Los Angeles

Los Angeles Is Creating A Model For Fighting Mass Incarceration

September 2, 2022 Mark Engler and Paul Engler, Dissent Magazine. Strategize! California, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Los Angeles, Mass Incarceration

Los Angeles, California - In the late spring and summer of 2020, protests for racial justice erupted in response to the police murder of George Floyd. Mobilizations spread throughout the country and continued for months, producing what scholars identified as arguably the largest wave of mass protest in U.S. history. However, as with other surges of popular uprising, the actions died down over time. At that point, critics claimed that protesters made a lot of noise and drew public attention but were unable to translate their discontent into concrete policy gains. When the moment of peak protest passed, these detractors held, the movement disappeared with little to show for its efforts.

Black Angelenos Face ‘Whiplash After Whiplash’ Of Losing Safe Housing

August 10, 2022 Steve Chiotakis, KCRW. Educate! California, Homelessness, Housing, Los Angeles, Police

This morning, the Los Angeles City Council got an earful from protestors opposing an expansion of LA Municipal Code ordinance 41.18, the city’s controversial “anti-camping” law that has been maligned by activists for unfairly targeting unhoused people. The law will now include a ban on sitting, laying, or sleeping within 500 feet of schools or daycares. The council voted 11-3 to approve the expansion after a raucous meeting, which was temporarily put into recess when a member of the public climbed over the podium and was handcuffed. Reporter Adam Mahoney spoke to unhoused residents about what they thought of the law. He says he received mixed responses for his recent Capital B news investigation. “There are some folks who didn't even know that 41.18 existed, right?

Congresswoman Karen Bass And The Will To Intervene

July 24, 2022 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Black misleadership class, California, Elections, Karen Bass, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California - What will it mean if the Vice Chair of the board of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) becomes the Mayor of Los Angeles? Meaning, of course, Karen Bass, the current Vice Chair of that soft power tool, who is also Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa. Come November, the Black Congresswoman representing parts of Los Angeles will most likely become its mayor, having pulled well ahead of Rick Caruso, the billionaire real estate developer who spent more than $41 million on his primary campaign. Bass spent a mere $3.28 million but still finished ahead of Caruso, with 43% of the vote compared to his 36%. Bass and Caruso were the two candidates left standing after LA’s top-two primary in June.

Los Angeles Considers Ban On New Gas Stations

June 25, 2022 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Create! climate crisis, gas station ban, Los Angeles, Oil and Gas

The idea might seem improbable. The City of Angels is infamous for its reliance on cars. Its public transit system is considered one of the worst in the world, according to Jalopnik, and the amount of cars on the road meant that LA commuters wasted 46 hours each in traffic in 2020, according to the Urban Mobility Report. Despite this, the city announced on Wednesday that it was joining a growing movement of metropolises looking to stop adding gas stations. “We are ending oil drilling in Los Angeles. We are moving to all-electric new construction. And we are building toward fossil fuel free transportation,” LA Councilmember Paul Koretz, who wrote the proposed policy, said in a statement. “Our great and influential city, which grew up around the automobile, is the perfect place to figure out how to move off the gas-powered car.”

People’s Summit For Democracy Ends With A Bold Plan For The Future

June 14, 2022 People's Dispatch. Resist! Los Angeles, People's Summit, Summit of the Americas, Transformation

The organizers of the People’s Summit for Democracy were determined to close out the summit with a lasting impression on the last day, June 10. The People’s Summit was organized in opposition to the Summit of the Americas that was organized by the US-influenced Organization of American States (OAS) and hosted by the US in Los Angeles. The Summit of the Americas has historically been a place for the US to dictate a political agenda to the Latin American countries. The Summit of the Americas has been plagued by difficulties since May 10, when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced that he would boycott the Summit in protest against the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the Summit. Following AMLO’s boycott, a host of Latin American leaders announced their own boycotts of the Summit.

Protest Against Exclusions At Summit Of The Americas In Los Angeles

June 11, 2022 Telesur English. Resist! Latin America, Los Angeles, People's Summit, Summit of the Americas

Los Angeles, California - "We are here today in front of the Convention Center protesting against the Summit of the Americas and particularly the exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. It is not really the Summit of the Americas if a large part of that continent and the peoples of Latin America are excluded from the Summit," Answer Coalition director Brian Becker told Sputnik. They also demand an end to the blockade of Cuba, he added. The demonstrators shouted chants directed at U.S. President Joe Biden for his decision to leave out these three nations. Participants also carried Cuban, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan flags and banners. "Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela," "Stop the U.S. destabilization campaign and media lies," and "End all U.S. sanctions and blockades" were some of the phrases read on the demonstrators' placards.

Summit Of The Americas Marked By Brutal Police Repression

June 10, 2022 Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Los Angeles, Police, police brutality, Summit of the Americas

The opening day of the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California, was stained by brutal police repression of demonstrations. The meeting has already been marred by controversy surrounding the White House’s refusal to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, giving rise to boycotts and complaints from many other nations of the Americas. Perhaps most notable was the refusal of Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to attend. News outlets and social media platforms shared numerous videos of the scene in which a towering Los Angeles police officer violently attacked a woman who was speaking into a bullhorn, tackling her onto the pavement and delivering blows to her face.

Los Angeles Police Obstructs Democratic Right To Protest

June 2, 2022 People's Dispatch. Educate! California, Free Speech, Los Angeles, Police, Protests

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has refused to grant a permit for a march on the 9th annual Summit of the Americas, denying the organizers and supporters of the People’s Summit their democratic right to protest, organizers announced in a press statement. The People’s Summit organizers applied for a permit as early as February 25 for their march on June 10. They say that the LAPD has stalled for months and claimed that the Secret Service and Federal Government were contributing to the delay. The right to free speech and protest is protected under the US constitution. People’s Summit organizers are still fighting for a permit, but plan to march regardless of the outcome.

