Community groups from across the country submit an urgent appeal to the highest international authority on human rights defenders

Steve Richardson, an organizer with the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) commonly known as General Dogon, faces criminal charges and potential incarceration in what appears to be retaliation for Richardson’s recognized and influential human rights work in the Skid Row community of Los Angeles. Just weeks ago, LA CAN and community partners from across the country submitted an urgent appeal on Richardson’s behalf to the highest international authority on human rights defenders. The appeal alleges that the City’s use of the criminal justice system to target Richardson has not only troubled him and others at LA CAN, but also sends “a clear message to other existing and potential human rights defenders.” The appeal urges the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, to investigate the City’s persecution of Richardson.  Review a copy here:

Richardson_UrgentAppeal

The UN has created a reporting mechanism, through which watch dog organizations, community groups and individuals may submit appeals internationally. Sekaggya collects and reviews these appeals and determines whether and how to intervene and pressure government officials to cease the persecution of and protect human rights defenders.

LA CAN’s CommunityWatch teams, which document human rights violations, are well-known to City officials for releasing crucial video evidence of violations that have led to media coverage and civil rights lawsuits against the LAPD.  Dogon is the lead organizer for the CommunityWatch project.

In May, Richardson was one of three LA CAN members unfairly arrested out of a group of over 300 in LA City Council Chambers protesting the Council’s inaction on a rent freeze proposal for rent-stabilized tenants. The charges against all three members were initially dropped, but re-filed against Richardson in August, one week after he gave testimony in Council Chambers about his LA City Commendation Award for completing a violence prevention program.  He returned the Award to the Council since, he argued, it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on after the City’s violent acts against him and others in May.

Richardson’s case is not an anomaly, but one example of a pattern of retaliatory acts faced by those speaking out in defense of human rights in the United States. More than 45 human rights defenders working on housing rights, immigrant rights, workers’ rights, and transportation rights in LA are currently facing criminal charges.

However, unique from the others in LA, the retaliation against General Dogon is essentially an expression of the daily harassment and abuse by LAPD toward residents of Skid Row. Skid Row is home to about 15,000 extremely low-income residents of whom one third are homeless, and, since 2006, the City’s primary response to this housing crisis has been intensified policing through the so-called Safer Cities Initiative.  Safer Cities has resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and citations, many of them similarly unjust as those against Dogon.

NESRI Speaks Out in Solidarity with LA CAN

On December 10th, International Human Rights Day, the National Social & Economic Rights Initiative (NESRI) released this statement:

NESRI Human Rights Day Statement

NESRI is a close partner of LA CAN and we are working together to ensure the human right to housing is upheld in the U.S.  We appreciate their ongoing solidarity and support for LA CAN and our members.

Additionally, NESRI coordinates the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights.  Campaign members in New Orleans and Los Angeles have submitted formal appeals to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders due to the escalating criminalization and retaliation against those speaking out against injustice.

LA Human Right to Housing Collective hosts S’Bu Zikode this week

As an integral part of the work of the LA Human Right to Housing Collective, we have been working closely with the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing along with international organizations that are also struggling for the human right to housing.  This week, it will be our pleasure to have with us S’Bu Zikode, a leader from Abahlali baseMjondolo (visit
http://www.abahlali.org/
for more info).

Please join us at any of the following events:

Thursday, November 18th, 12:00 PM, The California Endowment’s Catalina Room

Details:  Right to Housing Discussion Flyer

Thursday, November 18th, 4:00 PM, USC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, November 19th, 12:00 PM, UCLA School of Law, Room 2448

Friday, November 19th, 6:00 PM, Community event, Union de Vecinos’ Maywood office; 3622 E. Slauson Blvd., 323-230-8194

 

LA CAN is a member organization of the LA Human Right to Housing Collective.  The Collective includes organizations from across the City comprised of public and subsidized housing tenants, rent-stabilized tenants, homeless residents and other low-income people dedicated to ensuring the human right to housing in Los Angeles and beyond.

Hot Off the Press: Community Connection #38

community connect 38new layout final

[click on link above to read CC #38]

In this issue you will join residents as they go “trick or treating” at Mayor Villaraigosa’s mansion, which of course is owned by the public. Also, you can read about the Housing Authority’s latest attempts to silence the voices of public housing tenants who are opposing HACLA’s Annual Plan. You will join the Community Connection in Brazil for the Homeless World Cup as our correspondent covers the games and thriving social movements. As always you will find these stories and many more in your Community Connection.

LA CAN Represents Los Angeles in Geneva, Switzerland

Skid Row resident and Community Organizer, Deborah Burton is headed to Geneva to attend the United Nations’ (UN) Universal Periodic Review.

Created by resolution through the UN General Assembly in March 2006,  the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations.

As one of the main features of the Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed.  The UPR is a cooperative process which, by 2011, will have reviewed the human rights records of every country.

The UPR is one of the key elements of the new Council which reminds States of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The ultimate aim of this new mechanism is to improve human rights situations in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur.

As an organizer with LA CAN and the LA Human Right to Housing Collective, as well as an impacted tenant, Deborah will be there to hear just how the  UNITED STATES reports its housing situation, which should include homelessness, predatory lending, public housing, and section 8 programs. She will also have the opportunity to testify directly to violations of the human right to housing she has personally experienced and/or viewed.  Lastly, Deborah will be networking with social organizations and other officials from around the globe.

To view Deborah and other human rights defenders in action–at the United Nations–watch the Day 1 & 2 excerpts below. Excerpts provided by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

Press Release: Downtown Residents and Faith-Based Groups Protest Increasing Criminalization and Harassment, Human Rights Abuses, and Four Years of Financial Waste

September 29, 2010

Contact: Pete White

Los Angeles

Community Action Network

(213) 228-0024 Ext. 201

Downtown Residents and Faith-Based Groups Protest Increasing Criminalization and Harassment, Human Rights Abuses, and Four Years of Financial Waste

On Thursday, September 30^th, Skid Row residents and faith-based supporters took action all day long to highlight both long-standing and new tactics of criminalization of homelessness and poverty.

