Y E AR RevIieNw
Century City/ Westwood December 27, 2019 – January 9, 2020
Top 8 Stories o f 2019
Pages 5-11
NEWS CenturyCity-WestwoodNews.com
Anti-Semitic Graffiti Vandal Arrested Man who allegedly spraypainted anti-semitic messages at Westwood Charter Elementary, other schools, arrested By Sam Catanzaro Police have arrested a man suspected of spray-painting anti-semitic graffiti at Westwood Charter Elementary and other schools in Los Angeles. On Friday, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) took into custody Israel Herrera Perez, 44, on suspicion of felony vandalism for allegedly vandalizing three schools in the Los Angeles area and spray painting over a dozen cars. Perez was held on $120,000 bail, according to the LAPD.
“Investigators were also able to connect Perez to similar acts of vandalism in the Calabasas Community in Los Angeles County,” the LAPD wrote in a press release. “The investigation is ongoing and no additional suspect(s) have been identified at this time.” Investigators have not determined a motive behind the vandalism spree. On Wednesday, the LAPD released a video of an individual believed to have sprayed graffiti throughout the Westside between Saturday and Monday. According to the LAPD, “numerous” vehicles were spray-painted with graffiti between 6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday in the Beverlywood and Pico- Robertson areas. At Westwood Charter, located at 2050 Selby Avenue, on Tuesday staff discovered paint that was spilled appearing to form a swastika, as described in a message sent to parents and posted on Twitter. “Today we found graffiti on the playground
that included paint spilled in different places around campus, including one design that appeared to form a swastika,” reads the message from Westwood Charter Principal Kathy Flores. “This is an unfortunate act of vandalism as we have many multicultural events planned for our students this week.” According to Flores, Westwood Charter immediately called law enforcement who responded to the school and took a police report. The graffiti was removed before students were in the area. Also on Tuesday, anti-Semitic graffiti was found at the Bel Air campus of American Jewish University (AJU) and likely Milken Community High School. Phrases and images were tagged on AJU’s sign on Mulholland Drive and also across the street on a retaining wall on school property, according to Jeffrey Herbst, the AJU’s president. “Time to pay” was one phrase, according to Herbst, while something close to “Time to do
Photo: LAPD
Footage released by the LAPD showing the car of a man believed to have spray painted anti-semitic messages at local elementary schools.
the time” was the other phrase. While the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) did not confirm the third school to be tagged, they did say that two schools on the 1500 block of Mulholland Drive had been vandalized. Milken Community High School, a private Jewish high school and middle school, is less than a mile from AJU on Mulholland Drive.
Supreme Court Turns Down Homelessness Law Ruling ties hands for lawmakers grappling with encampments, celebrated by homeless advocates. By Sam Catanzaro The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal in a case surrounding a Boise, Idaho law that would have made it illegal to sleep in public places, a setback for many West Coast cities grappling with a growing homelessness crisis. The decision, issued by the court without comment Monday, leaves in place earlier rulings by the 9th Circuit appeals court, in the case Martin v. Boise, that homeless persons cannot be punished for sleeping outside on public property in the absence of adequate alternatives. The ruling is binding in the 9th Circuit, covering nine states including California, a state home to 1/4 of the nation’s homeless population. “No one should treat this as an endorsement or acceptance of sidewalk encampments. Everyone should treat this as a firm and indisputable mandate for more housing, more shelter, and more services,” said Councilmember Mike
Bonin following the decision. Lawyers representing Boise argued that the decision ultimately hurts the individuals the law claims to protect by hindering lawmakers within the 9th Circuit from managing homeless encampments that pose a public safety risk. “Public encampments, now protected by the Constitution under the Ninth Circuit’s decision, have spawned crime and violence, incubated disease, and created environmental hazards that threaten the lives and well-being both of those living on the streets and the public at large,”
said lawyers for Boise in court documents. Los Angeles County, where homelessness increased 16 percent the past year, and many other governing bodies backed Boise in its petition to the Supreme Court. “The Martin decision forbids municipalities from enforcing common sense ordinances that prohibit public camping unless those local governments can offer acceptable shelter to every unhoused person in the jurisdiction. In other words, the County could be powerless to address camping in public places by anyone until
it provides shelter for everyone,” the County wrote in September. LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl who represents Santa Monica and is a Santa Monica resident, however, voted against backing Boise’s petition in September. “We need to continue to provide more and more housing and shelter and services, not simply ticket and arrest,” Kuehl said. This was a view shared by lawyers representing homeless individuals and their advocates following the Supreme Court’s decision Monday. “We’re thrilled that the Court has let the 9th Circuit decision stand so that homeless people are not punished for sleeping on the streets when they have no other option,” said Maria Foscarinis, Executive Director at the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. “But ultimately, our goal is to end homelessness through housing—which is effective and saves taxpayer dollars—so that no one has to sleep on the streets in the first place. We hope that the 9th Circuit decision will help communities find the political will to put that housing in place. Housing, not handcuffs, is what ends homelessness.” The case now returns to the 9th Circuit. The City of Boise says it is evaluating options for its next actions.