Los Angeles Downtown News 06-22-20

A DEMAND FOR CHANGE BLM leaders present the People’s Budget to city council

June 22, 2020 I VOL. 49 I #23

Numbers Revealed Survey shows rise in homelessness Page 4

ICE Protest Angelenos march to free ‘kids in cages’ Page 10

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JUNE 22, 2020

all areas of LA County, and a total of 2,991 deaths. About 93% of people who died had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 2,779 people (99% of the cases reported by public health); 42% of deaths occurred among Latino residents, 29% among white residents, 17% among Asian residents, 11% among African American residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races. Upon further investigation, 24 cases and two deaths reported earlier were not LA County residents. There are 1,420 people who are hospitalized, 28% of these people are in the ICU and 22% are on ventilators.

Testing capacity continues to increase in LA County, with testing results available for nearly 854,000 individuals and 8% of people testing positive.

LA controller opens public art, urges better care of collection Merchandise at the Rite Aid at 600 W. Seventh Street has been drastically reduced. The store is set to close on June 26.

Photo by William Bergholz

LA County has 34 new deaths related to Rite Aid set to close due COVID-19 to vandalism

By William Bergholz and Christina Fuoco-Karasinski

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he Rite Aid store at 600 W. Seventh Street is slated to close June 26 after it was recently vandalized and looted.

Christopher Savarese, Rite Aid’s public relations director, said the closing is due to consolidation.

The store’s windows are boarded, except for the main entrance’s sliding glass doors, which has a sign reading “Store closing. All merchandise 50% off.” Items in Rite Aid will eventually be reduced to 75% off.

Pharmacy customers can pick up their prescriptions at the Rite Aid on 500 S. Broadway Street.

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he Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has confirmed 34 new deaths and 2,129 new cases of COVID-19, according to a June 17 press release.

This is the highest number of new cases reported in a day, however about 600 cases are from a backlog of test results.

Twenty-three people had underlying health conditions including 17 people over the age of 65 years old, four people between the ages of 41 to 65 years old, and two people between the ages of 18 and 40 years old.

To date, public health has identified 77,189 positive cases of COVID-19 across

Los Angeles Downtown News 161 Pasadena Ave., Suite B South Pasadena, CA 91030 213-481-1448

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A Controller Ron Galperin released a map of 200 sculptures, installations, murals and photos that exist in and on buildings, at parks and elsewhere throughout Los Angeles. This map, accessible at lacontroller.org/cityart, makes the city’s Public Art database—overseen by the Department of Cultural Affairs—available to Angelenos for the first time. Users can navigate the map to see the name of the artwork, its location, the name of the artists and what type of art it is.

“Public art is central to the identity of our communities in Los Angeles,” Galperin said. “It inspires creativity and enhances landscapes in our neighborhoods. Because many Angelenos aren’t visiting museums in person just yet, I hope people will use this map to discover the public art that already exists in our parks and on our streets.”

Galperin’s public art map accompanies his report on the larger City Art Collection, a collection separate from the Public Art database. Also overseen by DCA, the City Art Collection is comprised of 2,500 additional paintings, murals, sculptures, litho-

graphs and photographs displayed at public buildings, on loan or in storage. The report, “A More Modern Approach to City-Owned Art,” found that a substantial portion of city art is missing or damaged and called on DCA to do a better job managing, tracking and maintaining the collection and all cityowned art.

Due to budget and staffing constraints, DCA no longer monitors or manages the City Art Collection at all. Galperin found that: • 18% of the city art collection is missing or stolen.

• 25% of the artworks with condition data are damaged or in poor condition.

• 41% of the collection lacks identifying photographs.

• 50% of the collection is missing appraisal information. The artworks that do have appraisal information were valued at $19 million, but those appraisals are between 16 and 40-plus years old.

Galperin’s report recommended sweeping changes to improve the city art collection and DCA’s art oversight across the city, including developing a full inventory of cityowned art; creating an online catalog and map of all city art; implementing a modern system to manage the collection; and leveraging the expertise of local arts organizations and academic institutions to better showcase city art.

Cedillo, Salvation Army provide meals, gifts to Mead residents

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ouncilman Gil Cedillo and Salvation Army Red Shield provided 200 meals and 100 Father’s Day gifts to residents of William Mead Homes.

