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.

Join us TOMORROW for our Monthly Protest of the Central City East Association’s Skid Row “Neighborhood Watch Walk!”

LA CAN and Operation Skid Row in the News

The Game Changers Project was one of the many groups and outlets that covered January’s Operation Skid Row. This week, MSNBC and The Grio posted the piece on Operation Skid Row created by Carl Seaton, Game Changer Fellow.

Sign On to Support Transparency and Community Participation in the Downtown LA Football Stadium Process

Los Angeles Community Action Network, Physicians for Social Responsibility and a growing number of organizations are currently working to ensure that there is a transparent and participatory Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process for the proposed Farmers Field/LA Convention Center.

Please consider supporting these efforts by adding your organization to this sign-on letter, which will be sent to the Los Angeles City Council Ad Hoc Committee on the Proposed Downtown Stadium and Event Center (Councilmembers Perry, Cardenas, LaBonge, Reyes and Rosendahl).

The EIR process includes points for community engagement and comments on a land use change that will impact the surrounding area for generations to come. It is one of the strongest tools built into law that community members and residents can use to weigh in and voice their opinions and concerns on projects that will affect their health. Given the size, scope and potential impacts of the proposed stadium/Convention Center project, we are calling on members of the Ad Hoc Committee to take proactive steps to ensure impacted communities can participate in the EIR process and protect individual and community health.

Specifically, we are calling on the Ad Hoc Committee to:

1. Ensure that the EIR review timeframe is expanded from 45 days to 90 days. This project and EIR are at a scale that clearly requires more time for community review and analysis;
2. Support the implementation of a Health Impact Assessment (HIA), to be conducted simultaneously with the EIR review and approval process, and address its findings in your decision making.  An HIA will bring critical qualitative information about community health impacts into this important process; and
3. Ensure that Neighborhood Protection Plans are created for the surrounding communities of Pico-Union, South Park/Downtown, and South Los Angeles, with meaningful participation and input from residents and stakeholders.

Click HERE to read the letter, with the endorsers confirmed to date. If your organization would like to sign on to the letter, please contact Eric Ares at 213.228.0024 or at erica@cangress.org by 12:00 PM on Thursday, March 15^th.

Townhall Meeting THIS Saturday to STOP Special Order 1 and LAPD Spying!

Should LAPD be authorized to spy on, profile, and violate our right to privacy?

Do you take pictures or shoot videos in public?
Do you ask about a place’s hours of operation?
Do you take notes?
Do you draw diagrams?
Do you use binoculars for sightseeing or bird watching?

If you do any of the above and/or many other non-criminal activities, LAPD Considers You a Suspicious Person!!

In March of 2008 LAPD issued Special Order 11 (SO 11), which authorizes LAPD officers to gather intelligence based on “observed behavior.” These behaviors include such everyday non-criminal activities such as listed above. LAPD submits Suspicious Activity Reports to a national information-sharing network which links government and private collectors and users of intelligence data. SO 11 has been edited and superseded by Special Order 1 effective January 2, 2012. The “new” order, while a little more clear in its language, at its core basically contains the same content.

PUBLIC SAFETY OR PUBLIC INSECURITY? STOP LAPD SPYING!!

Join us for a Townhall Meeting for a collective conversation and share thoughts about the campaign, as well as develop clear next steps for how people can get involved in the campaign to rescind LAPD Special Order 1 (formerly SO 11).

Saturday, March 3, 2012 10:30am until 12:30pm

Parking on site and plenty of street parking available.
4 Blocks west of Grand station – Blue Line metro.

Child care available
Light lunch will be served

For further information please go to our websitewww.stoplapdspying.org or contact Hamid Khan at (562) 230-4578 or email at hamidk@cangress.org.

“I’m not conceding that they have a constitutionally protected property right. In fact, that’s my point…that they don’t.”

On February 8, 2012, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (see photos below) heard arguments from the L.A. City Attorney’s Office in its appeal for an overturning of a recent federal court decision that bars the city’s Bureau of Street Services and LAPD from seizing/destroying the property of homeless residents living in Skid Row.

Here are a few selected audio clips that capture the City Attorney Amy Field’s arguments against the preliminary injunction, which include the position that homeless individuals do not “have a constitutionally protected property right.”

Click HERE to hear a full recording of the case.

Today, The Los Angeles Times published an editorial calling City Attorney Trutanich’s ongoing efforts to overturn the injunction “a misguided use of resources.”

The City Attorney’s Office is currently awaiting a response to their appeal. Check back soon as we will be posting the Court of Appeal’s decision as soon as it is released.

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!: LA CAN 2011

A video highlighting the various campaigns, actions, and achievements of LA CAN in 2011!

January/February 2012 Community Connection NOW AVAILABLE!

Click on the photo above to read the January/Februar 2012 Edition of the Community Connection
(or download a PDF version HERE).