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Sheriff Alex Villanueva has reversed himself and granted a permit to a group that wants to protest police brutality in South L.A.
The communist group Revolution Club had applied for the permit. Villanueva said he turned the group down because demonstrations outside the department’s South L.A. station over the past year resulted in injuries and property damage, and he didn’t have enough deputies to patrol the protest.
First Amendment advocates criticized the denial. The ACLU called it arbitrary, suggesting it was an effort to suppress criticism of law enforcement.
Revolution Club appealed to the Board of Supervisors, which was going to take up the issue next Tuesday.
The Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a request for comment on why Villanueva changed his mind. Revolution Club plans to march from Southwest College to the South LA Station a week from Saturday.
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