Cedillo represents the First Council District, which includes all or parts of the neighborhoods of Glassell Park, Cypress Park, Highland Park, Mount Washington, Solano Canyon, Sycamore Grove, Elysian Park, Echo Park, Westlake, Angelino Heights, Temple Beaudry, Lafayette Park, Chinatown, Forgotten Edge, Lincoln Heights, Montecito Heights, Pico Union, Harvard Heights, Adams-Normandie, University Park, Mid Cities and MacArthur Park.

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Covered help LETTERSCalifornia TO THE will EDITOR

Trump deserves credit I was set to read Jake Pickering’s letter with an open mind but right away he got me when he says in his first sentence that “Vladimir Putin’s puppet, Donald Trump…”

Hold on, Mr. Pickering. Even the Mueller Report noted that Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election “did not entail collusion” with the Trump campaign.

President Trump has acted more decisively and aggressive toward Russia that his immediate predecessor ever did.

As for Pickering trotting out the big number of mental professionals against Trump, I’m sure I could find a number of mental health professionals who hold serious reservation about Joe Biden’s state of mind. Seriously, folks, have you watched Biden when he’s trying to talk to reporters? With a teleprompter, the man can barely form a sentence.

President Trump’s Prison Reform Act deserves credit—even from the likes of Mr. Pickering. He deserves to be reelected.

David Tulanian

OPINION

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Downtown News wants to hear from people in the community.

If you like or dislike a story, let us know, or weigh in on something you feel is important to the community.

Participation is easy. Go to downtownnews.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Letter to the Editor” link. For guest opinion proposals, please email christina@timespublications.com.

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LA’s budget reveals its values Earlier this month, Mayor Garcetti made headlines when he announced $150 million in cuts to the LAPD budget for the 2021 fiscal year. Yet for all the pomp and circumstance, this revised budget does little to address the current economic and social crises facing our city.

The financial and physical devastation resulting from COVID-19 and mass demonstrations have painfully revealed the inequities entrenched in our society. We must boldly rethink our city’s spending priorities and how they serve the community.

With the budget set for final adoption on June 30, the question remains if our politicians have the courage to enact a 21st-century vision grounded in a commitment to equity.

The $150 million budget cut amounts to only 8% of the originally proposed $1.86 billion LAPD budget. Moreover, it does very little to change the city’s current spending pattern, where policing in LA regularly accounts for over half of all general fund expenditures. Data from the state controller shows that LA spends more on police than the next nine cities in California combined. Put another way, LA accounts for more than 20% of all police expenditures in the state, despite accounting for only 11% of its population.

And it’s not even clear these police funds are being put to good use.

Perhaps the biggest shock I encountered when I moved to LA was the liberal use of helicopters, which comprise the largest airborne police division in the world. I can appreciate the advantage of having helicopters at the ready in this traffic-choked city, but are they really needed to patrol 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every single day? And despite costing $1,000 an hour and nearly $20 million a year to operate, the last study evaluating the effectiveness of the program was in the 1960s. To put this cost into perspective, what we spend on just this one police division equates to 80% of the entire Economic and Workforce Development Department budget, which provides vital financial support for businesses and jobs training.

It has also become increasingly apparent over these past several weeks that LA’s 10,000 police officers are not keeping us safe. As a Downtown resident, I’ve seen first-hand officers outnumber protest groups and provoke what was a peaceful demonstration into violence; I’ve had my building forced into lockdown as LAPD conducted sweeps to arrest individuals whose only crime was being out past curfew; I’ve had a gun pointed directly at my ninth-floor window simply because I was chanting “Black Lives Matter.”

Accompanying the veiled commitment of up to $150 million in LAPD cuts is an additional $100 million earmarked for reinvestment in communities of color. All of this $250 million should come from the police budget. The heart of our city’s spending remains the police. This is despite the fact that: • Violent crime and property crime are at generational lows, down over 50% since the 1980s; • Over 66,000 people are facing homelessness in the region, an increase of nearly 70% since 2011; • We’ve lost over 1,300 residents, disproportionately people of color, to COVID-19, with the expectation of more frequent pandemics due to climate change; • 300,000 residents have lost their jobs since March, with little prospect of returning to work.

• We don’t need more cops. Instead, we need more mental health services, housing, environmental initiatives, and reinvestment in the economy.

The foundation for positive change is already in place. Just last year, the mayor announced LA’s Green New Deal, which champions the environment, the economy and equity. Embodying the values of this alternate vision for LA, here are just a couple of ideas on ways we could prioritize our spending: • Increase funding for housing assistance programs and enforcement of tenant protections, making it possible to hit LA’s audacious goal of ending street homelessness by 2028; • Accelerate the planting and maintenance of 90,000 new trees to help cool LA’s streets and improve air quality; • Double down on our commitment to complete streets and Vision Zero initiatives, which aim to make our streets safe and accessible to everyone; • Expand job training programs that target underrepresented individuals so all Angelenos can share in LA’s new green economy.

