KTLA News: "James Morris Lawson Jr. and Milton Merriweather call to reopen Eula Love case" (1979)

Description:

The KTLA newsfilm collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive consists of cut and unedited stories, outtakes and fill footage, originally shot on 16mm reversal film stock with magnetic soundtrack. Some footage, particularly material not used for broadcast, may be without sound.

Title: “Activist James Morris Lawson Jr. and Reverend Milton Merriweather call to reopen the investigation into the police shooting of Eula Love.” Date: October 8, 1979.

Summary: On January 3, 1979, Eula Love, an African American woman, was fatally shot by LAPD officers in front of her home. Reportedly holding a boning knife during a confrontation with officers, Love was shot twelve times. The high-profile case generated extensive controversy regarding the actions of the officers and their use of deadly force. In this footage, activist James Morris Lawson Jr. and Reverend Milton Merriweather give a press conference in which they call on the Los Angeles Police Department to reopen their own investigation into the shooting of Eula Love to determine if a stronger position should be taken by the department considering the facts in the case. Lawson states the review by the Police Commission indicates the need for a civilian review board rather than an internal board. Merriweather talks about how officers escalated the confrontation that led to Love’s death and how this case follows a pattern of police cover-ups, abuse, and misconduct in relation to instances of the use of excessive force against members of the Black community. Includes silent footage of the press conference and reporters.

Learn more about this UCLA Film & Television Archive project: ucla.in/1SONCuw

Complete Record: The KTLA newsfilm collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive consists of cut and unedited stories, outtakes and fill footage, originally shot on 16mm reversal film stock with magnetic soundtrack. Some footage, particularly material not used for broadcast, may be without sound. Title: “Activist James Morris Lawson Jr. and Reverend Milton Merriweather call to reopen the investigation into the police shooting of Eula Love.” Date: October 8, 1979. Summary: On January 3, 1979, Eula Love, an African American woman, was fatally shot by LAPD officers in front of her home. Reportedly holding a boning knife during a confrontation with officers, Love was shot twelve times. The high-profile case generated extensive controversy regarding the actions of the officers and their use of deadly force. In this footage, activist James Morris Lawson Jr. and Reverend Milton Merriweather give a press conference in which they call on the Los Angeles Police Department to reopen their own investigation into the shooting of Eula Love to determine if a stronger position should be taken by the department considering the facts in the case. Lawson states the review by the Police Commission indicates the need for a civilian review board rather than an internal board. Merriweather talks about how officers escalated the confrontation that led to Love’s death and how this case follows a pattern of police cover-ups, abuse, and misconduct in relation to instances of the use of excessive force against members of the Black community. Includes silent footage of the press conference and reporters. Learn more about this UCLA Film & Television Archive project: ucla.in/1SONCuw © 2023 The Regents of the University of California

Transcription

the police department itself should reopen the case reopen their own investigation to find out whether or not uh there is some stronger position that should be taken after all a 39-year-old woman the mother of three children is now dead as a consequence of of evidence that clearly indicates that she alone was not at fault in any way at all she had committed to that point no crime good morning we appreciate your coming for the press conference I am JM Lawson Jr and with me is Mr Milton Reverend Milton and Maryweather the two of us together are the co-chair people of the Gathering committee and law enforcement and we have called this press conference in order to make uh a number of statements in relationship uh to recent developments on the Ula love case and to also lay out before you some of the things about which we are concerned in the first instance we want to point out that the indep commission the independent review by the police commission um indicates the great need for some kind of a serious civilian review board both at the level of uh the overall investigation of LAPD View Board is an internal board it certainly should have perhaps an attorney from the city on it as as well the shooting review board Minority Report was available as long ago as March 15th clearly the police violated policy and Aid both in terms of their strategies and their approach uh to this matter in the light of that it seems to us that uh her death and even if she had committed a crime in the United States there is such a thing as due process which says that the criminal has a right to a day in court guilty he had a gun in the other hand when The Hears A woman already flustrated she's already nervous she's angry she depressed well naturally when she started surrendering and he hit her with a with his baton and knocks her knife out all he did then was aggravate the situation now all of this has been proven this and we keep it saying you to love you to love you to love you to love but we've been trying to get this these kind of Investigation along with copper for the last three years especially people who had been killed by the police we went we've been before the police commission we've been before mayor Bradley we've been before district attorney and we've been begging for these kind of Investigation to prove that we were right we tried to prove that the police could not police up on each other we tried to prove to them that the police would cover up and we tried to prove to them how they covered up there is no way in the world the police could cover up his misconduct without leadership and this report proved that along with the police that the chief of police is helping them cover up their Dirty Deeds because uh Chief Gates came out at first and he's still saying he's still trying to say that the police were defending themselves the police were defending themselves now we know that's a lie see of course one of the officers Hopson been involved in more than one killing he was involved in the Janice pek killing and chief Gates never mentioned why never mentioned why uh he never mentioned any of these other cases we are throughout the city that are participating this effort I also might e

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