Dear friends, check out some of the work we have been doing!
On Monday the War on Youth work group held a press conference at the south lawn of City Hall, demanding that the City Council reject the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant awarded to the LAPD. The grant is slated to be agendized then voted on by the full City Council at large after passing through the Public Safety Committee. We had an incredible group of speakers including Maraky, who spoke on behalf of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and Akhil who spoke on behalf of the Coalition. Educators Musa and our very own Nadia spoke about how this program would affect teachers. Nadia also provided some history about the fight against CVE in 2018. We also heard a FEROCIOUS condemnation of youth Surveillance from Ailyn, a student at Roosevelt High School. You can see pictures from the press conference along with excerpts from speeches on our Instagram post. La Opinion wrote an article covering our press conference which you can read here.
Check out our letter demanding that the City Council reject TVTP here. And if you haven’t already, please sign and share our petition.
This week’s webinar was a continuation of the community conversation that’s been held virtually around our report Automating Banishment: The Surveillance and Policing of Looted Land. We were so lucky to have some remarkable community members doing important work join us in conversation about Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and how they target Black and poor neighborhoods. Paul Boden of the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), and Lorna Xu and Amy Zhou from Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED) shared their experiences combating BIDs in San Francisco, and LA Chinatown respectively.
The Coalition also “participated” in the mayoral debate at LMU with the help of People’s City Council. The debate, moderated by registered lobbyist and academic, Fernando Guerra, featured Karen Bass, Joe Buscaino, Kevin De Leon, Mike Feuer, and one other candidate. The debate highlighted how each one of these candidates seeks to enforce the police state. You can read all about it here.
On Thursday our very own, Shakeer Rahman, was part of a panel for the USC Prison Education Program. The topic was Prison, Policing, and Technology. The topics spanned the police reform, Palestinian Liberation, and the role of technology in police violence. You can watch the hour-long conversation here.
To plug in with any of the work groups listed above, or for more information about the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, email us at stoplapdspying@gmail.com.
If you or your organization are interested in hosting a teach-in or discussion regarding our report please fill out this google form.