Following this framework, LA can begin to address the systemic inequity in our society, which COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated.

Visionary change is possible. As we learned earlier this week, Minneapolis has taken the bold step to dismantle its police department and rethink public safety. The solution for LA might look different, but it needs to start with the recognition that our strength as a city comes not from the size of our police force, but through our ability to provide for the well-being of all community members. Understanding this, many activists have been advocating for an alternative “People’s Budget.” May our politicians listen to them.

Garrett Rapsilber DTLA resident HR&A Advisors consultant

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JUNE 22, 2020

Survey shows rise in homelessness

By Downtown LA News Staff he Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s 2020 Greater Los Angeles Homeless County shows 66,433 people in the county are homeless.

This represents a 12.7% rise from last year’s pointin-time count of 58,936. The city of Los Angeles saw a 14.2% rise to 41,290.

The report captures a picture of homelessness in Los Angeles County as it was in January, the time of this year’s Homeless Count, and before the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could be felt, measured, or responded to through efforts such as Project Roomkey, rent freezes, and eviction moratoriums.

The count results also come as protests across Los Angeles and the nation force attention to the effects of systemic racism on policing and human services, highlighting the alarming result that black people are four times more represented among people experiencing homelessness than in the County population overall, and renewing attention to the recommendations of the report issued by LAHSA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness.

Councilman Gil Cedillo said to combat the problem, he will continue to help solve the housing and homeless crises.

“Until we address the structural and systemic drivers of increasing housing supply and access and economic injustice from all levels of government and people in leadership positions, we will continue to see our black and brown communities over represented in homelessness and economic hardship cited as the number one cause of homelessness,” Cedillo said.

“Housing people is good, but preventing homelessness is our calling.”

Tackling the city’s homeless crisis remains a priority for Cedillo. Understanding it takes years to build housing and the thousands of apartment units needed to house every person experiencing homelessness, he knew that it was critical to provide interim shelter and hygiene services in his district to unhoused Angelenos.

Cedillo exceeded the City Council’s pledge to build 222 units of permanent supportive housing and has built 902 units—680 over the goal, in addition to the 810 existing permanent supportive housing units, being second to the top leading 13 other districts in this effort.

Furthermore, in spring 2019, Cedillo opened A Bridge Home offering 41 beds to single women and women with children in a uniquely designed and decorated home environment unlike traditional mass shelters that has become a model for the city. In addition, the Council District 1 Office opened two Safe Parking Programs, one in Glassell Park and one in Westlake, each with 20 spaces that offer a safe place for people

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living in their vehicles to sleep and get connected to services.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas wasn’t surprised by the numbers, given the state of the economy, COVID-19 and circumstances that compound systemic inequalities. However, it’s still disturbing.

“Yet, we thank the voters for the passage of Measure H,” he said.

“This last year, we were able to house more than 22,000 people. But for every 207 people we housed, 227 new people became homeless every day. Our challenge is unique in LA County. In any other region, these numbers would have ended homelessness. But with COVID-19, rising unemployment, and a depressed economy, things will likely get worse before they get better.

“Our mission is to double down and to slow the inflow of people becoming homeless. This means fortifying our safety net in the areas of housing, health care and education, where failure has pushed many people into crushing poverty and onto our streets. This means providing good employment opportunities, stronger tenant protections, and doing more in the way of mental health and substance use services.”

Ridley-Thomas said homelessness is the “moral crisis of our time.”

“We will not rest until we bring everyone in,” he added.

Three years into the 10-year investment from Measure H, LA County’s homeless services system has doubled the number of annual housing placements. Improvements in coordination across agencies through the LAHSA based Housing Central Command have increased the speed of placements. And efforts to protect the most vulnerable people from COVID-19 led to the rapid sheltering of 6,010 people since the March Safer at Home order (4,056 through Project Roomkey,

1,708 in Rec and Parks shelters, and 246 in trailers)— and a goal to move 15,000 of the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness into housing.

Most of the people experiencing homelessness that the homeless system helps house stay housed.

