Yesterday the LA CAN Community Watch Team came upon the Central City East Association (CCEA) Security Guards attempting to use bolt cutters to illegally confiscate the property of a Skid Row resident. The team intervened to prevent them from stealing the private property, which was clearly not abandoned. However, when the team returned an hour later, the property was gone and the lock was cut.
A September 2012 decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction that bars the City of Los Angeles and LAPD from seizing the property of Skid Row residents. However, private Business Improvement District officers continue to illegally steal property from residents. They regularly claim that this property is abandoned, but LA CAN has documented time and time again that this is not the case. More often than not the property belongs to residents who step away for a few minutes to use the restroom, get a meal, or engage in other life sustaining activities.
Dozens of homeless individuals, organizers, and advocates were on hand on April 23 as the Homeless Bill of Rights and Fairness Act (also known as Assembly Bill 5, or AB 5) passed out of the Judiciary Committee of the California State Assembly with at 7-2 vote.
LA CAN sent a delegation up the Sacramento to make sure the voices of Skid Row residents were heard on this important legislation. Amongst other things, the Homeless Bill of Rights would protect homeless people’s right to use public space and engage in life-sustaining activities such as sleeping and resting. It would also create hygiene centers for people who don’t have access to bathroom or basic hygiene needs and protect homeless peoples’ right to personal property and belongings.
However, contrary to many reports (including the ABC 7 clip posted above), AB 5 would not permit anyone, homeless or not, to harass people on the streets or maliciously block sidewalks. Nor would it allow people to urinate and defecate publicly or allow homeless people to harm or interfere with local businesses’ operations.
AB 5 is not about creating special rights. Rather, it is about ensuring equal rights for homeless individuals.
The successful Judiciary Committee vote marked a win for a growing movement. However, we still have a lot of work ahead. AB 5 now heads to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, and then, hopefully, to the full assembly by late Spring/early Summer. For more information or to get involved, visit wraphome.org.
Deborah Burton is just the latest target of the City Attorney’s ongoing campaign to squash protest and political dissent in Los Angeles, including other LA CAN members.
Deborah, a longtime LA CAN member and organizer, has been unjustly charged with three counts of assault for alleged actions during a legal protest in April 2011. She was not charged until August 2012, 16 months later, and public records show that in the interim months LAPD and the Central City East Association actively lobbied the City Attorney to criminally charge LA CAN members involved in a monthly protest of the CCEA’s “Skid Row Walk.”
To learn more about Deborah’s case, click HERE. Stay tuned for more information!
Yesterday, LA CAN was featured on Voices on the Frontlines with Eric Mann. Listen below to find out more about the coordinated efforts of CCEA, LAPD, and the City Attorney to silence the human rights work of LA CAN.
Deborah Burton, longtime LA CAN member and organizer, has been unjustly charged with three counts of assault for alleged actions during a legal protest in June 2011. She was not charged until August 2012, 14 months later, and public records show that in the interim months LAPD and the Central City East Association actively lobbied the City Attorney to criminally charge LA CAN members involved in a monthly protest of the CCEA’s “Skid Row Walk.” Deborah is just the latest target of the City Attorney’s ongoing campaign to squash protest and political dissent in Los Angeles, including other LA CAN members.
Since 2006, LA CAN has led the charge against LAPD’s Safer Cities Initiative (SCI), which has brought up to 150 additional cops into the Skid Row community and resulted in mass criminalization of homeless and poor, mostly African American, residents. In 2011, LA CAN and partners began protesting the CCEA’s “Skid Row Walk” because it was a tool to promote SCI, perpetuated myths about homeless people, and lacked the voice and participation of community residents.
Immediately after we began our protests, the CCEA, LAPD, and the City Attorney’s office began coordinating and strategizing on ways to stop LA CAN’s opposition to the walk. The quotes below, from emails obtained through Public Records Request, begin to shine light on just how CCEA was trying to use LAPD and the City Attorney to criminalize first amendment rights.
In one email in April 2011, CCEA’s Estela Lopez assures her colleagues that the City Attorney informed her that “they would explore all legal options to protect us and allow us to conduct our walk without interference from LA CAN.” In another email sent on June 1, 2011 — the evening of the purported assault — Estela confirms they were able to complete their walk “as planned” and never mentions being assaulted or injured by Ms. Burton or anyone else from LA CAN. In a July 2011 email from LAPD’s Lieutenant Paulson, she tells the City Attorney that she needs information about the filing and documentation of cases related to the public safety walk because “This is going to be an ongoing problem until it gets too costly for them.”
Stay tuned for more information about the documents obtained.
The targeting of LA CAN members exercising first amendment rights by LAPD, at the demand of business leaders, is clearly unjust. The City Attorney should not prosecute this unsubstantiated case and should not continue his past history of criminalizing protest and first amendment rights.
LA CAN members and supporters will be calling on the City Attorney over the coming weeks to drop these charges and not pursue this trial. Please join us! You can call the City Attorney’s office directly (213-978-8100) and/or stay tuned for other ways to get involved by spreading the word through social media and other public actions.
