Rowdy Crowd Confronts LA Mayor In Town-Hall Meeting
JEFFERSON PARK (CBSLA.com) — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti found himself confronted by an angry crowd during a town-hall meeting in Jefferson Park Monday night.
About an hour into the meeting, some people began to shout and rush the toward the mayor, forcing him to cut short the community meeting held at the Holman United Methodist Church.
As he tried to leave, the crowd followed him outside.
They chanted: "Black lives matter," as Garcetti was being escorted out to his car by Los Angeles police officers.
The protesters surrounded the mayor's car, prevented him from getting into it and repeatedly shouted: "Fire Chief Beck!" At least one man jumped on top of Garcetti's car while others were pounding on it.
The mayor remained calmed but said he was "disappointed that our conversation was cut short when there is so much work for us to do together to make our neighborhoods stronger and safer. I believe in our city and my commitment to our shared concerns continues, stronger than ever," he said in a statement.
Other attendees at the meeting said they felt the same way.
"You disrespected the rest of the community that was there to have an intelligent dialogue with the mayor and understand what's happening on the issues like jobs; what's happening on our minimum-wage increase; what's happening on the airport and transportation," South Los Angeles resident Dallas Fowler said. "Those are the things that we really care about and we want to know about. And we didn't get that tonight because of a small group of people who wanted to be obstructive. And that was unfortunate."
According to the LAPD, 400 to 500 attended the meeting. About 30 of those disrupted the gathering.
There were no reports of injuries. No one was arrested.
