Video: Safer Cities Policing

This videos captures LAPD brutalizing a downtown resident that suffers from mental illness. LA CAN provided a copy of this video to the Public Defenders Office after learning that the resident was being offered a lengthy prison sentence, without any real investigation. During the Preliminary Hearing the judge ruled that the resident was not fit to stand trial in his own defense. Instead, he was ordered to undergo a six-week psychological evaluation.

This video captures a 17-year old child being abused by LAPD in San Julian Park on Skid Row. This teenager arrived in downtown in search of his mother who had been homeless for nearly four years. He left a court ordered placement home and was suffering from extreme mental distress. Upon arrival in Skid Row he found his mother who instructed him to return to his placement. While he slept in the park she called the LAPD [Central Division] to assist her in this task.  Instead, she witnessed LAPD brutally attack her child and when she attempted to stop the attack she too was arrested.

LA CAN was contacted by the Public Defenders Office and learned that the mother–who has no criminal record and has never been arrested–is facing lengthy jail time. And, that her teenage son was charged, given a plea deal, and sentenced without her knowledge. She now has this videotape and scores of witnesses that will aid in her defense. There is also a strong possibility that her son will have his sentence reversed as well.

Gentrification at its finest–progress for some and criminalization for everyone else.

The beating of an African-American woman, in broad daylight, while hundreds of witnesses watched and protested.

This video captures the voices of residents speaking out against the Safer Cities Initiative during its first year anniversary. As you can tell from the videos above things have not gotten better, they have gotten progressively worse. Lend your voice, power and opinion to end the Safer Cities Initiative in downtown Los Angeles. Join the fight against human rights violations at home and abroad!