About 88% of the people placed in permanent housing through our system in 2018 have not returned to homelessness. In 2019, the rehousing system helped 22,769 people move into permanent housing. And many more people occupy interim housing this year: 18,395 people experiencing homelessness in L.A. County were sheltered, up from 14,722 the previous year, a 27% increase. The impact of the “A Bridge Home” program was seen in the 39% increase in the city of Los Angeles sheltered population, from 8,944 to 12,438.

Meanwhile, 732 new permanent supportive housing units opened in 2019, and thousands more are expected soon, including 2,360 scheduled to open in the next 12 months of a total construction pipeline of 10,638 homes.

“LAHSA does not like these numbers because we know first-hand that we have done so much to increase the effectiveness of our systems and bring tens of thousands of people inside,” said Heidi Marston, executive director of LAHSA. “This year’s results reinforce that our community must address the deep-rooted causes within larger safety net systems that stop people from falling into homelessness.

“We have doubled the number of housing placements since the implementation of Measure H, we introduced Housing Central Command to speed up placements and, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, we sheltered over 6,000 people in just a few months. Our homeless services system is helping more people than ever, and it’s operating in better alignment with the city, county and other agencies than ever before. And

JUNE 22, 2020

it’s not enough.”

Steeply rising inflow estimates indicate that economic precarity has made homelessness more volatile as well. An estimated 82,955 people fell into homelessness during 2019, and an estimated 52,689 people “self-resolved” out of homelessness—in addition to the 22,769 placed into housing through the homeless services system despite the tight housing market. Put another way, an average of 207 people exit homelessness every day—while 227 people become homeless.

This year’s count revealed that two-thirds of the unsheltered adults experiencing homelessness were homeless for the first time last year, and 59% of them cited economic hardship as the cause.

Public investments continued to be reflected in a growing system that reached more people. Compared to 2015, the system has placed twice as many people into permanent homes (22,769), prevented more than three times as many people from falling into homelessness (4,257), and completed outreach to three times as many people (38,865).

In addition to the enduring impact of systemic racism, an inadequate housing supply, and income inequality drive inflows to homelessness. Homelessness starts rising when median rents in a region exceed 22% of median income and rises even more sharply at 32%; in Los Angeles, the median rent is 46.7% or nearly half of median income. The California Housing Partnership Corporation reports that Los Angeles County would need 509,000 units of affordable housing to meet current demand. Homelessness is also a regional challenge. In Southern California, only San Diego county’s homeless Count decreased, while the other five counties saw increases between 3% and 20%.

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City, community, and neighborhood-level data on homelessness will be released with the Homeless Count results on LAHSA’s website. However, the initial results provide a snapshot of homelessness in Los Angeles County as it was January 2020, the time of this year’s Homeless Count. Amid the 12.7% overall countywide rise, notable Count results appeared for several subpopulations: The number of seniors 62 and over rose 20%, an alarming increase receiving sharp focus during the pandemic. 1,953 seniors have been sheltered in Project Roomkey over the past few months, meaning that 37% of seniors 62 and over are now sheltered.

We saw a 19% increase in Transition-Aged Youth (1824) experiencing homelessness. 7% of the people experiencing homelessness are youth.

As was the case last year, the number of veterans remained relatively steady (0.6% increase), demonstrating that deploying more resources to house people gets results. Veterans have been the focus of the most federal, state and local investment over the past decade.

Improvements in the Count methodology resulted in new baselines for family homelessness and chronic homelessness. A new, more accurate baseline for unsheltered families reflects a doubling of the number of surveys to those families. Better survey methods revealed that chronic homelessness is more widespread than previously understood.

However, the rise in sheltered family members by 39% reflects the increased financial pressures on low-income families.

Restructuring survey questions gave us new specificity on substance use while confirming previous estimates of mental health conditions. 14,284 unsheltered

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people (32%) report substance use, roughly double the prevalence under the previous methodology (this does not reflect population growth, only data refinement).

26% of unsheltered, or 11,711 people, report long-term mental health conditions.

Homelessness remains a problem of local system failures, debunking long-held myths. 80% of unsheltered Angelenos have lived here for more than five years.

Two-thirds of unsheltered Angelenos became homeless in Los Angeles County.

“Our plan going forward requires everyone to have their hands in and their funds in,” Marston said. “Our new strategic plan and command structure lets us see what housing is available in real-time. We’ll need support from the state, county, and city to fund our Homeless COVID-19 recovery plan while we prevent a flood of post-moratorium evictions.

