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. 118 - July 22, 2022

City Politics

• CD 10 is once again without representation in city council, as a judge has reinstated a temporary injunction preventing Herb Wesson from serving as interim replacement for former council member Mark Ridley-Thomas, who faces corruption charges. Plaintiffs in CD 10 allege that Wesson is specifically ineligible to serve as he is a termed-out city council member.

Healthcare

• Los Angeles County is slowly expanding the availability of its store of monkeypox vaccine, though eligibility is still narrowly restricted.

Housing Rights

• The Los Angeles City Council will vote next Wednesday on whether to make every school and daycare center in the city an automatic 41.18 anti-sit/lie/sleep zone. The original 41.18 revisions represented a drastic curtailment of the freedom of movement for unhoused people; nevertheless, while they provided a mechanism for implementing exclusionary area around schools, it requires some outreach to any unhoused people who will be affected, and cannot be implemented preemptively. The Kenneth Mejia campaign has a map which visualizes the scope of the 41.18 expansion. Toolkit for contacting your councilmember here, from the Services Not Sweeps coalition.

• The Guardian spoke to residents living in an encampment in the extreme heat of the Mojave Desert, many of whom were displaced by aggressive anti-encampment measures in the nearby city of Lancaster.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• In San Bernardino, police officers shot a 23-year-old Black man in the back, killing him. Security camera footage appears to show two officers driving an unmarked car pulling over, and one officer opening fire within seconds of exiting the vehicle, hitting Robert Adams as he attempts to flee. Family members of the victim are calling for murder charges to be filed against the officer.

• In Leimert Park, LAPD officers shot a man in the back — he was later revealed to have been unarmed. A piece of scrap metal from inside a car door was recovered from the scene. An LAPD press report has claimed that the victim had “pointed” it at the officers, but police have not released any bodycam footage. It was the 20th LAPD shooting of the year.

Transportation

• When the 6th Street Bridge reopened earlier this month, pedestrian and cyclist activists were disappointed by its poorly protected bicycle lanes and general “freeway vibes.” This week an accident sent cars crashing into both bike lanes. Curbed surveys the missed opportunities, which may not be too late to correct.

Environmental Justice

• Yet another mountain lion has been killed on the 101 Freeway, the deadliest freeway for the species. The death of P-89, who was 2 years old, came just one day before the National Park Service marked the 20-year anniversary of its study focused on the endangered local population of big cats. (Meet them all here.)

• The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has proposed rules to restrict four closely related neonicotinoid chemicals, which are highly potent pesticides that harm bees, birds, and other creatures.