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.
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Issue No. 14 - June 12, 2020
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- Monday's meeting of the LA City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee did not take up the motion that would follow through on Mayor Garcetti's recent pledge to redirect $250 million to social services with up to $150 million coming from the LAPD budget, as the motion's authors requested until the committee's next meeting on June 15 to continue with drafting. An extended public comment session received hundreds of calls, with the vast majority forcefully demanding a new budget in line with the People's Budget LA, which lowers the LAPD's share of the city's General Fund from 54% to 5%, while reimagining a city where most police duties are reassigned to other agencies. Leaders from the Service Employees International Union, United Teachers Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy also called on Mayor Garcetti to cut at least $250 million from the LAPD budget.
- LAPD officer Frank Hernandez has been charged with assault for the beating of an unhoused man in Boyle Heights in April that was caught on video. Hernandez has been an officer for over 20 years and has been involved in three on-duty shootings.
- In April the California Judicial Council, which makes rules for the California court system, had instituted a statewide policy of $0 cash bail for misdemeanors as an emergency coronavirus order to alleviate crowding in county jails. On Monday a 17–2 council vote rescinded that policy. The policy had not led to a rise in crime, but the council's position appears to be that the crisis has passed and the status quo should return. In November, California will vote on SB-10, which would eliminate cash bail permanently.
- As the state's prison system returns to its pre-COVID functionality and once again accepts transfers from county jails, a coronavirus outbreak in Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County has spread to over 1,000 inmates.
- The Aliso Canyon gas storage field, the site of the worst gas leak in US history, which sickened nearby residents and spewed heat-trapping methane into the atmosphere, is ramping up its operations. In 2015, 8000 families were forced to leave their homes after the leak caused a rotten-egg smell to blanket the area and they began experiencing headaches, nosebleeds and nausea. During his campaign for governor, Gavin Newsom claimed he was committed to shutting down the facility, but he has not followed through. Newsom has also reneged on his promise to hire more oil and gas regulators in his recent budget, and in April allowed approval of a dozen fracking permits in Kern County.
- California’s freight and oil industries are attempting to delay two proposed regulations that would limit diesel exhaust throughout the state, using the coronavirus pandemic as a pretext to request sweeping regulatory relief. Activists and clean-air advocates point out that the health risks of living with polluted air are now even greater due to the links between COVID-19 severity and pre-existing respiratory conditions, especially for communities of color living near freight transportation hubs.
- The largest landlord organization in Southern California is suing the city of Los Angeles to remove eviction protections put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. The suit claims that landlords’ constitutional rights are being violated because the 5th Amendment prevents the government from taking property without compensation. Property law experts have said that local governments do have the power to temporarily ban evictions during emergencies.
- The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released a count of unhoused people that concluded in January prior to the pandemic, showing a 13% increase in LA County and a 14% increase in the city of Los Angeles. Black people are ten times more likely than white people to become unhoused, with Black people making up 34% of the unhoused population, but only 8% of the overall population of the county. Activists decried the pervasive systemic racism and failures of institutional leadership causing the housing crisis, and called attention to the coming onslaught of evictions that will hit Black and Latinx communities hardest when the California Judicial Council lifts the temporary moratorium on evictions imposed in April.
- Farmworkers who live in conditions where social distancing is all but impossible fear they will contract the coronavirus and spread it to their families. In agricultural centers such as Salinas Valley and Monterey County, many families live in cramped conditions due to the lack of affordable housing. In guest worker housing built by labor contractors, each dormitory can have as many as 24 people sleeping head-to-toe.
- Multiple Tesla workers have gotten coronavirus after Elon Musk’s decision to defy lockdown orders and reopen the company’s main production facility in Fremont. Despite an agreement by Tesla to adhere to strict social distancing measures, a worker said there was “no social distancing at all when clocking in/out [because] people are…in a hurry to go home or get back to their work station,” adding “it’s like nothing but with a mask on.”
- Today LA County is allowing the reopening of gyms; museums; professional sports arenas without live audiences; music, television, and film productions; hotels for leisure travel; and more. Despite increasing coronavirus cases and deaths, county health officials cited stabilized hospitalizations as a reason for continuing with reopening.
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