Los Angeles: One Step Closer To Community Control Over Sheriffs

June 2, 2022 Sol Marquez, Fight Back News. Create! California, Community Control, Los Angeles, Police, Victory

Los Angeles, California - In a historic move, the Civilian Oversight Commission voted in favor of a resolution to support a charter amendment giving the LA Board of Supervisors, the Civilian Oversight Commission (COC) and Office of Inspector General stronger oversight of the LA County Sheriff's Department. The vote also included the ability of the Board of Supervisors to remove a Sheriff for misconduct. Members of Centro CSO, impacted families of police killings, Black Lives Matter-LA, the ACLU, and Check the Sheriffs Coalition joined the meeting and spoke in favor of the Board of Supervisors placing a November 2022 ballot measure to win community control over the LA County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Villanueva.

55,000 SEIU Members May Strike In Los Angeles

May 1, 2022 Julia Wallace, Left Voice. Resist! California, Health Care, Labor Movement, Los Angeles, Strike, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

A majority vote of yes for the strike would mean that our union’s bargaining committee can call a strike if the LA County Board of Supervisors refuses to meet union demands in the continuing negotiations. The strike is our most powerful weapon. It’s a refusal to work until our demands are met, insisting that we have the right to protect ourselves, feed our families, be respected, and improve our working conditions to provide a better service to the community. It’s absurd that many of us are working for low-income homeless folks, and we qualify for those same services because our pay is so low. During the surge in Covid cases, our working conditions worsened extremely. During homeless outreach meetings, my coworkers weekly described finding dead bodies in tents during their visits to homeless encampments.

The Surveillance And Policing Of Looted Land

January 27, 2022 Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, Black Agenda Report. Resist! LAPD, Los Angeles, Police, Surveillance

The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition is a community group rooted in the Skid Row community on Tongva/Gabrielino land, stolen territory known as Los Angeles. Over the past decade, we have been working to build power to abolish LAPD surveillance. This report grew out of that organizing and examines the relationships of policing and surveillance to displacement, gentrification, and real estate development. We study those relationships with a focus on the process that has always bound policing and capitalism together: colonization. We often hear that police are an occupying army in our communities. Throughout the history of imperialism and colonization, occupying forces have used surveillance to monitor and contain populations they deem threatening, all for the purpose of maintaining their violent rule.

Factory Workers Strike Against Poverty Pay And Abuse By Management

November 29, 2021 Edgar Reyes, Left Voice. Resist! BCGTM, Los Angeles, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

Santa Fe Springs, California - In Santa Fe Springs, California, located in the Los Angeles area, a group of largely immigrant Latina factory workers is waging a high-stakes strike against the multibillion-dollar food manufacturing company Rich Products. Since November 3, the group of well over 100 strikers has been on the picket line at the Rich Products-owned Jon Donaire Desserts plant, demanding better wages, improved retirement benefits, and changes to the company’s abusive, punitive point system, which provides workers with only three days of sick leave per year. The striking workers are members of Local 37 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union (BCTGM)—the same union that has waged multiple strikes across the country against major multinational food manufacturing companies thus far this year.

LA Sheriff’s Department Needs To ‘Curb Influence Of Problematic Subgroups’

September 27, 2021 Celeste Fremon, Witness LA. Educate! LASD, Los Angeles, Police, Police abuse

The long anticipated report on the deputy gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was released on Friday, Sept. 10. And it has a lot to say. The 230-page report by the nonprofit RAND Corporation was commissioned by the LA County Board of Supervisors, who are fed up with the deputy gang issue, and it contains a list of interesting conclusions about what needs to be done about the problem of deputy cliques that has plagued the nations largest sheriff’s agency for approximately half century. “At their worst,” the authors write, these “sub-groups encourage violence, undermine the chain of command, and gravely harm relationships with the communities that LASD is dedicated to serve.” And, because these deputy gangs/cliques/subgroups have existed for so many decades, the report’s authors admit that efforts to change this deputy subgroup culture will likely be met with “internal resistance.”

A Global Anti-Olympics Movement Rises

August 8, 2021 Sam Carliner, Waging Nonviolence. Resist! Displacement, Los Angeles, NOlympics, Olympics

Just three months into 2021, police officers wearing riot gear descended on an encampment of houseless people in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, forcing residents out in a sweep that went viral on social media. For Los Angeles-based activist Gigi Droesch, the videos were reminiscent of a park sweep that took place in 2015 on the other side of the world — in Tokyo. “When I was looking at the footage from the Tokyo sweep, it looked really similar to our own footage,” Droesch said. “The way the police were hassling residents — it was the same sort of thing. There were people who were unhoused in this park, and the police came and violently swept them away.” While some might think it’s a big jump to go from Los Angeles to Tokyo, it was a natural conclusion for Droesch, who has spent the past several years involved in an international movement to end the Olympics and the displacement, policing and militarization that the games bring to hosting cities.

Unions Call For L.A. County Shutdown In January

December 23, 2020 Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times. Create! COVID-19, Los Angeles, Unions, Worker Rights

In a move that reflects the desperation of teachers, nurses, healthcare, grocery and hotel employees, their influential unions are calling for a strict month-long Los Angeles County shutdown in January to control the raging COVID-19 pandemic, save lives and ultimately allow for a quicker reopening of schools and the economy. Evidence of mounting frustration and anxiety has also emerged in newly released surveys of teachers and parents as most campuses across L.A. County remain closed to in-person classes. The union coalition called for what it described as a “circuit breaker” in a letter Wednesday night to the county Board of Supervisors and in an online petition.

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