Last week, Mayor Villaraigosa touted his purported efforts to end homelessness in Los Angeles by holding a dog and pony show at the New Genesis project in downtown LA.  Yet he failed to acknowledge that his permanent supportive housing program hasn’t funded any new units in more than a year while at the same time the Mayor has refused to end his expensive, failed policing initiative on Skid Row, which has already cost local taxpayers hundreds of millions.

There has been no relationship between crime rates and police resources on Skid Row, where in 2006 former Chief Bratton added 50 extra uniformed officers and as many undercover cops to police a 50-square-block area that’s home to only 15,000 people, most of them poor and black.

Recently, Chief Beck and Councilmember Perry escalated Safer Cities policing to a new low, establishing new “criminals” in faith-based groups distributing free food and other basic necessities in Skid Row.  After more than 35,000 arrests and tens of thousands of citations under Safer Cities, LAPD is not just targeting poor and homeless people but also the people that provide much needed relief to them.

And now this model will be exported — this devastating enforcement strategy was just unveiled last week as a solution for homelessness in Venice.  Criminalization does not end homelessness or poverty – it only exacerbates it.

Hot Off the Press: Community Connection #37

[enter here to read real stories of Angelenos making history] community connect 37FINAL

It is that time again, Community Connection time! This edition will highlight the Los Angeles Right to Housing Collective’ response to the May 21, 2010 melee in City Council. We will take you to the Mayor’s Mansion and LA Council President Eric Garcetti’s home where residents let him know “that we shall not be moved!” We will also bring you news from Northern Cali where executives of Amerland Group, headed by Ruben Islas, have been arrested and charged with manslaughter in connection to faulty fire systems in one of their affordable housing for seniors projects [search back-issues of the CC and read more about Amerland's failures to adequately serve low-income families and individuals].  These are but a few of the stories that are just a mouse click away, join us as we connect communities locally and abroad.

New Directions California: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy

LA CAN is a Co-sponsor of this timely and incredible event. We encourage you to join us on July 8, 2010 at the California Endowment [details below] to learn, grow, and build approaches to substance use and addiction that really make our communities safe.

Los Angeles Film Festival World Premiere: LOST ANGELS

Friday, June 25 7:45 PM
Saturday, June 26 1:45 PM

Regal Theater
downtown at LA Live
800 W. Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90015

Free screening. Tickets are first come, first serve.
(Theater has 300 seats)

Directed By: Thomas Napper
Producer: Agi Orsi
Executive Producers: Gary Foster, Joe Wright, Susan Klos
Writer: Christine Triano
Narrated by: Catherine Keener

Director Thomas Napper’s empathetic, but tough-minded documentary invites us into a part of Los Angeles that many choose to ignore-downtown’s Skid Row. As we meet the distressed area’s residents, including a former Olympic runner, a transgendered punk rocker, and an eccentric animal lover and her devoted companion, their remarkable stories paint a multifaceted portrait of life on the streets. There are undeniable problems-mental illness and addiction are common themes-but there is also hope and a surprising sense of community. Passionate, polemical, and generous in spirit, Lost Angels finds a unique vitality to life on Skid Row and a stirring humanity in those who live there.

Take a look at Linda Milazzo’s film review at the Huffington Post [click link below]

Huffington Post Review of \”Lost Angeles\”

Los Angeles Affordable Housing Developers Arrested for Northern CA Manslaughter of Tenants

June 24, 2010

For Immediate release

Contact:    Becky Dennison  213-840-4664

Pete White 213-434-1594

Los Angeles Affordable Housing Developers Arrested for Northern CA Manslaughter of Tenants

The arrests of Amerland Group founders Ruben Islas and Jules Arthur does not come as a surprise to tenants that still live in properties they control—especially in Los Angeles. For years Amerland has been the center of controversy in Downtown Los Angeles, where the group has been working to gain a stronghold on the area’s residential hotel stock.

Islas, Arthur and three other Amerland executives were arrested yesterday and charged with two counts of manslaughter, one count of elder abuse and two counts of elder abuse causing death in connection with a fire that resulted in three deaths in a Vallejo retirement home in 2008.

Amerland’s failure to maintain fire protection systems has been an ongoing problem for tenants in the Group’s Downtown Los Angeles buildings. In Spring 2008 Amerland was convicted of 36 counts of fire code violations in their two Los Angeles residential hotels, and tenants of these buildings say the problems persist.

Leonard Woods, a disabled, retired worker who has lived at the Alexandria for more than a decade, said fire alarm systems still sound without cause, and disabled, elderly residents are trapped on top floors.

“When the fire alarm goes off, the elevators stop, and if you can’t get down the steps, you’re stuck,” Woods said. “People in wheelchairs, they’re cooked.”

In May 2008 the Los Angeles City Attorney filed criminal charges against the company because of fire code violations at the Rosslyn and Alexandria residential hotels. The complaint alleged, in part, that Amerland failed to repair broken fire systems and clear blocked exits at the Alexandria Hotel. Also, it alleged that the fire protection system in the Rosslyn Hotel was in such disrepair that Amerland employees were supposed to have 24-hour fire watch patrols ordered by the Los Angeles Fire Department. Amerland was later convicted of the charges.

These criminal charges came in addition to civil claims addressing issues such as illegal evictions, harassment of vocal tenants, disability discrimination, and major habitability issues.

For more information go to cangress.wordpress.com

Witnesses are available upon request.