Skid Row Protestors Seek to Throw Out California Code from 1872
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich talks with Senior Lead Officer Dion Joseph during the September 2009 Skid Row Neighborhood Walk.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — A Skid Row activist arrested earlier this year while protesting the Central City East Association's monthly neighborhood walk is going to court to challenge a California code that has been on the books since 1872.
Pete White, a co-director of the L.A. Community Action Network (LA CAN), and other Skid Row activists have been protesting the walk since March, charging that it promotes the criminalization of homelessness and poverty and is comprised only of those from outside the community. At the May walk attended by blogdowntown, the activists followed the walkers around chanting derogatory messages that was directed toward Councilwoman Jan Perry and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, both of which were present.
During the July 6 walk, LAPD Lt. Shannon Paulson arrested White under California Penal Code section 403, which makes it a misdemeanor to disrupt a public meeting or assembly that is not religious or political. The code section was enacted in 1872, and has been unchanged ever since.
A lawsuit filed on White's behalf by the Law Office of Carol A. Sobel seeks to have that section throw out as an unconstitutional content-based restriction on free speech. The case was filed in U.S. District Court on July 29.
White and other protestors were out again at the August 3 walk. This time, White says his arrest was threatened under Penal Code section 415, "disturbing the peace."
At an October 3 hearing, Sobel will attempt to get an injunction issued that would forbid the city from citing section 403 for arrests.
The Central City East Association has led the monthly Skid Row Neighborhood Watch Walk since 2005, inviting neighbors and elected officials to join service providers and LAPD in walking the Skid Row area and understanding the issues it faces.
The next walk will take place on Wednesday, September 7.
Jacob Holloway on August 30, 2011, at 10:27AM – #1
Something's missing here... In my understanding, this walk encourages an essential awareness about issues affecting Skid Row and, in listening to the stories of those who have taken it, it upends people's assumptions about the homeless people living there.
This is a story that needs to be told -- and that LACAN is not interested in helping tell it and, even worse, obstructing awareness -- is deeply unsettling to me. In other words, why harass when they could participate?
JH McMath on August 30, 2011, at 03:45PM – #2
It should be noted that LACAN's claims that the monthly Skid Row Walk is closed to the local homeless population is false. It is open to anyone and everyone.
Secondly, their claim that the walk is only attended by outsiders is increasingly false as well. Little Tokyo Loft residents (whose address falls within Skid Row boundaries) are increasingly participating in the walk.
By contrast no one from LACAN, least of all Peter White, actually resides in Skid Row (while the homeless population they claim to represent barely knows of LACAN's existence if at all).
LACAN's belligerent tactics on Skid Row Walk nights and cries of "homes not jails" seem completely out of touch with the times. Hundreds, if not thousands, of affordable and supportive housing units have been constructed in downtown over the past several years.
100 units of affordable housing is currently under construction at Main and 6th while the latest, with 500-600 units, is to be going in at at 5th and San Pedro.
In fact the Home for Good plan, a joint effort of the LA Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Los Angeles, aims to end homeless in LA County within 5 years by promoting continued investment in supportive housing which has been shown to work in other cities.
If LACAN is currently doing anything to better the lives of the homeless population of Skid Row I'd sure like to know that it is...
Jasmijn on August 31, 2011, at 06:32PM – #3
Uh, so LACAN has been protesting a walk that's open to everyone who is interested in joining in ... because none of the people who are interested enough to show up on their own time and join the walk actually live there?
Ummmm. Advocacy? Really?
Tim Encinas on September 07, 2011, at 02:52PM – #4
As witnessed by the actions of LACAN, organizations and individuals that irresponsibly fail to engage the various perspectives of stakeholders in a community and ask questions end up hurting those that the seek to help. Instead, they reveal actions that are self-righteous and self-serving and an overly simplified perspective that is out-of-touch with reality.