Greetings friends, welcome to the last weekly update of 2022! We’re so grateful you’ve followed along with our work this year, check out what we’ve been up to this week:
On Tuesday 12/6, we were back in City Council giving the racist council members an opportunity to REFLECT on the harm they’ve enacted upon this city. Protestors presented mirrors to the horseshoe and were met with Council President Krekorian imitating a cartoon king. The council has since criminalized mirrors in council chambers, having made it so that having one is grounds to remove a protester from council chambers.
You can hear Krekorian’s ridiculous speech here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl220YCjaVN/
Later that evening, LA CAN’s Yolanda led our Gender and Sexuality Webinar. Attendees discussed the recent rise in anti-trans attacks, and the social media surveillance that facilitates their execution. Attendees also discussed what their idea of safety looked like. Community members shared ideas for creating and nurturing safe spaces in a system that seeks to dehumanize and harm us.
On Wednesday 12/7, the Coalition led a teach-in at the UAW picket line at UCLA. Shakeer discussed how Universities are factories that produce the police state’s ideologies, weapons, and agents. Like other factories, this makes them crucial sites of resistance and struggle. We were also joined by LA CAN’s Steve Diaz who provided insights on the criminalization of houselessness and strategies around internal agenda setting when organizing in a coalition.
On Friday 12/9 we were back in City Council, where Kevin De León’s staff filled the chambers with his supporters. After clearly rehearsed public comments demanded that KDL not be booted from council and his pay remain intact, the little racist snake tried to quietly slither his way back into council chambers. We obviously shut that down.
Here’s video of the event: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl9Y5WRpN4u/
After he left, protesters chanted down his supporters who also slowly dwindled out.
Also worth noting was Koretz’s embarrassing goodbye speech, which delivered an explicit “f*** you” to community members who have been protesting racism in council. This was met with near universal applause from the other council members.
You can read about it here and watch an excerpt of Koretz’s speech: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl9s36_vCXv/
Finally on Saturday 12/10 we were so happy to support STEM to the Future’s Community Roundtable at LA CAN. The youth facilitated a conversation about community needs and held a clothing drive for our unhoused community in Skid Row.
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.
Thanks so much for all your support in 2022, we look forward to building with you in the upcoming year.
See you next year!