#LA activist holds ‘we hope they live’ rally for wounded deputies

A Los Angeles community activist on Monday condemned the shooting of two sheriff’s deputies, calling protesters who chanted “we hope they die” outside the hospital where the cops were taken “the worst in humanity.”

Activist Najee Ali, speaking outside St. Francis Medical Center, where the two wounded deputies are recovering after the Saturday ambush, denounced the protesters who gathered outside the hospital on Sunday, Fox11 in LA reported.

“We’re here to condemn the shooting of both deputies in the strongest terms,” said Ali, who has long been at odds with local Black Lives Matter leaders. “The activists who were here protesting outside the emergency room chanting, ‘we hope they die, we hope they die, we hope they die,’ we’re here to say ‘we hope they live, we hope they live, we hope they live.’”

The activists  — about five people apparently wearing colors and carrying flags of the Pan-Africanism movement — did not identify what group they were with.

“Because those activists don’t represent our community, our movement, our struggle for justice,” he said. “They represent the worst in humanity. They are an embarrassment and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

The two deputies were sitting in their squad car around 7 p.m. Saturday when a lone gunman walked up and shot them at point-blank range in a chilling caught-on-video ambush.

The deputies — a 31-year-old mom and a 24-year-old man — came out of surgery and are expected to recover, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said.

But the shooting exposed tensions between police and some in the community, prompting the hateful crowd outside the hospital hours later.

Ali, head of Project Islamic Hope, has been at odds with local BLM leaders, and in March called for the group’s leader, Melina Abdullah, to resign after a protest outside LA County District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s home, saying it endangered the prosecutor’s life, NBC-TV reported at the time.