KTLA News: "Reverend Milton Merriweather speaks out against police choke holds..." (1978)

Quiet on >> because I speak out against them when they do wrong. I'm going to keep doing it. Long as they beat up people in our neighborhood, as long as they choking them out for nothing, I'm going to speak up and they can call me what they want. doesn't matter. I speak out against it this wise. There are officers who don't know how to use it and they kill people and it would be much better if they would find another another way to uh control the guys who are under this PCP. I will say that because you know and I know that there's been men killed uh recently and one of them we know was not on PCP. So that's evidence right there that somebody don't know how to use the hoe. Do you believe this is because you were under surveillance because of your uh stand against the choke? >> Right. It has something. That's right. It's because >> demanding the p the pictures that Lieutenant Carter took of my members going in and out of the church after the Cal McGee case. Also, I want the license plate numbers that we saw him taken off the cars and and ever since this incident and these kind of things happen. Uh they constantly uh I've been harassed and I know I'm under surveillance for no reason whatsoever and I'm tired of it. So, if he can take the pictures, I want them. I think I have a right to them and I I'm going to demand those pictures and the license plate number that he took. >> Why do you want those Reverend? >> Because I don't think my number one some of my members are afraid right now. they they they know that he did it and they're not satisfied. And I've even had some talking about leaving the church because of this kind of thing because every time we have service, uh here come the police car easing around the corners and all this kind of thing. And a few weeks ago, I have proof that uh Channel 2 News was there. And while they were there and also Councilman Bobby Frell was there, after they had promised me that the police wouldn't go on my parking lot anymore, they pulled right up on the lot in front of Councilman Frell and Channel 2 News after they promised me. Two weeks from then on a Sunday night, always on a Sunday night, they came right back and parked on my lot again. And then I pulled in front of the church in the red and stood there. Then they when they saw my car, they came across the street and said to me, "You can't park there." I said, "I'm not parked. I'm stopped. I'm wondering what are you doing on my parking lot?" They said, "We're looking for evangelism." Now, how could they look for evangelism and the lights are still on in the church? Members are still on the church parking lot. >> Why do you think they're Why do you think they're picking on you? >> Cannot get cooperation from some of the other ministers in the neighborhood. >> No, I can't. Uh, it's sad to say, but some of the ministers themselves condemn me. They say that I'm a radical, but uh I'm used to that. They they'll always brand you when you speak up. I've had some of those same ministers who branded me as a radical, their members come to me for help because of something the police did. And had not it been for me, they wouldn't have had a chance to come down to police commission's office here or upstairs internal division affairs. And I've asked them, I said the only way I stopped it or slowed it down is when I told them to have your minister to call me. >> In the past, you have spoken out against the chokehole. Now you're taking a different attack in that. >> Uh let me let me put it like this. Let me change that. >> Oh, I have to say yes and no. I still say uh who can judge who can judge whether police know how to use it correctly or not? Who can judge? Then after the incident, after it's too late, it's too late. >> But there are times when it's necessary to use the choker. I've seen a time that uh uh uh yes, I've seen times that uh I've seen the police try to try to put a guy to sleep with it and couldn't hardly do it because he was on drugs, you know. Uh but that is if you got 15 or 20 officers around and normally in our neighborhood when you call one, you got that many. And I feel this many officers can't control one man, they need to get them all off the force. >> Is there a positive side to this? I mean, uh, >> police, >> but you don't know what going to happen when they come because it's never one. It's always a group. >> What were you saying? the police coming out of the academy want to go to your area because they it's evident and is number. I think there may be Don't