Today I went to the LA City Council Meeting with a bunch of community members to demand the removal of LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, which they can do by a 2/3rds vote. Though LA is a sanctuary city, LAPD have been working with ICE, protecting them and brutalizing protesters on their behalf. On Saturday 10/18 — No Kings 2.0 — LAPD officers on horseback charged a peaceful protest, beating people (including press) with batons and shooting them at close range with “less-lethals.”
We sat through endless presentations before public comment, including one about rising food insecurity, which Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson took as his queue to walk around eating from a plate of food, days before millions will lose their food stamps.
Finally, community members were each given only 60 seconds to speak. While people demanded action and begged for help, City Council members talked, laughed, and ignored the community voices insisting they DO SOMETHING already. People who went over their 60 seconds were removed from the chamber.
Eventually, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson urged one of his colleagues to leave the chamber so they’d lose quorum. They ended public comment early, adjourned the meeting, and turned out the lights, but people stayed behind to get their minute, even if Nithya Raman was the only one who remained to hear people out.
Enough already. We need LA city government to stop lying to the media about how we don’t comply. LAPD does. They need to stand with the people instead.
