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. 39 - December 11, 2020

DSA-LA Elections

• DSA-LA elections are coming up soon! Voting will be open from December 13 to December 20. Get to know the candidates for steering committee, branch coordinators, and all other offices at the candidate forum tomorrow, Saturday the 12th, from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. And in the meantime please check out candidate statements here.

Criminal Justice Reform

• George Gascón was sworn in as Los Angeles County district attorney on Monday. His office immediately implemented major changes. These include an end to the use of “gang enhancements” to add years to criminal sentences based on a defendant’s alleged gang affiliations. Gascón also announced that his office will end cash bail, will never seek the death penalty, and will be proactive in releasing current prisoners who become eligible under the new guidelines.

• Gascón's office has also immediately dismissed the charges against Emanuel Padilla, a protester who was arrested on charges of “wrecking a train” in the aftermath of an action in Compton demanding justice for Andres Guardado. The first deputy prosecutor tasked with carrying out the dismissal refused to do so: Gascón’s reforms have met with some initial internal resistance over the first week of his term.

• On Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, Terrance Stewart discusses how policies approved by cities and police departments over the last three decades have created a housing nightmare for people of color. Stewart, who holds a master’s degree from UC Riverside, discusses the struggle his family has faced to find housing because of his arrest almost a decade ago.

• LAPD officer, “Cop-Infuencer” and unabashed Trump supporter Toni McBride — who in April of this year shot and killed Daniel Hernandez — is now attempting to sell branded merchandise on a website that promotes police violence. In doing so, has she violated LAPD policy?

• An article in Knock.LA chews over the election results for all the criminal justice propositions that were on the ballot this year in California.

Election Fallout

• President-Elect Joe Biden has nominated California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be secretary of health and human services. This would mean that Governor Newsom may soon be choosing the successors for both Becerra and Kamala Harris. (And perhaps Dianne Feinstein as well.)

• The California State Legislature returned to session this week, after November elections returned Democratic party supermajorities to both the Assembly and Senate. California’s current eviction moratorium expires January 31.

Climate

• L.A. Taco spoke about climate issues facing southeast Los Angeles with Elizabeth Alcantar, the 26-year-old mayor of Cudahy, who this week ran for a seat on the highly influential governor’s board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (but lost a close race).

• Related, L.A. Taco, in cooperation with Capital & Main, ran a summary of the events that led up to the environmental disaster at the Exide battery recycling plant in Vernon. The issue drew national attention after the decision was made by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice to let Exide off the hook for damages. The piece recontextualizes the event as resulting from decades of negligent oversight from California state government.

City Politics

• A new budget report issued by Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Richard Llewellyn Jr. recommends the layoffs of nearly 1,900 city employees — with more than half being police officers. If approved, the LAPD would operate with the lowest number of officers since the mid 1990s. And it could even result in the closure of police stations. The layoffs are an attempt to close a budget gap that is expected to reach $675 million by June.

• LA City Councilmember Kevin de León has laid out a plan to turn vacant CalTrans-owned homes in El Sereno’s 710 corridor into affordable housing — with current El Sereno residents to get priority as renters. Reclaim and Rebuild Our Community, an El Sereno–based neighborhood group, occupied 20 of these homes last month before being forcibly removed by the California Highway Patrol.

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