Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: An LA CAN Week in Review

Last week LA CAN organized numerous actions and events across the state that received a lot of media coverage. Here is a quick review of just some of the highlights of a busy and successful week.

Play Fair Farmers Field

On May 16, residents from Downtown LA, Pico-Union, and South LA testified at a public meeting on the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed stadium and Convention Center project. Although the hearing was largely filled with boosters who have direct ties to AEG (the developer of the project), community members spoke powerfully about the potential negative impacts that a stadium might have on the community, including gentrification, increased policing, housing displacement, and increased traffic. Another one of the main issues brought up by residents was the lack of sufficient time – 45 days – that the public had to read and analyze the 10,000 page EIR.

The event was covered by a number of outlets. LA CAN’s Pete White was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying “The current and unrealistic 45-day comment period insists that residents and stakeholders read, digest and analyze nine pages per hour, 24 hours per day, starting the day the EIR was released up until comments are due. This is an unrealistic expectation and raises many due process concerns.”

Also covering the event were KPCC, The OC Register, and the Associated Press. In addition, the Natural Resources Defense Council, who early on backed the stadium project, has come out and said that the stadium EIR failed to fully analyze the increased traffice-related health impacts that the stadium would have on the community. They’ve called on AEG to redraft and recirculate the EIR.

Women’s Day in the Park

Last Friday the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition it’s 11th Annual Women’s Day in the Park. The event was covered by ABC7, Spanish TV networks, as well as local media/blogs, like Blogdowntown.

Camping Ban

LA CAN’s Becky Dennison was quoted in the Los Angeles Times last week as saying that the proposed City Hall camping ban is “such a waste of legislative time.” The ban would prohibit sleeping bags, hammocks and bed rolls at City Hall. It is direct response to Occupy LA and in anticipation of the reopening of the City Hall lawn this month. Dennison was specifically speaking to the redundancy of the ordinance since camping is already banned in city parks.

Hunger Action Day

On May 17, members of LA CAN joined over 300 residents from across the state for Hunger Action Day. Hunger Action Day is an annual lobby and advocacy day organized by the California Hunger Action Coalition that provides the opportunity for communities to travel to their State Capitol to push their elected representatives to support and vote  for statewide policies that increase food security and nutrition.

Dale Garrett

Last week Our Weekly published a piece covering LA CAN’s May 10 Action and Vigil to Stop Police Murders which was held in remembrance of LAPD slain community member Dale Garrett.

Images, Footage and Coverage of May 10 Action to Stop Police Murders

 

 

Tenants Win Preliminary Injunction Against Owners of the Huntington Hotel for Discrimination and Illegal Rents

Attorneys at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Steptoe & Johnson, LLP  won a preliminary injunction yesterday that enjoins the Huntington Hotel owners from discriminating on the basis of source of income, disability and age.

The lawsuit was filed in December, 2011 on behalf of four displaced tenants and the community organization the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) . The Huntington owners, who bought the 200 unit building in September 2010, had displaced all but two tenants. After renovating the units, they are leasing up the property, but have refused to accept applications from anyone on public benefits, including testers sent by LA CAN.

The Court found that plaintiffs “submitted ample evidence that the Huntington has engaged in a practice of violating fair housing laws by discriminating against persons based on their source of income” and also that plaintiffs submitted “credible evidence that defendants have discriminated against elderly and disabled tenants.”  Becky Dennison of LA CAN explained: “LA CAN members with disabilities had been turned away from the Huntington, being told the building was only for working people and students.  Not only is this illegal, but completely disregards and disrespects the large community of people with disabilities in great need of housing in Skid Row.”

Plaintiffs had won a previous preliminary injunction that enjoins defendants from renting 50 units for market rates because under a city law, the rents cannot be increased above the amounts they were at while the building was in the Rent Escrow Account Program (REAP).

However, defendants have stated that they will not rent the lower priced units for a year until they are lawfully entitled to charge higher rental rates. “Los Angeles faces a shortage of affordable housing options, especially during these tough economic times,” said attorney Fernando Gaytan. “This landlord’s decision to purposefully keep this valuable affordable housing off the market when it is most needed only exacerbates the city’s housing crisis.”

STOP POLICE MURDERS! THIS Thursday in Memory of the One Year Anniversary of the LAPD Killing of Dale Garrett

We the community residents of Downtown Los Angeles will be hosting a vigil to stop the rising numbers of police killings and murders of primarily young black men across the country. We will gather on this specific date to remember the one year anniversary of the fatal police shooting of community member Dale Garrett.  From the killing of Garrett last year to the shooting and death of 19 year-old Kendrec McDade in Pasadena last month, officer involved killings are on the rise across the country. We are calling for an immediate stop to this epidemic. We hold this vigil to remember that no matter the police are here to protect us and not kill us. We all have the right to due process under the law and not by the tip of a gun. Join your community to raise our loved ones and lift our voices.

Join us THIS Thursday, May 10 at 12:00pm at the Southwest Corner of 5th and Spring St.

Police Commission Finds that Dale Garrett Shooting Last Year was Not Within Policy – But True Justice for Police Murders is Hard to Find

Dale Garrett was shot and killed by LAPD in the Skid Row community last year at this time – the anniversary of the police murder is this coming Thursday.  LA CAN members and other community members will be holding a vigil in his honor calling for the end of police murders and abuse, and accountability for officers.  The vigil will take place on 5th and Spring Streets at noon – PLEASE JOIN US!

