michael bland

It was planned as a peaceful day of mourning for a Watts neighborhood matriarch many knew simply as “Mama Curtis.”

Instead, attendees said, a memorial in Watts over the weekend for 94-year-old Earlene Curtis descended into chaos when Los Angeles police officers swarmed the block where the gathering took place. Cellphone video showed the officers wielding batons and shoving people down before hauling someone away on what the LAPD later said was a felony arrest warrant.

The LAPD response has drawn outrage from Curtis’ family, Watts residents and the local city council member’s office, who said the overwhelming show of force was unwarranted on a night when mourners had gathered to remember and grieve.

An LAPD spokesman said two separate internal reviews of the incident are underway.

For much of the day Saturday, people had been stopping by at Curtis’ home to pay their respects, according to her granddaughter, Erica Dantzler.

Dantzler said her grandmother — who died the night before at a hospital — was a fixture in the area for decades, known for doting on the neighborhood’s children as though they were her own. She was also an advocate for peace in her community, serving for years on the Watts gang task force, a volunteer group of residents, police officers and faith leaders who meet regularly to discuss solutions to the neighborhood’s problems.

An only child herself, Curtis had had six children and at least 90 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to Dantzler. Expecting a lot of mourners and family members, Dantzler said she shared details about the memorial with Councilmember Tim McOsker’s office, which alerted the LAPD to what was going on.

So it came as a shock, she said, when police showed up at the event.

She said she tried to approach some of the officers for an explanation, but was ignored. Instead, she said, they gathered on the sidewalk outside the Curtis home and began pushing people back.

They “isolated us off [and] put up yellow tape like it was a crime scene,” she said, adding: “They kept like antagonizing on us.”

As time went on, the crowd got more and more restless, she said, and some people began confronting officers. Videos of the standoff circulating online showed officers, some in riot helmets or holding Tasers, facing off with memorial-goers, some yelling angrily in the officers’ faces. In one recording, a tow truck is seen leaving the scene with someone’s car.

“We were met with improper searches, detainment without cause, and a complete lack of communication or basic dignity. Our pain was ignored. Our safety was threatened,” according to one person’s Facebook post about the incident.

In a statement to The Times, police spokesman Capt. Michael Bland said officers from nearby Southeast Area station responded to the 10400 block of Juniper Avenue — a narrow one-way street near the Jordan Downs housing development. Bland said several cars that were double-parked outside the home, which were “obstructing safe passage for emergency responders, as well as residents.”

In their “efforts to address the situation” at the scene about 9 p.m. on Saturday, officers arrested someone on suspicion of illegally possessing a firearm, he said.

Bland said the department had opened an internal investigation after receiving a complaint from a community member, and separately has initiated a review of the officers’ use of force. “Both personnel matters will be investigated thoroughly and reviewed comprehensively, in adherence to our commitment to maintain accountability and transparency,” Bland said.

In an attempt to ensure that “community voices are heard,” Bland said, department officials reached out to “community members and key stakeholders to address concerns related to this incident, as well as foster dialogue.”

McOsker, the councilmember who represents the area, said he was troubled that the LAPD responded with such force in the area near the Jordan Downs development.

Among the city’s oldest housing projects and long one of its most troubled, the area was one of the founding sites of the LAPD’s heralded Community Safety Partnership, or CSP, program, which prioritizes collaboration between police officers and community members over making arrests in neighborhoods hit by violence.

“The fact that Southeast patrol officers didn’t lead with a CSP-type of quality is really disappointing,” McOsker said.

He attended a meeting Tuesday afternoon at Morning Star Baptist Church, where Curtis was a member, with LAPD officials, Curtis’ family and other community members.

“It’s a miss on LAPD’s part,” he said. “When you have a 94-year-old woman who’s a mother to the community and who is loved by a lot of folks, people will show up.”

The only explanation he’s received from the LAPD so far about what happened was that there had been an “internal breakdown in communication,” he said.

He said he also wants the department to create clearer protocols for grieving families to report the planning of a memorial event or funeral to avoid a similar situation.

At the same time, he said, he was heartened by the willingness of LAPD Cmdr. Ryan Whiteman, to publicly apologize to Curtis’ family Monday for the police response without getting defensive.

“While it’s a terrible disappointment that it happened, that was the part of the meeting that I was satisfied… and looked the community in the eye and said, we’re sorry,” McOsker said.

Tanya Dorsey, who runs a nonprofit outreach group next to the nearby Nickerson Gardens projects, said she didn’t know Curtis, but understood her family’s frustration after watching a video of the LAPD’s response on Instagram.

It’s no secret that police routinely monitor funerals and repass gatherings where they suspect gang members could be present, partly in an effort to ward off violence.

According to Dorsey, in Nickerson Gardens, officers are known to show up to harass and arrest people for probation violations, drinking in public and other low-level offenses — encounters she said can escalate as emotions are running high.

“They know that [when] people pass away in the ‘hood, they already know that there’s going to be a candlelight vigil and they know there’s gonna be a repass,” she said.

Jorja Leap, a UCLA professor who has studied Watts extensively, said that the latest encounter underscores the tenuousness of the gains made in recent years by the LAPD.

“Watts wants to trust, but it can’t forget past history,” she said. “These relationships can’t be taken for granted for that, and Mama Curtis is a reminder of that.”