BRAND NEW Public Enemy Video for “Get Up Stand Up” (feat. Brother Ali) featuring LA CAN footage and clips from our Operation Skid Row Mini-Documentary!
The word of a Skid Row TB “outbreak” traveled quickly. Local, National and International media outlets picked up the story and ran with it–most forgot to check the facts. Concerned family members and supporters called and emailed LA CAN members to make sure they were okay and taking all of the necessary precautions. The story created an environment of fear and panic and those elected and paid to assuage those fears were nowhere to be found.
Just imagine if you lived in or near an area where the LA Times reported the following:
“LAPD officers who patrol the area have long been warned to be on the lookout for people on the street who exhibit symptoms of communicable diseases which include Hepatitis to HIV and staph infections to drug-resistant TB. Officers must also contend with individuals who have parasitic conditions like scabies and lice.”
”The email also recommends that officers carry protective masks them with them into the field and don them “if officers have reason to believe an individual is infected with TB.”"
You would definitely be afraid, right? However, how would you feel if the truth sounded more like this?:
Becky Dennison, Co-Director LA CAN, facilitated a robust conversation between skid row community residents and officials from the Department of Public Health. As you could imagine there would be many questions, concerns and recommendations offered by residents:
There were many facts offered by the media that LA CAN challenged, and come to find out so did the Department of Public Health.
“Public health officials have launched a new, coordinated attack to contain a persistent outbreak of tuberculosis on downtown Los Angeles’ skid row, including a search for more than 4,500 people who may have been exposed to the disease.”
“Local and federal officials are particularly concerned because the cases are linked to one relatively small geographic area and one vulnerable population. But officials are concerned that the outbreak could spread beyond skid row if action isn’t taken.”
Genral Dogon, LA CAN wanted to know if a person could get TB by simply touching someone’s property. DPH, in no uncertain terms told him:
Brother Aazim Muhammad, LA CAN wanted to know how he heard about the TB situation from a relative in Philadelphia, PA and while officials in Los Angeles apparently were not going to inform him until:
Jeff Dietrich, Hippie Kitchen wanted to clarify how TB is actually spread and who’s at greatest risk:
This is just a sample of the dialogue, uncut. Check back because we will continue to add excerpts over the next couple of days.
Last night, February 6, was the first Wednesday of the month – the day that up to a few months ago was designated for the so-called “Skid Row Safety Walk” by the Central City East Association. LA CAN has continued using the first Wednesday of the month for a real, community-based public safety walk that engages residents in current health and safety projects, and promotes participation in our other human rights work.
However, around 6 pm it was clear that the police presence was unusually high, even for Skid Row. On Wall St. there were 20-25 squad cars and 50+ LAPD officers outside of Central Division. As we continued our walk, we saw dozens of instances of LAPD officers pulling up on residents, cuffing them, and rifling through their personal possessions for extended periods of time. More often than not, these residents were then uncuffed and left to re-organize their possessions without any explanation for why they were detained.
This pattern continued today as our Community Watch police monitoring team documented at least 10 incidents in less than an hour.
It is clear that there has been an enforcement policy change in recent days. The amount of harassment and civil rights violations that have occurred in the last week are above their regularly high rates, and the constant LAPD presence on every corner from Main St. to Central has only exacerbated tensions and escalated the feeling of occupation that has come to characterize our community. Our community will not accept this and we will fight back against this resurgence of the occupation of Skid Row.
LA CAN remains steadfast in its dedication to defending the human and civil rights of Skid Row residents – and we will respond accordingly by documenting this surge in policy presence, educating residents to know their rights and to defend them, and organizing our community to stop the abusive, racist policing in Downtown LA.
We’ve just released a NEW Short Documentary on the Historic Operation Skid Row Festival that was organized by LA CAN and Chuck D of Public Enemy last January 16 on Gladys St. in Skid Row.
The film features performances by Public Enemy as well as narratives and footage that show the devastation and injustice that have come as a result of LAPD’s Safer Cities Initiative (SCI) and Broken Windows policing – and the growing resistance of Skid Row residents who are standing up and fighting back!
It is especially important that this be shared with our folks up in Oakland, where William Bratton (former LAPD Chief and architect of SCI) has just been hired as a “Police Consultant.”
Click HERE (or on the photo above) to view the new site!
LA CAN is proud to announce that we have launched our new and much improved website. Many longtime followers will know that this has been a longtime coming!
Beyond being the new online home of LA CAN, the new site is designed to be a resource for community members, academics, students, media, and supporters alike.
It features critical information – videos, community action research and reports, testimonials, art, histories, narratives – that highlight and create a comprehensive picture of the struggle for human rights that is occurring in Downtown, South Los Angeles, and beyond.
Lastly, the site is designed to be a living and dynamic database and information source. Please check out it today, but we encourage all of our supporters to regularly check back as we will be unveiling other features and posting critical content on a weekly basis.
