Working on this new server in php7...
imc indymedia

Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

white themeblack themered themetheme help
About Us Contact Us Calendar Publish RSS
Features
latest news
best of news
syndication
commentary


KILLRADIO

VozMob

ABCF LA

A-Infos Radio

Indymedia On Air

Dope-X-Resistance-LA List

LAAMN List




IMC Network:

Original Cities

www.indymedia.org africa: ambazonia canarias estrecho / madiaq kenya nigeria south africa canada: hamilton london, ontario maritimes montreal ontario ottawa quebec thunder bay vancouver victoria windsor winnipeg east asia: burma jakarta japan korea manila qc europe: abruzzo alacant andorra antwerpen armenia athens austria barcelona belarus belgium belgrade bristol brussels bulgaria calabria croatia cyprus emilia-romagna estrecho / madiaq euskal herria galiza germany grenoble hungary ireland istanbul italy la plana liege liguria lille linksunten lombardia london madrid malta marseille nantes napoli netherlands nice northern england norway oost-vlaanderen paris/Île-de-france patras piemonte poland portugal roma romania russia saint-petersburg scotland sverige switzerland thessaloniki torun toscana toulouse ukraine united kingdom valencia latin america: argentina bolivia chiapas chile chile sur cmi brasil colombia ecuador mexico peru puerto rico qollasuyu rosario santiago tijuana uruguay valparaiso venezuela venezuela oceania: adelaide aotearoa brisbane burma darwin jakarta manila melbourne perth qc sydney south asia: india mumbai united states: arizona arkansas asheville atlanta austin baltimore big muddy binghamton boston buffalo charlottesville chicago cleveland colorado columbus dc hawaii houston hudson mohawk kansas city la madison maine miami michigan milwaukee minneapolis/st. paul new hampshire new jersey new mexico new orleans north carolina north texas nyc oklahoma philadelphia pittsburgh portland richmond rochester rogue valley saint louis san diego san francisco san francisco bay area santa barbara santa cruz, ca sarasota seattle tampa bay tennessee urbana-champaign vermont western mass worcester west asia: armenia beirut israel palestine process: fbi/legal updates mailing lists process & imc docs tech volunteer projects: print radio satellite tv video regions: oceania united states topics: biotech

Surviving Cities

www.indymedia.org africa: canada: quebec east asia: japan europe: athens barcelona belgium bristol brussels cyprus germany grenoble ireland istanbul lille linksunten nantes netherlands norway portugal united kingdom latin america: argentina cmi brasil rosario oceania: aotearoa united states: austin big muddy binghamton boston chicago columbus la michigan nyc portland rochester saint louis san diego san francisco bay area santa cruz, ca tennessee urbana-champaign worcester west asia: palestine process: fbi/legal updates process & imc docs projects: radio satellite tv
printable version - js reader version - view hidden posts - tags and related articles

Activists Call for Downtown Base Camp to End Sweeps at Saturday Rally on Skid Row

by unhoused Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007 at 1:21 PM
worldatpeace@hotmail.com (310) 883-3288

Homeless activists are calling for people to attend the next next rally, this Saturday, and to pack tomorrow, Tuesday’s 9:30 a.m. Police Commission hearing at Parker Center...as well as every Council meeting this week...and to demand an immediate halt to the homeless sweeps --and now, also, the city's Grand Avenue Project --no matter what it takes...

Activists Call for D...
picture-006.jpg, image/jpeg, 545x409

At the first of what organizers say will now be weekly Saturday rallies in front of the LAPD’s Central Division headquarters, a Skid Row rally on Saturday, organized by a homeless man, saw the largest public turnout yet for a public demand to end L.A’s massive new push to criminalize all this city’s homeless people.

Activists are calling on the community to help set up a base-camp on Skid Row to halt, immediately now, the police attacks.

Since last August, Los Angeles police have been the staging, on Skid Row, the largest attacks on homeless people in the city’s history; daily waves of police arrests, beatings and harassment that has terrorized all homeless people here: with up to 4,000 homeless people targeted.

And with, up until now, almost no widespread Los Angeles city outcry.

