Thread by @sahrasulaiman

I don't have an opinion on what CM Raman's vote should've been, but I do have some thoughts on the process itself that put her in the position of having to vote on something she did not support b/c she didn't have an alternative paradigm she could vote for instead. [Deep breath]

https://twitter.com/nithyavraman/status/1363221609767600132

First - she was voting on whether or not to approve $9mil for the continuation of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) program in housing developments. The renegotiation of that five-year MOA had been in the works for much of last year. (see doc below)
hacla.org/Portals/0/Atta…

Moreover, Garcetti had not only reaffirmed his commitment to CSP last summer (below), he committed to institutionalizing CSP by bringing it into the heart of the dept. There is no alternative that the city has seriously contemplated that is not police-led.

https://twitter.com/MayorOfLA/status/1287904257950117888

There was no alternative for her to look to. Meaning that if there had been a successful “no” vote getting CSP out of the developments, it would likely have resulted in one of two worse outcomes, or a combination of both...

namely, a) More aggressive surveillance and suppressive engagement from gang police who don’t know the community as well and/or b) Little to no policing at all…both of which describe how the developments were policed prior to the creation of CSP.

All while the safe passage work and youth programs (the Girl Scouts, etc.) that CSP assists with shrank or disappeared.

To be *very* clear, that is **not** an argument for the CSP to remain or for these programs to continue to be police-led.

But it does bear mentioning that one of the problems the votes on police have come up against thus far is that the work has not yet been done to offer up alternatives to fill the gap left by the police, or in this case, CSP.

Motions for some alternative programs introduced last summer (e.g. getting police out of traffic enforcement) have yet to resurface. witnessla.com/la-city-counci…

And the city has yet to commit to investing in creating comprehensive infrastructure (beyond GRYD) to support interventionists in expanding the scope of their work.

CD8's MHD has launched a welcome pilot program that included healing circles etc., for ex., but much more needs to be done by the city to give interventionists the resources they need to do the work in a sustainable and scalable way.

When council had the opp. to channel the $ diverted from the 👮 budget twd addressing the root causes of the issues we normally turn to 👮 for, only MHD earmarked $ for reentry, etc. Much of the rest went to beautification & legacy-enhancement (ahem, Ryu).

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1336738523269877760

There’s been little to no extended discussion within council regarding what residents of developments - where entrenched gang presences can mean they do not always feel safe stepping outside their front door or using the developments’ facilities - actually want or need.

It was the gap in protection of the residents that had led to the creation of the CSP in the first place.

Back in 1991, the Jordan Downs unit that 65yo Juan Zuniga and his extended family were assigned to had already been claimed as a spot for drug dealing. Over the ~6mos the family lived there, they were subjected to constant harassment & threats, and were assaulted multiple times.

HACLA was profoundly negligent, not even attempting to transfer the Zunigas to another unit. Instead, when the housing authority police did come out to respond to the latest assault, the officers were observed greeting the folks that were tormenting the Zunigas.

Threatened w/ retaliation for having called the 👮, the Zunigas begged for an emergency transfer that weekend. Instead, members of Grape St poured gasoline through the Zunigas’ mail slot and set the unit on 🔥, killing 5 family members, incl. 3 toddlers. latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

Efforts to figure out who was responsible for the incident also underscored the complicated tensions between the Black and Latino communities in the developments as Watts' demographics changed.

It also did not help that a family member (Latino) also shot a Black neighbor who was trying to help rescue them from the fire. [Sorry to have to repost these 😬 headlines/ledes...it's what's available] latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

The tensions sparked by the integration of the developments was not limited to Watts. A year after the Zunigas were firebombed, members of Big Hazard firebombed Black families in Ramona Gardens. latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

Although the CA Supreme Court found HACLA legally responsible to provide “safe public housing” for residents, free of “dangerous conditions” in the Zuniga case in 1995, it did little to change things.

Instead, LAPD continued to let HACLA’s own police take the lead in the developments until 2003, when HUD funding for HACLA’s police dried up, forcing HACLA to disband the force.