“We can settle for nothing less than ending homelessness for those who experience it and stopping it before it begins for anyone else. That requires us to increase our housing supply. It requires us to transform our foster care, health care, criminal justice, and other systems to stop them from pushing people into homelessness. And it required us to dismantle the legacy of racism that still shapes our region’s vast inequalities of income, wealth, and opportunity.”

Thousands of volunteers participated in the January 2020 point-in-time census of the tens of thousands of homeless youth and families, veterans of the armed forces, and men and women who are our neighbors.

The information gleaned from the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count is used by policymakers, advocates, and service providers to understand better and implement solutions to address homelessness.

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JUNE 22, 2020

Garcetti addresses homeless count

By William Bergholz ayor Eric Garcetti says homelessness in the city is due to economic and racial woes, and he’s teaming with Heidi Marston, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority executive director, and Kirk Patrick Tyler, Skid Row Strategy director, to help combat the problem.

Garcetti discussed the problem during his regular press conferences last week. It was in response to the homeless count. (See related story.)

Throughout the pandemic, the city of Los Angeles brought nearly 6,000 homeless people indoors. The goal is to make sure the people experiencing homelessness remain housed.

To prevent people from becoming homeless, Garcetti wrote a letter to the chief justice of the Supreme Court of California urging the judicial council to keep California’s eviction moratorium in place to protect tenants.

“None of this is easy. None of this is uncontroversial. But leadership demands that we step forward in these moments,” Garcetti said.

Furthermore, Garcetti referenced a Lassa report on how institutional racism is a leading cause of homelessness in the city of Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, where 8% to 9% of the population is African American, a third of all people experiencing homelessness are black.

“If we want to see homelessness go down we have to address racism across the country and continue to hold up the truth that behind every number, every methodology, and percentage point, is a person, a life, and a story that matters and should be told,” Marston said.

With all of that in mind, the City of Los Angeles and Lassa continue to perform better as a system, with the number of people who have moved indoors has significantly increased. More than 6,000 people have been prevented from becoming homeless. More than 22,000 people moved into permanent housing, permanently resolving their homelessness. To continue this effort, Marston called for systemic changes in the housing supply, the economy, the health care system, and the legal system. All of this would be to advance “racial justice and to stem the inflow into homelessness,” said Marston. “Lassa is committed to thinking bigger and bolder and we will not stop until all of our unhoused Angelenos are brought home.”

Tyler, who also heads up the Skid Row initiatives in the city of Los Angeles’ Homelessness Initiatives Office, said it’s time for the “tough conversations.”

“We can’t just leave it at conversations we can’t just leave it at talk. We also need to do some work,” Tyler said.

The work is for providing extensive funding, resources and reparations.

In the mayor’s office, the work has begun through the Project 100 Initiative, which is funded through state HEAP funding. Project 100 takes 100 black women living in Skid Row off the streets and places them in permanent housing, where they will be provided critical supportive services, key challenges inside of the homeless service system will be addressed, cultural awareness and trauma-informed care training for service providers from the executive level will also be provided.

So far, Project 100 has placed these women in permanent housing using rapid rehousing dollars. They’ve also employed lived experienced consultants: women who have experienced homelessness or are currently experiencing homelessness, to guide Project 100 through this important work.

“We actually have to be listening to the folks that are living and experiencing homelessness right now,” Tyler said.

Project 100 has also been able to work with their permanent supportive housing providers and Lassa to increase the number and the speed of housing placements for the most vulnerable, work with Lassa to address structural bottlenecks that contribute to the delay in housing placements through the coordinated entry system,

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and identify biases in the vulnerability index service prioritization decision assistance tool, also known as VI-SPDAT. Project 100 is fully informed and developed based on the recommendations of the ad hoc report, which represents the types of tools that are needed to guide Project 100’s conversations.

“Project 100 is the type of work that we need to be doing in order to bring change to our city. And now is the time that we take bold action. Because otherwise, it’ll be too late. And so I encourage you to join us in this fight to speak up for the people who can’t speak for themselves, and let’s work together to make this city better,” Tyler said.

Garcetti calls for Angelenos tohelp both Marston and Tyler with their efforts.

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Help us keep the tradition going of “never being closed and never without a customer” Thank you for your support.

Coronavirus update Gyms, fitness centers, museums, aquariums, galleries, hotels, day camps and pools reopened last week. The city of Los Angeles advised the businesses to follow health requirements, which are available at coronavirus.lacity.org/business.

