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. 20 - July 24, 2020

Local Politics and Community Actions

• The LA County Board of Supervisors passed a sweeping motion intended to make anti-racism a core principle of all county-level policy-making and operations. Titled “Establishing an Antiracist Los Angeles County Policy Agenda,” the motion will now enter a planning stage, to determine what an anti-racist policy agenda would look like in practice. The motion passed 5–0 to some fanfare, with all five supervisors offering extended remarks on the importance of the work this motion initiates.

• The Board of Supervisors also passed a motion to put the priorities of the county’s budget to a public vote this November. The motion, drafted in partnership with justice activist coalition Reimagine LA, urges the creation of a ballot measure requiring the county to allocate at least 10% of its unrestricted fund to “community investment and alternatives to incarceration.” This measure passed 4–1 after heated debate. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva called into the meeting and said the measure represented “[police] defundment in disguise.”

• Over 200 people, including LA City Councilmember Herb Wesson, attended a recent outdoor town-hall-style event aimed at urging City Hall to shift nonviolent 911 calls from the LAPD to unarmed specialists in areas such as mental health. The event was held by the People's Budget LA coalition, led by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles. BLMLA co-founder Melina Abdullah pointed out the “strange” shift since the recent protests where the City Council is now actively collaborating with community groups.

• Councilmember John Lee is being pressured to disclose whether he is the one referred to as “City Staffer B” in the corruption investigation against his predecessor and former boss Mitchell Englander. The Northridge East Neighborhood Council has passed a resolution formally asking for a response from Lee whether he is included in the investigation. This is not the first time a neighborhood council within Lee’s district has pressed this issue.

• Community fridges are being added to Los Angeles neighborhoods in order to battle food insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 60 organizers have partnered with businesses in the area to open and maintain the fridges.

Police Violence and Mass Incarceration

• Activists marched and gathered at the Silver Lake Trader Joe’s to demand justice for Mely Corado, who was shot and killed by an LAPD officer almost two years ago while she was working during a shootout at the grocery store. Family members called for the police officers who killed her to be charged.

• With the COVID-19 crisis in the California prison system continuing to escalate, the federal judge overseeing litigation regarding the treatment of incarcerated people within the system has ordered the state to set aside 100 beds for coronavirus patients at each of its 35 prisons. Advocates for inmates’ rights have argued that, given the rate of infections, 100 beds is not enough.

• The FBI has announced it is initiating a review of the killing of Andres Guardado by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

• The California Department of Justice released a report showing that, while 2019 marked a 55-year low in the state’s number of felony cannabis arrests, there were still racial disparities in how the laws were enforced. Latinx people accounted for 41.7% of all arrests and Black people accounted for 22.3%.

• Public protests have urged a halt to “Prison-to-ICE” transfers, or the practice of releasing immigrants who have completed their incarceration straight into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. Advocates for Immigrants’ rights are arguing that former prisoners should instead be released to their families.

• The Otay Mesa Detention Facility in San Diego currently has a total 168 positive cases of the Coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Two former guards of the facility are suing CoreCivic, which privately owns and operates the facility, over issues of negligence and “cutting corners.”

Climate

• Fifteen states, along with Washington, DC, have formed a coalition to jump-start production of electric trucks, buses and vans, with a goal of having all new sales of those vehicles be electric by 2050 — with an additional benchmark of 30% by 2030. LA Metro will complete electrification of the G Line in the San Fernando Valley at the end of 2020, six months later than expected. Metro has set a goal of transitioning its entire bus fleet from natural gas to electric by 2030.

• While 2020 is already the second-hottest year on record, California has lost nearly 90,000 clean-energy jobs since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. In response, the Alliance for a Clean Economy has sent recommendations to Governor Gavin Newsom on what the state can do to support clean-energy jobs without any new major expenditures or legislation.

Labor

• An SEIU-organized nationwide “Strike for Black Lives” saw robust participation by Angeleno workers, with a caravan of hundreds of cars and trucks passing through South Los Angeles on Monday, bearing banners calling for both economic and racial justice and calling attention to the demands of “essential workers” in the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Entertainment industry unions are backing the Mixed Earner Unemployment Assistance Act of 2020. The bill would close a loophole that keeps many Hollywood workers — who often combine work in the industry with self-employment — from being able to access federal coronavirus relief.

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