An organization that wants to legalize undocumented workers in the United States is staging a rally Saturday to call for the prosecution of the Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot day laborer Manuel Jamines in a controversial confrontation earlier this month.

The 10 a.m. Southern California Immigration Coalition action outside the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division, held under the title “Stop Killer Cops!” has not gone unnoticed at the union that represents L.A. officers. Los Angeles Police Protective League president Paul M. Weber released a statement Friday that reads, in part:

The efforts by self styled “community organizations” who are on a quest to attempt to force the District Attorney to charge an LAPD officer with murder for shooting a man who was threatening a pregnant woman and others with a weapon appears to be going unabated. Apparently, the facts mean little to these agitators who masquerade around as concerned citizens. We commend Chief Beck and Mayor Villaraigosa for looking at the facts of this incident as they know them, and appropriately and swiftly standing behind officers who protected the community from an intoxicated knife wielding man. We are confident that the facts are so clear in this case that any prosecutorial agency asked to review this case will come to the same conclusion as the Mayor Villaraigosa and Chief Beck.

The Sept. 5 afternoon shooting at West Sixth Street and South Union Avenue near the Rampart station happened rapidly after three bicycle cops confronted the allegedly drunk suspect, who they said had a knife and was threatening bystanders, including a pregnant woman, and the officers themselves.

In reaction to Jamines' death — some said less-than-lethal force could have been used to subdue him — about 100 to 300 people in the largely immigrant community staged three nights of protests that sometimes erupted into unruly clashes with police, leading to the arrests of more than 20 people and minor injuries for some officers and bystanders.

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