Posted on 05/13/2024
ONE BIG THING: PROTESTS, POLICE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES
What Happened?
Last week, law enforcement officers stood by for hours and watched a violent mob attack protestors on UCLA’s campus. The very next day, multiple law enforcement agencies, led by the California Highway Patrol, used stun grenades and “less lethal” rubber bullets to clear the protest, sending multiple students to the hospital and arresting over 300 protestors.
These actions raise serious questions about how city resources are used, and how a different approach could have been taken to avoid this calamity.
City Council Investigation
This week, we joined a motion with Councilmembers Nithya Raman, Katy Yaroslavsky, Curren Price, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, and Eunisses Hernandez calling for an After Action Report about how decisions were made in the LAPD response to protests last week.
Angelenos deserve a thorough investigation of the police response to these events, and students in our city should not be punished if they are peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
What’s Next?
The motion needs to be heard by the full City Council for approval, where we’ll want to ensure that this will be an independent investigation.
If the City Council approves the motion, there will be a report back in the following months with the findings of the investigation.
Two More Quick Hits!
1. City Council Takes Step to Plug Oil Wells
Council approved a motion this week from Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and Heather Hutt that takes a step toward plugging abandoned oil wells across LA. The city will now look at how we can follow California's Orphan Well Prevention Act, which is supposed to make it easier to cap the 5,300 “orphaned” oil wells in California.
2. Foster Youth Shadow Day
On Tuesday, Mayor Bass hosted City Council’s first Foster Youth Shadow Day, where young adults who were in the foster care system were able to shadow city councilmembers to both learn about, and impact, the political process.
People who are closest to the problems in our community are also closest to the solutions. From fixing our transitional housing voucher program, to finding urgent solutions to the youth mental health crisis – these young people have a unique perspective to help solve some of our city’s biggest problems.
In our office, it was incredible to learn from Sherbert, who currently lives at LA Room and Board – a nonprofit organization that provides affordable transitional housing to keep community college students out of homelessness.
