On Thursday October 10th, the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission passed a motion to “hold public hearings in the community on the issues of profiling, inclusive of SAR, gang injunctions and other related public safety issues.”
This was a big step forward in getting a city agency to acknowledge inherent problems and deep concerns with a policy like the LAPD Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) program, and to agree to hold public hearings for people of Los Angeles to weigh in and demand change.
Since April, the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition has been demanding public hearings by the Human Relations Commission on the LAPD’s SAR program such as Special Order 1 and iWATCH – “See Something, Say Something.” These are programs that fundamentally create suspicion and fear and inhibit healthy human relations. The programs promote racial profiling, are based on meaningless standards, and are a waste of resources.
Close to 40 coalition members and supporters showed up on Thursday morning to demand public hearings, presenting a diverse range of 21 testimonies as to why these policies need to be rescinded and why the public deserves an open debate on the subject. Dozens more called, emailed, and used social media to make their voices heard!
The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition sends heartfelt thanks to dozens of community members and several grassroots organizations for their persistence and strong testimonies. AND thanks to you, we were able to cross this first hurdle in the coalition’s ultimate goal to rescind SO 1 and terminate the iWATCH program.
THE FIGHT IS NOT OVER! Let’s keep on building power and momentum to keep the pressure on. We invite you to the next coalition meeting on Tuesday, October 15th, 6:30pm at the Southern California Library on 6120 S Vermont Ave Los Angeles, CA 90044.
Will We Sleep or Will We Fight?