Residents were concerned about what would come next for them...at least the HACLA 👮 knew them & were on-site 24-7. Some feared LAPD would not be able to cover those gaps (esp. at night) or that they would come at the community in an adversarial way. latimes.com/archives/la-xp…

Even without an explicit CSP-type program, HACLA was paying LAPD for its services. In 2004-05, the cost of having LAPD at the developments was estimated to be around $3mil. [HACLA covered ~half of that] clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/200…

But w/out any explicit plan for addressing residents’ safety, new arrivals @ the dvpmts cont'd to report being targeted for robbery/intimidation. The last straw finally came in 2010, when members of the PJs attacked a Korean family & tried to rape the daughter in Imperial Courts.

W/ the leverage of the '95 Zuniga ruling & the momentum of her '07 report calling for the abandonment of the war on gangs, civil rts atty Connie Rice told then-Chief Beck that the situation was no longer tenable - that HACLA was obligated to provide its residents w/ safe housing.

20 yrs after the Zunigas were attacked, CSP finally came into being. It began with 45 👮 in the three Watts developments (and partially in the Haciendas) and Ramona Gardens (Hollenbeck), annoying CMs b/c HACLA wouldn't be paying enough to cover its costs.
clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/201…

Folks who follow me may have seen a previous thread I did on CSP where I talked about some of its benefits and some of the questions that weren't getting attention. Find that here:

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1287909740433928193

In the context of the discussion of CM Raman's vote and the concerns about it, I want to underscore that CSP was not a panacea by any stretch...

A few years ago, friends in the Haciendas had to vacate their apt for several months b/c one of the HVBs had jumped on the hood of their car to intimidate them. That guy then later fired a gun at their apt window, leaving a mark in one of the bars that is still visible today.

The two sons of the family, who were in their teens at the time, had had to negotiate w/ HVB members so their family could move back in & live in peace. Later, it wasn’t CSP who helped build a more friendly relationship btwn one of the sons & some of the HVB members, it was me.

Tensions had been so high w/in the development that the son didn't even know his HVB neighbors despite having lived there most of his life - they didn't acknowledge him...wouldn't even nod at him. It had made living there incredibly uncomfortable for him.

I asked him if he wanted to come with me as I did interviews. It turned out to be a game changer. As he got to know them and they got to know him, they looked out for him a little more. They even asked about his college plans and would tell me they thought he was a good kid.

His quality of life was enhanced by knowing his neighbors and by having them know him. Not by being under even greater surveillance.

As some critics have complained, it is no doubt CSP who helped ID an HVB OG who sold drugs across the street frm that family's home (but which the son had also really come to like b/c he was such a nice guy & calming presence) and got him put away for a few yrs on a bogus charge.

Some officers w/in CSP have actively targeted gang members for harassment, as happened in South Park, getting one young man picked up for supposed parole violations multiple times just because a power-tripping officer knew that he could.

https://twitter.com/sahrasulaiman/status/1139417625241346048

Which is in & of itself a corruption of the spirit of the prog., which was to end the war on gang youth & to recognize the structural factors that had ltd their options. But which is also likely what you’re going to get when your prog. is police-led, regardless of its intentions.

But even w/ all that, having 👮 who know the community & have some relationships is preferable to the gang suppression work that's led to the deaths of Andrés Guardado, Fred Williams, Dijon Kizzee, Keith Bursey, Carnell Snell, A.J. Weber & so many others la.streetsblog.org/2021/02/01/las…

So while it's genuinely admirable that CM Raman is reflecting on what her vote meant, I’d rather see council addressing the piecemeal way this city is engaging the legacy of policing and advocating for the process to take a more comprehensive approach to solutions.

There's so much to be done and so many folks on the ground that are eager to be of assistance in helping their communities rise. We need to hear more about how we're going to lift them up. Til now, we've mostly heard the mayor coasting on Summer Night Lights.

Thanks for reading.