“There’s an estimate today that, remember when we hit one hundred thousand deaths in America just a few weeks ago, that by the end of September we’ll have two hundred thousand deaths. Think about all the pain and suffering that we’ve experienced to this point. In an essence they’re projecting that may very likely double. We need to be prepared to do everything we can to keep those numbers down. While we await a permanent solution,” Garcetti said.

The City of Los Angeles has the capacity to conduct 20,000 coronavirus tests every day. These tests will continue to take place at the 25 testing centers, as well as 63 CVS Pharmacy testing centers. Visit coronavirus.lacity.org/testing to schedule a test.

The city of Los Angeles has tested 676,000 Angelenos, up from 581,000 last week.

Those who are diagnosed with coronavirus will receive a call from a county worker to trace who the infected person has been in contact with.

“We need your help when they call. Please pick up. Doing so will save lives,” Garcetti said.

There are also scammers out there doing fake contact tracing. Official contact tracers will never ask someone for their immigration status, social security number, or money.

“Those are all signs of a scam. Beware,” Garcetti said.

Garcetti brought up how Angelenos are also collectively grieving the lives lost due to racism in America. George Floyd was laid to rest in Houston on June 9.

“We can’t just grieve. We need to grow,” Garcetti said.

The City of Angels is working to overcome this challenge. On June 12, the new Civil and Human Rights Department had its first meeting. The members of this department lead by Caprix Maddox have started their work to protect anyone who lives, works in, or visits, the city of Los Angeles from discrimination. The city of Los Angeles will continue to take steps forward for this effort with the city’s budgets and policies, as well as on a national level, the health care systems, the welfare systems, the housing policies, the mental health care systems, the education programs, public dollar spending, and how LAPD officers connect with communities. Opportunities like raising minimum wage and free community college tuition will continue.

“We’ve been tested, we’ve been tried, a lot in these past few days, weeks, and months. But Angelenos are strong and resilient. And this is a city unlike any other. It’s strength is on our streets. It’s strength is in us staying at home. It’s strength is around us in acts of generosity. And even in the most painful moments, believing that we can find common ground and the demand that we each play our part in moving our city forward. We will get through this, this moment, but I call on all of you not just to get through a moment but to give it meaning. To not just save lives but to end racism. Not just to get livelihoods back, but to rebuild a much fairer economy. To make sure we do the things to look back on this chapter not as a chapter of survival and resilience, but of hope and of transformation. I said we’d never stop working for you in the midst of this crisis and we haven’t. Even as one crisis turned to two and two to three crises like homelessness that will predate and post date this requires us to continue. We will never stop caring, never stop listening, and never stop working, to make this a city of angels. I wish everybody peace and strength, love and justice, in our days ahead. Let’s keep walking through these fires together,” Garcetti said.

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JUNE 22, 2020

A girl holds a sign while protesting among hundreds of others in the streets Downtown near Staples center on June 5.

Photo by Sarah Donahue/LA Downtown News

BLM leaders present the People’s Budget to city council

By Sarah Donahue While protests continue in the streets after the killing of George Floyd, activists are meeting politicians face to face, encouraging them to rethink the concept of public safety and law enforcement.

In a special, intimate meeting in city council chambers, a coalition of five activists led by Black Lives Matter urged councilmembers to defund the police, reminding them that this sentiment is not new.

“We want to make it clear that we’ve been calling for the defunding of police for at least five years,” said Melina Abdullah, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA to members of the council. “But this is a moment where the world has cracked open and you all have the opportunity to really be courageous and do something

different in the city of Los Angeles.”

Weeks of continued protests prompted Council President Nury Martinez to agree to host the activists in a meeting devoted to the People’s Budget on June 15. The alternative budget was introduced last month by Black Lives Matter LA and calls for drastic changes to the city’s spending, including divesting from law enforcement and investing in community resources like health care, affordable housing and education.

Floyd’s murder has put LAPD and other police departments around the country under intense public scrutiny, as protesters call for city and state governments to not only defund the police but abolish and reinvent the law enforcement system entirely.

Kendrick Sampson, actor and found-

er of BLD PWR, a social justice group that seeks to bring change to vulnerable communities, was among the activists in the special meeting.

“We have to invest in prevention, not just reaction,” Sampson said to council members, as the public watched through live streams.

The coalition of activists led by Black Lives Matter previously struggled to get a response on their budget plans, but because of the continued protests around LA, the council was willing to listen. The group emphasized their outrage at the fact over 50% of the city’s budget is spent on law enforcement, rather than resources that strengthen communities, like mental health services and public education.

“We want to make sure that we’re

building up communities,” Sampson said.

