The City Attorney has finally agreed to dismiss its lawsuit to censor watchthewatchers.net, our website where you can search for public records about police officers. The City brought the case, they dismissed it, and they had to pay us for filing an abusive lawsuit. You can read more about the settlement in the Los Angeles Times.
This case should never have been filed. It was a deliberate scheme to waste our time and put a target on our backs. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto dragged us into court as a political stunt to please her police donors. This is yet another example of taxpayers footing the bill for City Attorney Feldstein-Soto abusing her office for political favors and political stunts.
This case was never just about photographs. It was about the public’s relationship to state violence. On one side of the fight, the state wanted to make it illegal for all of us to possess, share, or publish photographs of police officers. We said: no, the public needs to document and expose the state’s violence. We won.
The City Attorney’s repression will likely continue to escalate. In another case that remains pending, she’s claimed we owe millions of dollars in damages to over 900 anonymous police officers who say watchthewatchers.net caused them both physical and emotional suffering. And she’s been lobbying in Sacramento to gut the Public Records Act. Her office also both writes and enforces laws criminalizing poverty, survival, and dissent. The repression is not going away.
We’re fighting back against all of that. Join us by coming to our meetings, donating to support our work, sharing our research, and using watchthewatchers.net to expose state violence in your neighborhood.