandon Anthony, an event producer, called CSW the "guinea pig" for the transformations Black LGBTQ activists want to see more broadly.

"Our target is not just CSW and LA Pride," he said. "We're going to challenge all nonprofits and corporations. ... Change your infrastructure and re-examine how Black lives are being treated."

CORRECTION (June 23, 2020, 2:31 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article included a factually incorrect quote about the makeup of the board of Christopher Street West. One member of the board identifies as a Black trans woman. The quote from Miss Shalae that there are no Black trans women on the board has been removed.

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Black Lives Matter forces LGBTQ organization to face its history of racial exclusion - NBC News

Violence Interrupters executive director Tio Hardiman joined "The Story" Thursday to discuss the ongoing violencein Chicago and the Black Lives Matter movement.

"It makes no sense to me if we continue to stand up against the system but we will not stand up in our own neighborhood," Hardiman told host Martha MacCallum, adding that "we need to really do a lot of work in our own backyard right now in order to ...stem the tide of violence, gun violence [that] has taken so many lives here in Chicago, Baltimore and Philadelphia."

Hardiman also responded to Greater New York Black Lives Matter President Hawk Newsome's appearance on the same show Wednesday, as well asGeorge Floyd's death in police custody and the subsequent demonstrations across the country.

CHICAGO PASTOR SAYS 'LINE WAS CROSSED' AFTER BOY, 3, AMONG DEAD IN WEEKEND SHOOTINGS

"I'm one of the guys that was on the frontline when it came down to standing up against police brutality and excessive force," said Hardiman, who told MacCallum that he would like to meet with the leaders of Black Lives Matter. "And I understand where Black Lives Matter, what they're attempting to do. I understand that.

"But at the same time, we need help to do our best to stop gun violence in Chicago. The entire nation should be outraged when a three-year-old is executed on the streets of Chicago and a 13-year-old young young girl was killed on the west side [of]Chicago as well."

"Black Lives Matter, they're raising millions and millions of dollars," Hardiman added. "We should have a meeting and see how we can actually work together in order to stem the tide of gun violence in the inner city."

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The activist asked why inner-city murders do not draw the same attention as the death of George Floyd in police custody.

"I understand the need to rise up against police brutality and excessive force, I'm with that," Hardiman said."But at the same time, we are losing too many kids due tosenseless acts of gun violence in Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Detroit.

"So my call to action for Black Lives Matter: We need to have a meeting so we can see how we can organize and unify together ..." Hardiman said. "That's what I'm talking about. That's my main message here today."

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Chicago activist calls on Black Lives Matter to help stem city's gun violence: 'We are losing too many kids' - Fox News

A recent poll for WGBH News, Boston Globe, MassLive and State House News Service conducted by Suffolk University asked Massachusetts residents to respond to a number of questions related to the Black Lives Matter movement and the state's coronavirus response. WGBH News Host Henry Santoro spoke with Reporter Adam Reilly to break down some of the responses. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Henry Santoro: Let's start with what seems like the biggest takeaway from the poll, and that is support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Does that surprise you at all?

Adam Reilly: I don't know how much of a surprise it is, but it's definitely striking. That was the big takeaway for me, too. Eighty-five percent of respondents in the poll said that they either supported or strongly supported Black Lives Matter. That number alone is remarkable, but 51 percent of the respondents identified as strongly supportive, which is, again, a super striking number. And you see the support extended to certain potential reforms that could come out of the Black Lives Matter movement.

For example, 88 percent of respondents 88 percent, nearly a full 90 said that they want to ban the use of chokeholds by police. Eighty-two percent back this idea which we've heard from the governor and others of licensing police across the state and revoking their licenses if they violate certain basic standards. And there's another policy change, which would be a big deal; the governor wants to see this dealt with at the federal level, but still worth mentioning here: 75 percent of respondents said it should be possible to sue officers individually for bad things they do while they're on duty. Right now, you can only sue a police department, but a lot of people in the state would like to see that changed. There are, though, and this is, I think, important to note, there are other potential reforms where you see the support start to diminish when respondents are asked about them.

Santoro: But I think this report really showed big time with the marches that happened after the George Floyd murder.

Reilly: Yeah, no question. But let me get into some of the things that I alluded to a second ago the areas where you see support softening a little bit. Only 56 percent say that they want to ban the use of tear gas by cops. This is part of what we've heard discussed as demilitarization the idea that you're going to keep the police from operating the way an army does. Only 53 percent want to ban the use of rubber bullets. Again, you might think that that would be more popular given those marches that you referred to. It's not actually a wildly popular idea.

And this is crucial, Henry: just 50 percent of respondents say that they want to reduce police budgets and shift money to social services. So that's not a ton of support for what activists frame as defunding. And if you ask people, well, what about your own police department in your city or town? Do you want to take away some of their money and shifted to social services? Then it drops to less than half 45 percent. So tons of support for Black Lives Matter [and] a lot of support for some reforms that Black Lives Matter is in favor of, but [there are] other areas where the support softens pretty significantly.

Santoro: What about police handling of people of color?

Reilly: Yeah, here again, there's a really interesting split between the way people feel about the police generally and the way they feel about their own police department. This is the most striking instance of that split. Seventy-seven percent of respondents say the police generally, all over the place, don't treat black people the same way they treat everyone else. But then when you say what about the police in your own city or town, the number drops to 49 percent. So people are so much more inclined to think highly of their own local PD than law enforcement generally. And it's really interesting, that dynamic holds across the board with various racial and ethnic groups respondents who identify as white, black, Hispanic, Asian they all are more inclined to give their own local police the benefit of the doubt when it comes to racism or not being racist.

Santoro: Let's jump over to COVID now because this was a big part of this this poll. What are the big takeaways there?

Reilly: Well, I think you mentioned this in your intro. [There's] tons of support for the way the governor is handling the pandemic 81 percent approve, just 14 percent disapprove. Also, a lot of support for his handling of the reopening, but it drops a couple percentage points. Still numbers that any public official would envy.

But for me, the crucial takeaway here is that there is tons of ambivalence when it comes to activities that will signal a return to normalcy. Half the respondents said that they're comfortable right now going back to work or school. 41 percent say they'd be comfortable going out to eat. And then there are a couple numbers that are really low. They were low in the last poll [and] they're low in this one, too. Twenty-three percent say they'd be comfortable attending a sporting event, and just 19 percent say that they would be comfortable riding the T. So a lot of change in attitude will be required to get people doing those things again.

Santoro: That's for sure. Let's move on to schools a big topic for parents right now. What did the poll find as far as schools are concerned?

Reilly: Once again, a whole lot of ambivalence. There were a few questions asked on this topic, [but] let me just pick one to keep things as clear as possible. Respondents were asked, "will Massachusetts be able to safely reopen schools this fall?" And it was an even split when you take into account the margin of error. 44 percent said "yes", [and] 46 percent said "no".

Now, here's an interesting footnote to that: people with school-aged kids were more likely to think that you could do it safely than people without school-aged kids. If you have a school-aged kid, 48 percent of you said we can do this safely. If you don't have a kid, 41 percent said it's possible. And just from my own experience, Henry, that may indicate that parents are realizing that it's really tough to try to work at home while also keeping your kids doing the remote learning they're supposed to be. It's not easy.

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Where Massachusetts Residents Stand On Black Lives Matter Movement, Police Reform And Reopening - wgbh.org