“That’s what reimagining public safety is about. We know that public safety is not policing,” he said with a dispirited chuckle.

LAPD has been widely criticized for its use of excessive force against people during recent protests. Sampson spoke about his experience at a protest in the Fairfax district where LAPD shot him with multiple rubber bullets, leaving him with permanent scars on his chest.

“We deserve healing,” Sampson said to the council. “Black and indigenous and brown folk in this country need healing, deserve healing but instead are met by more trauma by these systems.”

Sampson challenged the idea of cops in schools, stating that the money should fund students’ education instead, and be

JUNE 22, 2020

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used to hire therapists who can address the growing mental health crisis in the United States.

“Elected officials choosing to invest in oppression and more trauma for our communities as opposed to what they know we need is actually violent,” he said. “That is violence.”

The council members were responsive and sympathetic to the activists’ ideas and demands. They agreed that a change must be made to address the ongoing trauma in black communities. They said they want to make a change but didn’t explicitly commit to adopting the organizers’ alternative budget.

“It’s not rocket science,” said Martinez to the organizers. “This is how you reimagine communities.”

In the beginning of the month, Martinez introduced a motion to cut up to $150 million from the LAPD’s current funding, which is set at $1.86 billion, and reallocate the money to black, low-income communities.

The LA Police Protective League said the union learned the news from Twitter—not from city officials. Police warn that the cuts may hinder their ability to conduct criminal investigations and pay officers overtime. On June 16, the motion was officially adopted. Despite the council’s efforts, many say the divestment was too little, too late.

Council members who have publicly sided with protesters pleas to defund the police are being blasted for accepting big donations from the LA Police Protective League over the years.

Many are saying it’s hypocritical for council members like Martinez and Mitch O’Farrell to support divesting from police when cops guarded their private homes from upset citizens who showed up in cars at night, demanding protections from COVID-19’s economic fallout.

Before the murder of George Floyd and the massive civil unrest it brought, Black Lives Matter LA leaders said their voices were ignored by the council. In April, Black Lives Matter LA sent the Black LA Demands to the council, which ordered the members to implement immediate and long-term solutions to keep black communities safe from COVID-19 and its disproportionate economic impact.

“It’s disrespect to b lack Los Angeles to not respond to these demands,” Abdullah said.

The leaders noted that virtually every black organization in the area signed on to the demands, including the NAACP and Ethiopian Democratic Club, agreeing that black communities deserve extra care, as they are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

In LA County, black and Latino residents are far more likely to die from COVID-19 than white residents, according to a new report from the LA County Office of Public Health. Data shows that African Americans have died at around twice the rate of white Angelenos.

“No one responded and then we get this mayor’s (Eric Garcetti) budget in the midst of a health pandemic with an economic fallout where he’s increasing the LAPD budget,” Abdullah said, noting that crime rates in LA have dropped.

In response, the BLMLA leaders took to social media, gaining support from more black organizations and developing a coalition to spread the word and build momentum for The People’s Budget, which they claim will better serve and protect the public than increasing the police budget.

The coalition of organizers distributed and surveyed over 24,000 participants who voiced their opinions on what the city’s tax dollars should fund using software called Qualtrics. The survey participants, 55% of whom were people of color, voted to invest in community needs rather than law enforcement.

As Abdullah spoke to the council, her eyes filled with tears as she spoke about the death of 14-year-old Jesse Romero, who was shot by police in Boyle Heights, and the other hundreds of black lives taken by LAPD. “I was going to apologize for getting emotional, But I’m not,” Abdullah said to the council, looking at Martinez. “I’m a mother. You’re a mother. We have children that we’re trying to make a better world for.”

Martinez shared Abdullah’s sentiments. “I’m here because I am a mom,” she said, saying that she joined the council to create positive change from the inside. “Reimagining Los Angeles starts with families and children.”

The other council members also voiced their agreement that something must be done to create a positive change for public safety, saying “We need to do better.”

“I appreciate your sentiment but what I am looking for is commitment,” said Akili, a Black Lives Matter organizer to the Council during the closing statements of the meeting that lasted nearly two hours.

“You’ve shared your positions,” he said. “They line up. But what are you going to do?”

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JUNE 22, 2020

People adorned in traditional regalia danced to the sound of a pulsing drum on the steps of City Hall during the “Free our kids in cages” protest on June 14.

