Controversial Buena Park Pastor Wiley Drake delivered the opening prayer at a pro-police rally outside the Los Angeles Police Department Sunday afternoon.
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The rally by about 35 people–some toting signs that read “We Support The Rule of Law” and “Reason Must Prevail Not Emotion”–was held in the wake of recent anti-police brutality demonstrations across the country, including near the same LAPD administrative building.
Drake, who began the prayer on the south lawn of Los Angeles City Hall, is a frequent subject of Weekly coverage. The leader of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park and the Congressional Prayer Conference of Washington D.C. has in recent years called Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano “a race-card-playing punk!” and called for God to take President Barack Obama.
But, to be fair (to us!), if you check our …
OC Weekly Wiley Drake archives
… you'll see we've also written extensively about the Christian radio host and one-time vice presidential candidate's tireless work on behalf of the homeless in central OC.
Meanwhile, for the opposite view of police, dozens of protesters also rallied Sunday in the area of Anaheim Street and Chestnut Avenue in Long Beach. Among those in attendance were members of Donte Jordan's family.
Jordan was two days away from turning 41 in November 2013 when he was shot and killed in an officer-involved shooting not far from the protest site.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.