Two weeks ago, the Police Commission finally heard the results of the use of force investigation.  Dale was actually shot twice in the back.  Just as witnesses – many of whom were LA CAN members who came forward to provide testimony – had earlier claimed, the shooting was found to be out of protocol by the Commission – though Chief Beck and the Inspector General found it to be within protocol. The Commissioners found:

“In conclusion, Detective A and B’s failure to follow proper protocols or to operate in a manner consistent with Department tactical training, by having and communicating an operational/tactical plan, to include support personnel, unjustifiably and substantially deviated from approved Department training.”

“In conclusion, the BOPC found Detective A’s lethal use of force to be out of policy.”

Although the Commission took this unusual action to overrule the internal report (they find the large majority of shootings to be justified, though communities know this isn’t true), Chief Beck gets to decide the discipline for these officers.  And the LA Times reported recently that Beck has not been strongly disciplining officers for unjustified shootings – otherwise known as police murders.

While LAPD continues to enforce the most minor violations against poor residents in downtown LA -  sending people to jail for sitting on the sidewalk – their officers are allowed to commit major violations, even kill people, without any consequence.  LA CAN believes criminal charges should be pursued in this case and we will continue to demand police accountability throughout our community – to the policy makers and on the streets.  Stay tuned.

Joel Rubin of the LA Times reported on this today:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd-shooting-20120507,0,5626899.story

The public version of the use of force report is here:

http://www.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/042-11_%20Central%20_OIS.pdf

Remembering Rampart, Remembering the Rebellion, Many Changes, Little Improvement

Written by Leonardo Vilchis and Becky Dennison, on behalf of the Los Angeles Human Right to Housing Collective (of which LA CAN is a member organization)

As so many reflected on the 1992 civil unrest last week, we heard stories of fundamental change in the LAPD and how conditions have changed so much within the City of LA since then. However, given the experiences in our communities in Downtown, South and East LA, we couldn’t disagree more. The fact that there have been changes does not mean that there have been improvements. Extreme poverty, lack of meaningful employment, a continuously growing housing and homelessness crisis, a deepening economic and social inequality, and continuing police abuse and racial profiling reflect the same conditions that spurred the uprising in 1992. At the same time we are still dealing with the self-righteous arrogance in LAPD that made Daryl Gates famous. Last week the Times reported that Chief Beck was giving only “conditional reprimands” to officers committing major violations, including unjustified police shootings (sound familiar?), causing discord among some Commissioners and the public. Yet, just one week later spurred by the 20-year anniversary, the same media outlets report on the supposed “changed” LAPD.

It is fitting, then, that the public meeting on the future of the Old Rampart Station also happened last week. The Old Rampart Station, a symbol of police abuse and arrogance, has been abandoned for the last 4 years and is a painful reminder of LAPD’s past that is worsened by the abandonment, neglect in and around the property, and a total disregard for the community that surrounds it. When the LA Human Right to Housing Collective chose the Old Rampart Station for its International Human Rights Day actions last December, it was selected as a symbolic representation of much that is wrong in the City of Los Angeles: the site of some of the worst and most pervasive police abuses in LA’s history; an abandoned and blighted City-owned property that could instead be used for human rights promoting purposes; the City’s budget priority of more than 50% of its budget going toward LAPD when housing, libraries, schools, parks, and other human rights programs are seeing devastating cuts; and the list could go on and on. The Housing Collective created a human rights camp that cold weekend in December to call attention to the abandonment and to demonstrate to the City and LAPD that this site should be used for community serving purposes. What is the city’s response? Rampart is planned to be the new headquarters for LAPD’s Metro Division, including SWAT.

There are two problems with the Metro/SWAT proposal. First, the community was unaware of these plans. There was no community input process in deciding what should happen at a space that holds such painful memories of crime and abuse. In fact, the LAPD representative at last week’s public meeting admitted there had been no community involvement, simply stating they weren’t required to do it. Second, what is the message sent by establishing a SWAT training ground in a community that was victimized and abused by the Police? The site will be turned into a militarized zone controlled by the police without providing any community services. The self-righteous arrogance of LAPD and the complicity of the city with its plans ignore the community’s needs and reaffirm the role of the police as an occupying force in Rampart. Certainly nothing has changed, and most definitely we see no improvement. The police plans and policies do not take into consideration community’s needs and desires.

Since January, local residents and other concerned Angelinos have been working to Reclaim Rampart – to ensure that community-serving purposes are included in any plans for the site and that the site is not solely used to house Metro Division, which will not serve the local community. Community members are also demanding transparency and more comprehensive public input as the City moves forward with its plans. The hearing was the first step, but much more work is needed by local residents, City Officials, and other concerned residents to be sure that LAPD is accountable to the community on this infamous site, and fully accountable to our communities across Los Angeles. That will be a change to welcome and a certain improvement for this community.

The March/April 2012 Community Connection is NOW AVAILABLE!

Click on the photo above to read the

March/April 2012  the Community Connection.

A PDF version is also available for download HERE.