LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is sending the community mixed messages about their handling of the murder investigation of Ermias “Nipsey Hussle” Asghedom. So is the areas Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson.
Nipsey Hussle was executed on land he owned near the intersection of Crenshaw and Slauson. Nipsey had been affiliated with the area since birth. The land is located in the neighborhood where the Rolling 60s Crips call home. Nipsey was one of their most famous members and he was killed by someone who claimed the same set as him. The woman who drove the getaway car was released by LAPD, however, the man shot alongside Nipsey is in jail on a parole violation.
What we have learned, since his death, is his extraordinary intellect which was evident since he was a child. As his fame grew, so did his profile which attracted the likes of the District 8 Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson (MHD) where Nipsey’s land is located. Their visions for the area coined “Destination Crenshaw” differed. Nipsey wanted the residents to continue to call the area home.
MHD represents gentrification and his votes support that notion. MHD votes in favor of putting liens on homes in his district and he also supports shutting down “nuisance” businesses attached to gang activity. MHD famously supported shutting down the Liquor Bank at Crenshaw and Stocker.
Today, the City Council revoked the conditional use permit to sell alcohol at the Liquor Bank. For nearly a decade, the Liquor Bank served as a hot spot of crime, drugs, and violence. Today, we said enough is enough, our community deserves better.
District 8 Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson
Related: CD8 councilman sends mixed signals to the community
With the Crenshaw/LAX tracks being laid down the middle of Crenshaw Blvd., the Liquor Bank wouldn’t be tolerated as a part of “Destination Crenshaw”. Instead, it stands shuttered. Somehow, the owners of Mavericks Flat, another popular icon on Crenshaw Blvd., lost their property.
When a city wants to declare a business a “nuisance” in order to validate the need to rid the community of it, they enlist the local police department, whose call logs, arrest reports and the like, are then submitted to the council and/or District Attorney, to show “proof” that the business either encourages loitering and/or gang activity by their failure to control their customers.
MHD also played an instrumental role in LA County taking land from its owner over on Manchester and Vermont, where the county will erect a parking lot and a boarding school for wayward youth. The county used records from the city Fire Department and LAPD to show the property was a public nuisance because it lay dormant. MHD even trotted himself over to the County Board of Supervisors meeting in support of taking Eli Sasson’s land.
The eminent domain on Manchester and Vermont prompted 2UrbanGirls to request a meeting with MHD. This is when he invited me to a lunch meeting and when I arrived everyone in attendance had empty plates in front of them. He didn’t want to answer pointed questions and his “handlers” ensured he didn’t go off script. I left the meeting with more questions than answers as MHD was the former director of a community based nonprofit who in theory stood up for the community. With his new six figure salary, he has become tone deaf.
Then he befriends Nipsey Hussle. Community members tell this author Nipsey shied away from those wanting to get too close, especially those he didn’t know.
During Nipsey’s funeral service, his brother made mention to how often LAPD would bump them up even going so far as to threaten the former landowner with losing his business if he didn’t kick out businesses owned by Nipsey and his business partners. The owner suggested they buy it from him and they did.
Community activist Najee Ali, is calling for the female getaway driver to be charged alongside Nipsey’s killer and for the immediate release of Kerry Lathan, who was left paralyzed after the shooting.
We all recall the case of Cameron Terrell of Palos Verdes. An affluent white boy who was the getaway driver in another SouthLA murder.
Related: Jury acquits Palos Verdes Estates man of murder in suspected gang killing in South L.A.
Terrell drove two gang members to the location where Justin Holmes was killed. His attorney’s argued that Terrell wasn’t in a gang and that he had no clue what was going on.
The female getaway driver in the Nipsey Hussle killing also feigned ignorance. It is unclear if she drove the murderer to the burger joint on Nipsey’s property. It is unknown if she had a lawyer present while she was questioned by LAPD and it is also unknown why she wasn’t booked for attempted murder as they did with Cameron Terrell.
More importantly, why isn’t Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who didn’t mind being associated with Nipsey Hussle for street cred and publicity, also calling for her arrest? Was the area councilman behind the threats to Nipsey’s former landlord, to rid his district of another nuisance business, like he did the Liquor Bank?
All skinfolk ain’t our kinfolk!
3 Comments
I knew it from the beginning, I live in the community and and listened to what was being said and what wasn’t being said. I just watched the as the neighborhood transformed over the years ??????????????????????.
LAPD HAD NIPSY KILLED LAPD KILLED NIPSY HUSSLE HIS MOM ANGEL CONFIRMED THIS WHILE IN THE PROCESSION CARRYING HER SON’S BODY DOWN SLAUSON AVE SHE IS FULLY AWARE THAT THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPT HIRED SHITTY CUZZ A KNOWN SNITCH TO ASSASSINATED NIPSY WHO HIRED UNCLE TOM ASS C DARDEN? THE LAPD
They took a good man