Dear friends, check out some of the work we have been doing!
On Tuesday (6/7) the Coalition returned to Echo Park to continue our SARA work group outreach efforts with local community members. The Coalition provided popular education materials and snacks to passing community members. We were supported by the Lotus Collective, who provided harm reduction resources to local community members. Our conversations with unhoused community members and their allies included discussions around LAPD surveillance practices at the park and at local grocery stores. Recently, community members have notified us of LAPD’s increased visibility in front of a known SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment) location. In keeping with our counter-surveillance practices, which you can learn more about by checking out our Watch the Watchers videos, the Coalition documented an LAPD mobile substation vehicle equipped with a camera parked in front of the SARA location. We look forward to learning more about LAPD surveillance practices from impacted community members and continuing to develop community self-defense strategies.
Later that evening we had our monthly Gender and Sexuality webinar where we discussed abolishing the policing of gender and sexuality. This month we were honored to be joined by Nghia X Nguyen, organizer with Familia: Trans Queer Liberation. Nghia uplifted the importance of uplifting our incarcerated trans siblings during Pride, and highlighted actions across the country that were doing just that. Our coordinating team member Chella led attendees in a discussion about Pride events here in LA and invited us to an upcoming Pride takeover event being led by them.
On Wednesday (6/8) we held our monthly Coordinating Team meeting during which Coordinating Team members received updates on developments on our fights. We also provided updates on our expanding outreach efforts and discussed how to best reach more community members with our work.
On Thursday (6/9) we met with members from J-Town Action & Solidarity (JAS) as part of our SARA Work Group outreach efforts. JAS does incredible mutual aid and sweep defense work for the unhoused community in Little Tokyo. Through our collective research and the development of public records requests the coalition has documented how SARA is used to surveil and violently remove unhoused community members through sweeps. We look forward to working with and learning from JAS about how we can popularize LAPD surveillance methodologies like SARA and develop practices to monitor LAPD surveillance and violence.
To plug in with any of the work groups listed above, or for more information about the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, email us at [email protected].
If you or your organization are interested in hosting a teach-in or discussion regarding our report please fill out this google form.
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