Photo by Sarah Donahue/ LA Downtown News

Angelenos march to free ‘kids in cages’

By Sarah Donahue s the Black Lives Matter protests continue into their third week after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, other social justice activists are building on that momentum, unifying and speaking out against other entities of power.

The protestors voiced that their causes were united as they chanted, “Black lives matter. Brown lives matter,” while marching through the streets of Los Angeles on June 14. People with megaphones, many of whom also spoke during recent Black Lives Matter protests, fought against the violent systemic racism within Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Founded in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush, ICE has become a source of intense scrutiny by the public and civil rights organizations for their treatment of immigrants. More recently, ICE separated more than 2,800 immigrant families in the spring of 2018 due to the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” border policy.

“I have the fear that one of my friends may be deported one day,” said 16-year-old Kailani Aproda at City Hall. “They wanted to come out to this protest, but they were too scared to even come, so I’m coming out here for them.”

Kailani was accompanied by her parents, Melissa and David Aproda, who drove from Long Beach to attend the protest. As a mother, Melissa said it’s heartbreaking to hear about families being separated at the border.

Countless photos of overcrowded camps and videos of crying immigrant children sep-

A

arated from their parents have flooded social media, bringing light to the issues facing people at our borders.

Melissa looked at Kailani with watery eyes and said, “I could never imagine my life separated from her in a cage. Ever.”

ICE’s strict enforcement has led to nearly 20,000 grievances from detainees for allegations of mistreatment, including sexual assault, physical force and inadequate medical care, according to a 2019 investigation by the USA Today Network.

The Black Lives Matter movement has helped to unify other social justice groups to protest the powerful systems that wreak havoc on their families and communities.

Whether it’s mass incarceration in U.S. prisons or at the border, brown and black communities have been continually marginalized, and the once separate social justice movements have come together.

“We have our black brothers and sisters, our brown brothers and sisters joining together,” 22-year-old protester Jackeline Juarez said. “This is our time right now.”

Juarez attended other recent protests after Floyd’s murder, including a demonstration closer to her home, Palmdale. On June 10, 24-year-old Robert Fuller was found dead there, hanging from a tree, and officials quickly ruled his death as a suicide.

Activists disagreed with the official cause of death, and many call Fuller’s death a modern-day lynching, which was classified as a federal hate crime by the House earlier this year. His death was not an isolated incident, as four other black men have been found

JUNE 22, 2020

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DT

CLASSIFIEDS People organize on the steps of City Hall holding Mexican and “Black Lives Matter” flags during ìFree our kids in cagesî march on June 14.

Photo by Sarah Donahue/ LA Downtown News

hanging from trees across the country in the last month. In each of the five cases, officials ruled the deaths as suicides.

After the ICE protest Downtown, Juarez said she planned to attend the protest for black trans lives in Hollywood that same day.

She said she makes different posters for each rally’s cause, saying these protests are extremely important to her.

“A lot of my family is immigrants,” Juarez said. “I am a first-generation Mexican American, so I have to do this. I have to be here. I have to let my voice be heard for my family that can’t. They can’t vote, they can’t do anything, so I’m going to be that voice for them.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ history of losing track of immigrant children’s whereabouts was a major point of criticism during the protest, as hundreds chanted, “Where are the children?!” while marching through the streets.

Luis Corchado, a 30-year-old paralegal who has worked in criminal defense for six years, condemned ICE’s dominating presence at the border. The lack of sanitary conditions, nutritious food and proper sleeping accommodations in ICE detention centers is a “huge, civil, inhumane punishment,” he

said, noting that only attorneys who represent immigrants understand the gravity of the situation.

“Most of these immigrants are not being checked in properly,” he said. “A lot of them have gone missing throughout the years.”

Nearly 1,500 immigrant children were unaccounted for by ICE officials in 2018, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. ICE’s loss of children was a major point of criticism during the protest, as hundreds chanted, “Where are the children?!” while marching through the streets.

While Corchado said it’s beautiful to see so many people marching together for justice, he said it’s imperative that people hold the LAPD accountable for their use of excessive force against protestors.

Corchado encouraged those who were hurt by LAPD in recent protests to seek justice and file a class-action lawsuit.

“Save your evidence, your recordings, your pictures, your witnesses, this is just the tip,” he said. “This is just the beginning,” Juarez said. Secondly, he urged minority youth to run for elected office.

“If we allow them to make the decisions for us, we’re going to see the same cycle.”

A young woman carries a sign while standing with protestors outside the Metropolitan Detention Center Downtown on June 14.

Photo by Sarah Donahue/ LA Downtown News

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