Greetings friends, check out what we’ve been up to:
This week the Coalition attending Tuesday’s City Council meeting to fight back against LAPD’s acquisition of a military surveillance robot.
Both in-person commenters and community members who called in demanded the city reject the acquisition of this robot dog. LAPD Deputy Chief Kowalski and Boston Dynamics VP Brendan Schulman were back in council chambers to pitch this robot dog to city council. The pair notably lied about LAPD’s history of deploying surveillance technology in communities and this technology’s utilization by the Department of Homeland Security.
Despite this clear opposition to the robot dog, eight council members voted to allow LAPD to add this weapon to the LAPD’s surveillance arsenal. Those council members are Katy Yaroslavsky from council district 5, disgraced racist Kevin de Leon, Paul Krekorian and Blumenfield, along with the four recipients of substantial Police Lobby donations Park, Lee, McOsker and Rodriguez. We are now pushing for Mayor Bass to repeal this vote.
That evening we held our monthly Data Driven Policing meeting, where we discussed these Robot Dogs, and the operationalization of LAPD’s new data driven policing programs through the Data Informed Community Focused Policing program. Tiff led us in a review of the SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment) problem oriented policing model and highlighted some SARA sites in Skid Row.
The following morning (5/24) the Coalition defeated the city in their lawsuit against the Coalition regarding the publication of public records on our website watchthewatchers.net.
That afternoon, the War on Youth work group continued our residency with youth at Stem to the Future. The youth continue to prepare for their final project, an action at the LAUSD building demanding Free Healthy Lunches for students.
Thursday’s (5/25) episode of Radio Insurrection featured a discussion with Joel and Harriet of the Los Angeles Poverty Department. The pair discussed the history of their organization and the work they do to amplify art within the Skid Row community. You can listen to the episode at kpfk.org/archives.
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, Automating Banishment, please fill out this google form.