At this first of weekly rallies were activists from Food Not Bombs, the People’s College of Law, CopWatch Los Angeles, the Downtown Unitarian Universalists, and the Skid Row-based Catholic Worker community. Activists say they are now planning this week to establish a base camp on Skid Row --to intensify the community watch, and to assist homeless people here; and also other groups; in documenting the daily police attacks, as well as to support the upcoming weekly Saturday rallies.

About 1,000 homeless people are holding out on Skid Row sidewalks now nightly –with another 3,000 throughout the L.A. area who are estimated to spend at least one night, every three months, living on Skid Row.

“It is critical that from here on out no cop anywhere in this city get away with telling a homeless person anymore that they are a criminal because they refuse to go to a shelter. Don’t they get it? A Federal Court has ordered --as long as L.A., countywide, has over 80,000 homeless people and less than 30,000 shelterbeds you cannot humanely forbid anyone in here from sleeping wherever. This city has the worst housing crisis in the nation; but L.A. is now trying to enforce a new policy --‘shelter or criminalization.’ These attacks on homeless people are something that must end now; and the people of LA need to know that since last August, under our new, so-called “progressive” mayor, Antonio Villariagosa, homeless people are now being beaten, arrested, and criminalized --like has been done by no other mayor in Los Angeles’ history." stated the homeless organizer of the protest, David Busch.

"Not even a Republican politician would have even dared attack us like this –and it is disgusting. Housing, not shelter, is a human right for all; and this trying to force us into accepting prison-like “shelters,” under threat of jail, or criminalization, must stop --now,” further stated Busch.

Busch is homeless, and living on Skid Row, and has been attacked by cops there twice since August. He has been homeless for over 13 years.

Activist say the waves of arrests and property seizures and beatings are coinciding with homeless being shipped by threat of force out of downtown; and away from many of the government offices and services they need –all in order to evacuate the poor from L.A.’s center for new loft and other pro-business developments downtown.

LAPD Chief William Bratton, in the past, has linked the current sweeps as part of his “Broken Windows” policing policy for L.A..

Coinciding with the Saturday rally --the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, a large city anti-poverty group –also though, on Thursday, issued a press release to every newspaper, radio and television station in Southern California, as well as to all major national news media, denouncing the sweeps; and demanding a full accounting from LAPD for every homeless person harassed by a cop since August.

Eighty-percent of skid row is African American –and the largest percentage of the homeless on Skid Row, almost 10,000, are people forced to live in tiny one room hotels where they have had to pass constant drug screenings and cops have master keys, and where cops have been mounting unprecedented attacks on parolees also residing here to force them from the area. Meanwhile, this week, the Los Angeles City Council is also set to give continuing major green lights to a new, billion-dollar downtown mega-development, the “Grand Avenue Project”: and, along with the city ok, over 50 million dollars in taxpayer subsidies for the project.

City Councilwoman for Skid Row, Jan Perry supports the Grand Avenue project –but is offering nothing comparable to help even those homeless on Skid Row who’ve scraped themselves up off the sidewalks, and clawed their way into these tiny hotel rooms.

Homeless activists are calling for the community to show up en-mass for next Saturday’s rally, and to also pack tomorrow, Tuesday’s 9:30 a.m. Police Commission hearing at Parker Center; and to demand an end to all the attacks on the Skid Row community –as well as every Council meeting this week --and to also demand an immediate halt to the Grand Avenue Project, no matter what it takes, until community demands for equity for poor people downtown and throughout Los Angeles for the poor are meet by the developer consortium, and the L.A. City Council.


Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


Stop the Sweeps

by unhoused Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007 at 1:21 PM
worldatpeace@hotmail.com (310) 883-3288

Stop the Sweeps...
picture-003.jpg, image/jpeg, 545x409

Beginning of Rally Cop making donut run taunts demonstrators -- Central Division (Skid Row) is in the background.
Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


LATEST COMMENTS ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
Listed below are the 10 latest comments of 3 posted about this article.
These comments are anonymously submitted by the website visitors.
TITLE AUTHOR DATE
buy Ultram buy Ultram Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007 at 10:28 AM
© 2000-2018 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Running sf-active v0.9.4 Disclaimer | Privacy