Friend,

Content Warning: Police Violence, Racial Violence

This past Wednesday, August 14th, the Los Angeles Police Department in Venice shot an unarmed and unhoused black man named John Penny over cries of appeal from his neighbors and other witnesses.

The LAPD claim that Penny was “armed” with a glass bottle. Luckily, he survived the attack.

For the past 96 weeks, the allies of DSA-LA’s Prison Abolition Committee: Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, White People for Black Lives, Centro CSO, Ground Game LA, the American Indian Movement, March & Rally Los Angeles, the Black Lives Matter LA Youth Vanguard, California for Progress, the National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles Chapter, and more, alongside the families of those who have been murdered by the Los Angeles Police and Sherrif’s Departments, have demanded the resignation of Los Angeles District Attorney, Jackie Lacey. 

Over 535 Los Angeles residents have been murdered by the city’s cops since Jackie Lacey took office in December 2012. In that time, almost nine years, despite the dizzying number of state sanctioned deaths, Lacey has chosen to prosecute only one officer during her tenure.

This is why we join the coalition in saying #JackieLaceyMustGo! 

And this is why we’re calling you and all out to join us this Tuesday, August 20th, 9:00 a.m. at the Los Angeles Police Commission to demand justice for John Penny! #BlackLivesMatter! #RSVP

Our Prison Abolition Committee also holds its regular monthly meeting the day before the Police Commission does: Monday, the 19th. Join us if you can!

And the day after the Police Commission? PrisonAbo will join these same L.A. allies on the steps of the Hall of “Justice”, downtown at 211 W Temple St. from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. to say #ByeJackie! RSVP now for the 96th iteration of this important weekly action. 

#EchoParkRisingRents

In a just society, there would be no police. And there certainly wouldn’t be a public agency charged with harassing our city’s unhoused and impoverished communities, ferrying them away to jail cells, or other unserviced and unlivable corners of our public spaces.

But that’s exactly what the city of Los Angeles had in mind for at least one unhoused community in Echo Park this past weekend.

To clear the way for a weekend long music festival called #EchoParkRising, Los Angeles City Councilmember, Mitch O’Farrell, representing the 13th District, shrugged off the most catastrophic sweep in the two years our Street Watch LA team has been monitoring the encampment under the 101 overpass in Echo Park.

Residents were given 10 MINUTES to pack up their things. The city destroyed one senior man’s cell phone, green card, social security card, tent, and bedding. On that hot summer’s day, they inhumanely poured out residents’ water jugs, too. 

We've seen how events like #EchoParkRising create special circumstances that make regular sweeps more brutal than ever. So we called on performers, participating businesses, and event organizers to join us in using our collective voice to demand Los Angeles change these abusive practices, and provide health-based solutions and resources that improve living conditions for all of us.

We have been stunned by the outpouring of support our #EchoParkRisingRents campaign has received. We’ve gathered nearly 1,000 signatures in just a few days, and a long list of artists have signed on to support our message.

Sign the link at: dsa-la.org/epr, demand that the city provide #ServicesNotSweeps yourself, and then join the folks who started this campaign: Street Watch LA. Their next meeting will be back in Echo Park on Saturday, August 31st. Street Watch training starts at noon.The meeting proper is from 1:00 - 3:00. RSVP

Our new Bernie 2020 Working Group held its first meeting this Saturday! 

Well over 40 comrades, new and old, came together at UTLA this weekend to lay the groundwork for DSA-LA’s Bernie 2020 campaign. We discussed national and state-wide coordination with our wider DSA network, coalition building with the labor movement and other vital allies, and our need to intentionally grow DSA’s membership in underrepresented regions and demographic groups - as well as many other topics!

The Bernie Working Group will be liaising with the rest of our chapter leadership in the coming week and a half to choose new campaign leadership roles, including a Press Secretary, Financial Secretary, and more. Please email the Bernie 2020 Working Group if you’d like to be considered for a role.

#CD12

And while it was obvious to anyone in the room on Saturday that Bernie is going to win - in less exciting election news, we were disappointed by the results of last Tuesday’s Los Angeles City Council District 12 special election to fill Republican Mitch Englander’s seat.

The San Fernando Valley deserves a City Councilmember they can trust will fight gas-leaking utilities and out of control corruption. That candidate was Loraine Lundquist

Instead they got John Lee, who the city of Los Angeles already settled a $75,000 sexual harassment lawsuit for back in 2014. Lee’s a GOP puppet for Big Oil & the LAPD. He also has a well recorded history of violent animosity toward our city’s unhoused people. 

We are not fans. 

But here’s one thought re #CD12:

It’s the most conservative district in L.A. and its never once been represented by a Democrat.

And even so, of the 37,728 ppl who voted, Lee reveived only 1,171 more votes than Loraine. So sure, he won, but not by much.

Another good take is that Mitch Englander, who was the only Republican on City Council, intentionally triggered the special election when he sold out our city by resigning his City Council seat to work for an entertainment and sporting company with financial ties to the same 2028 Olympics he voted to approve as a City Councilmember.

Special elections skew conservatively, and voter turnout is inherently oppressed in the process. What would the results have been this March, when the “blue wave” will surely continue to sweep California? Englander triggered the special election in part to keep the seat within the long line of Republican political aides who have held it under one another.

Luckily, the seat is actually already up for grabs again in March 2020. Let’s make sure that Lee’s tenure is a short one.

And until then, we’ll be wishing it was Loraine Lundquist who held that seat instead.

Finally: Some inside baseball:

DSA-LA’S Annual Local Convention will be held on October 19th, 2019 at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church at 3300 Wilshire Blvd. in K-Town, Los Angeles.

Our Annual Convention is the highest local decision making body of our chapter, and is where we debate and vote upon submitted local Priority Resolutions and local Bylaws Amendments.

The deadline for submitting a local Priority Resolution or Bylaws Amendment is midnight tomorrow, Monday, August 19th! To review our current bylaws, click HERE.

And stay tuned for more details on our Annual Convention!

THIS WEEK AT DSA-LA:

Monday, August 19th

7:00 p.m: Mutual Aid Committee Meeting: RSVP

7:00 p.m: Prison Abolition Committee Meeting: RSVP

Midnight: Deadline for DSA-LA Priority Resolution & Amendment Submissions: Submit

Tuesday, August 20th

9:00 a.m: ALL OUT AT THE POLICE COMMISSION: RSVP

6:00 p.m: Immigration Justice Committee Meeting: RSVP

6:00 p.m: Santa Clarita Neighborhood Hangout: RSVP

7:00 p.m: North Hollywood Neighborhood Hangout: RSVP

7:00 p.m: Northeast L.A. Neighborhood Hangout: RSVP

7:00 p.m: South L.A. Neighborhood Hangout: RSVP

7:00 p.m: Westside Neighborhood Hangout: RSVP 

7:00 p.m: NOlympics, Homes Not Hotels Workshop: RSVP

Wednesday, August 21st

4:00 p.m: #JackieLaceyMustGo w/ BLM and allies: RSVP 

7:00 p.m: Labor Committee Meeting: RSVP

Thursday, August 22nd 

7:00 p.m: Definitive Readings About Mutual Aid (AKA DRAMA):  RSVP

Saturday, August 24th

7:00 p.m: Climate Justice Committee Meeting: RSVP

Sunday, August 25th

11:00 a.m: DSA 101, Glendale: RSVP

2:00 p.m: Housing & Homelessness Committee Meeting: RSVP

2:30 - 8 p.m: Food Not Bombs LA: RSVP

Solidarity Forever! 🌹

DSA-LA

dsa-la.org

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