L.A. Residents: Police Harassment Spawned Outrage

Associated Press: A city all too familiar with civil unrest was caught by surprise with the level of outrage over the fatal police shooting of an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who was menacing officers with a knife. The officers were also Hispanic, and witnesses backed up their claims that Manuel Jaminez threatened them. And yet, protesters hurled eggs, bottles and rocks at a police station over the past several days, jeered the police chief when he tried to explain in front of a raucous community meeting and pushed long-simmering tensions to the forefront. For many in the gritty Westlake neighborhood, the shooting was the last straw. Amid the poverty and chronic joblessness here, some residents say, officers mistreated them and were overly harsh in their enforcement of city ordinances. "They are messing with people all the time," said Juan Lorenzo, a day laborer who knew Jaminez. Lorenzo claimed that Officer Frank Hernandez, who the mayor hailed as a hero for shooting Jaminez, was disliked by many in the community because he would often ticket people for selling food on the street and would sometimes throw the food in the trash.