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. 15 - June 19, 2020
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CW: Racist Violence
- People's Budget LA presented its proposed alternate budget of the city's General Fund to a group of city council members. The People's Budget, which reimagines community safety and reduces the LAPD’s share of the budget from 54% to 5%, was presented by a coalition of activists led by Black Lives Matter-LA and other groups. The development process of the budget incorporated several weeks worth of surveys asking Los Angelenos for their spending priorities. The presentation, unprecedented given the council's previous resistance and apathy to activist demands, would not have occurred without the sense of urgency generated by weeks of protests in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. After the presentation, councilmembers vowed to adopt the budget in some capacity. Despite the strong rhetorical commitment from several councilmembers, as of yet, the mayor's proposed $150 million dollar cut to the police budget represents only a fraction of the cuts proposed in The People's Budget. The entire presentation can be watched here.
- Two weeks after the Minneapolis school board terminated its contract with police, hundreds of students, parents and teachers gathered at LAUSD headquarters to demand that LA’s school board do the same. The protest called for LAUSD’s $70 million police contract to be diverted to programs that can help Black students, like counseling and mental health services.
- Thousands marched in the streets of Hollywood and West Hollywood in the All Black Lives Matter March to denounce racism and support LGBTQ+ lives. The march was organized by a newly formed group, Black LGBTQ+ Activists for Change, after the original organizers from LA Pride faced criticism for seeking a permit for the march from the LAPD.
- A statue of Christopher Columbus asking Queen Isabella to support his 1492 voyage to the Americas will be removed from California’s Capitol rotunda. It has not been announced what will replace it.
- An LA Times investigation found that despite anti-eviction rules in place during the pandemic, landlords are using illegal tactics such as illegal lockouts and utility shutouts to force tenants out of their homes, with the majority of recorded instances taking place in Black and Latinx neighborhoods.
- Detainees in San Diego’s Otay Mesa have started a hunger strike in order to draw attention to the now 27 positive cases of coronavirus. Detainees were made to sign English-language waivers in order to receive face masks. Detainees who objected have reported being denied medical treatment, pepper-sprayed and placed in solitary confinement in retaliation. In addition, guards have purposely tried to disconnect detainees from communication with outside groups such as Otay Mesa Resistance.
- Two more incarcerated men at Chino prison have died after testing positive for COVID-19, bringing the total death toll to 15. The number of cases at San Quentin has tripled in the last two weeks, spurring family members, attorneys and advocates to call for urgent action to fast-track release of prisoners.
- Two far-right extremists have been charged in the killing of a federal security officer in Oakland on May 29. The two men appear to be part of the “boogaloo” movement, which aims to foment a second Civil War through violent insurrection. Members commonly wear Hawaiian shirts underneath their ballistic vests when they attend rallies and protests. The men used a George Floyd protest as a cover to carry out the premeditated killing. One of the men was a sergeant in an elite Air Force security unit and is also being charged for the killing of a sheriff’s deputy during a shootout when police tried to arrest him.
- Pacific Gas & Electric is preparing for life after Chapter 11 after a Bankruptcy Court judge filed a written decision Wednesday saying he would approve PG&E’s reorganization plan. This decision comes a day after the monopoly utility entered guilty pleas for 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the devastating November 2018 wildfires in Northern California that were caused by the company’s equipment. While PG&E CEO Bill Johnson promised his company would emerge from bankruptcy “reimagined,” skeptics say it’s unclear there’s anything fundamentally different about the utility, which over the last decade has caused a deadly pipeline explosion, deadly fires and days-long power shut-offs affecting millions of people. This marks PG&E’s second bankruptcy in two decades.
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- A Los Angeles county report determined that malfunctions in the electronic tablets used to check in voters at polling locations caused the hours-long waits during the primary election on March 3. The report found that the county’s new voting machines also had malfunctions, but that the primary issue stemmed from inadequate planning, testing and programming of the electronic poll books and a lack of paper backup for voter lists.
- The California State Legislature passed a bill to strengthen Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to mail ballots to all eligible voters in the November general election, enshrining the mandate as a statute. The legislation will provide a stronger legal footing for Newsom’s executive order, which has come under attack from multiple Republican-led lawsuits.
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