Police Brace for Zimmerman Protests

Los Angeles police are gearing up for more demonstrations on Sunday and Monday following the acquittal of former Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman for the 2012 slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

The news comes as Occupy LA was calling for another demonstration at 4 p.m. Sunday, starting at Martin Luther King and Crenshaw boulevards. The LA rally is among several others happening across the state, including Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco.

In the hours after the Saturday night verdict, protesters gathered at several South LA locations for what were mostly peaceful marches and demonstrations.

However, some of those gathered threw bottles at police near the Harbor Freeway and Crenshaw Boulevard and officers fired several rounds of rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. A KNX radio reporter covering the protest was hit by a bean bag round and tweeted a picture of it.

A protest organized by Occupy LA set up at Exposition and Crenshaw boulevards, where an estimated crowd of at least 100 demonstrators stopped an Expo Line train, according to Twitter posts.

No arrests were made, but the protest prompted the temporary suspension of the line along a stretch through South LA.

Zimmerman, 29, who was a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Fla., was charged with second-degree murder for the Feb. 26, 2012 slaying of 17-year-old Martin. He said he fired in self-defense amid a volatile confrontation between the two.