◆ SpookStack

i “tke dark-skinned buman being in the Negro community has given these white officers the -impres- sion they can use gestapo tac- tics against ail Negroes in this city with no fear of reprimand from thelr own white superiors in the Los Angeles Police De- partment, the City Adumiinistra- tion or from any court of law. 1 ARRIVED in Los Angeles on American Airlines, flight No. .7 from New York City at-9:30 last night, and was met by one of our local religious officials, Mr. Ed- ward Sherrill. By 10:15 we were both being held at gunpoint by two white men In plain clothes, al- legedly of the Los Angeles Police _ Department. These two vicious looking white men had followed us from the airport in a green 59 Chevrolet, license No. KGL966. And when we reached a poorly lighted sec- iw of the city, they forced us to e e@ curb at gun-point. One of the -“RIUXe weer st yo Wl ond T-2e to white men throst a police 38_ pistal through the window into our faces and ordered us from the car while the other ¢ov- ered us with a sawed-off shot- THEY TRIED in every way to provoke us into making a quick move so they would have a le- gitimate excise to shoot us. Know- ing the Loe Angeles Police De- partment and its reputation for shooting innotent Negroes, we gave them no excuse. These men never showed us anv badge nor did they say thed any of pat represented the law-—they Just put guns on us and searched us. We coukd have easily mistaken them for gangsters trying to rob us and resisted them, but we know how the LAPD operates. There would have been plenty of bloodshed. THEY BECAME shaky after we had clearly identified our- selves and their search revealed there was nothing they could charge us with. Mr. Sherrill rec- ognized one of them from the current trial, and “both o the em admitted that they knew the Muslim minister from York. . Only upon our demand did they identify themselves later as Of- ficers R. W. Hastings and E. H. Henderson of the metropolitan di- vision, but they never apologized for thelr unwarranted action. faben pee ba aA THERE IS a strong rumor cir- culating in this city and through- out the nation that the city ad- ministration bere is on the spot in its present court case Involving the 14 innocent Muslims who are le 2 Steere Sve tesoeeer SE SER! Gee falsely being charged with as- saulting police officers because of the viclous manner in which the LAPD brutally and needlessly shot 7 innocent Negroes in front of the Islamic Religious Sanctu- ary. . The rumor persists that the city administration cannot afford to acquit these 14 innocent Negries. Everyone admits that the stite has no case; that it exists only because of the false chargev trumped up by the police and the