The Thorn West is a state and local news roundup compiled by members of DSA-LA. Our goal is to provide a weekly update on the latest developments in state and local politics, and to track the issues that are most important to our membership.
|
Issue No. 168 - August 4, 2023
|
- CalMatters details early industry spending on 2024’s public ballot initiatives, including a massive expenditure from the fast-food industry on a measure that would overturn a a recent state law which would establish a fast-food workers’ council to set wages and work safety standards.
|
Police Violence and Community Resistance
|
- Measure J was an LA County ballot measure that mandated 10% of the county budget be spent on social services, and not police or jails. After it passed in 2020, a lawsuit successfully had it overturned in the courts. Now, in a reversal, Measure J has been found constitutional on appeal. “Measure J was our response to what we think public safety is and what it should look like,” said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who co-chaired the electoral campaign for the ballot measure.
- The mayor’s office and the Los Angeles Police Protective League have come to a tentative agreement over the next labor contract for the LAPD. The agreement includes a 13% increase in starting pay for new officers, who will now start near $86,000. This is meant to address the fact that the number of LAPD officers has dropped by 1,000 as it has struggled with recruitment. The decrease in police officers has not corresponded with an increase in crime.
- Los Angeles took another step toward initiating a pilot program based on the CAHOOTS model of unarmed response to people experiencing mental health crises. A funding mechanism passed this week, as the city council returned from summer recess.
|
- LA Public Press has continued in-depth coverage of last week’s planned disruption of a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting demanding the Board declare a state of emergency in juvenile halls. The protest captured more attention this week after several of the children interned at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall attempted an escape.
|
- Today, representatives from the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers met for an hour, the first such meeting since the writers strike began, three months ago.
|
- The LA Times editorial board asks if City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is deliberately obstructing the construction of a supportive housing project on a city-owned parking lot in Venice.
- A town hall meeting to discuss 30 proposed units of interim shelter in CD 5 was overrun by opponents of the units.
|
|
