good morning!

it's @sarahgoldzweig & our live-tweet is *about* to start.
im tired enough to have typed in " http://citycouncil.com " & i dont drink coffee but ill do my best!

watch//vibe to hold music here: https://lacity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=103&event_id=13628

& here's the agenda: https://cityclerk.lacity.org/councilagenda/MeetingView.aspx?MeetingID=8697

meeting is starting!
this is a confusing collection of council members. @HerbJWesson @mhdcd8 @PaulKoretzCD5 @GilCedillo @CD12LA

3 of them voted NO for a *report* on defunding the police.
& Koretz isn't here. that's embarrassing for so many reasons. check out #CallOutKoretz

correction: 2 of those voted NO.

supposedly @PaulKoretzCD5 is here, he just can't get into the meeting. @HerbJWesson asks the clerk to let him in.

@mhdcd8 asks if there's going to be a vote on that.
@cmgilcedillo seconds that and says there needs to be higher standards on who's in the com.

we agree!

also you're not going crazy. the feed dropped.

surprise surprise. city council is having technical difficulties.

and we're back!
and i missed a caller. i apologize.

Amy: wants to see an alternative to policing with community input. Wants social workers who are trained to respond to issues as "peace workers." Highlights there have been grassroots and community orgs working on this for year.

the timer today is a nice tinkle of bells — @HerbJWesson is going for a more subtle "Your time is up gtf off the phone"

Laura: agrees with @HerbJWesson who said "let's embrace the change we see happening across the country." Let's #DefundThePolice and completely reimagine our public safety. Support the #PeoplesBudgetLA

Liam, a community organizer: Hugely in favor of motion to move policing away from people with guns & towards folx who are trained to do what their job

highlights: non violent and non criminal — LA criminalizes everything including sleeping on the street, Zoot Suits

missed this callers name but love that they called on city council to support the @BLMLA led #PeoplesBudgetLA.

our friend @AdamOfTheSmiths: says @CD6Nury should forbid @CD12LA from being on the committee. YES.

Adam always shocks us with his public comments. Here, he addresses 4 different items, and basically calls on city council to #DefundThePolice.

ummm okay @HerbJWesson just responded "Yeah." i'm no expert but i believe that is a Brown Act violation.

Adam is cut off, but no before he says "That wasn't 2 minutes"

People with mental health crisis need care, not

We know best what we need.

@CD6Nury let's sit with that for a moment.

Caller tells @CD12LA that as an Asian American, they want to highlight Lee doesn't represent Asian Americans until he does. #DefundThePolice.

Pete White from @LACANetwork !!

At least 700 positions can be removed.

On the day LACAN filed case against LAPD, they showed up at COVID testing site bc of a "noise complaint", trying to disrupt a true community response.

Wesson calls time, says "Good to hear your voice"

to be honest i missed 3 speakers: but they all spoke to needing a #PeoplesBudgetLA and called on city council to #DefundThePolice.

(it's early for me)

Next caller: we need community housing, we need school counselors, we need EMTS, we need trained substance abuse counselors. we need to get everyone shelter, food and water.

the LAPD proved we don't need them — we didn't even realize 700 of them were on "strike".

next caller: "the way forward is to #DefundThePolice"

follow the lead community members and leaders like @BLMLA @LACANetwork

mentions that non-police public safety workers need to be paid as much as police bc the police are paid disgustingly high salaries to commit violence

next speaker: when we say #DefundThePolice let's actually mean it. Defund the police COMPLETELY.

aka Abolish the police.

and invest in robust alternatives!

next caller: we do not need a military protecting property.

say it louder for the folx in the back!

next caller: references the @CD6Nury and @HerbJWesson motion that says that we've gone from expecting police to be part of the solution to being the only solution. but let's reiterate: the police have NO part in the solution.

also LA has lost faith in @LAPDChiefMoore

our own @ricci_sergienko !!
on the agenda, the meeting ID is incorrect. you should probably put out correct info on the agenda.

@CD6Nury needs to suspend @CD12LA.

The LAPPL should not play any role in this — Jamie McBride and his daughter are both killers.

vid coming soon

. @ricci_sergienko's comment:

Jed from @StreetWatchLA: you continue to spend money on killing people. I'm on the ground everyday seeing the harm the police cause. We spend so much time trying to fix the problems left by police. they are the problem.

cont: don't send cops to surround dead bodies. send health care workers to save their lives.

next caller: if you can't teach cops empathy, how can you teach them medical care.

we are saying abolish the police not abolish public safety. The police don't keep the majority of the public safe.

what does it say about you if you don't do what we are asking?

next caller, in no unclear terms, says "the police need to be abolished."

next caller says that having been to protests, it's clear this is a culture problem not a bad apple problem. completely rethink city council's approach — get onboard, we are all watching. we wont go away and forget about this. we are all watching you v closely from here on out

Lindsay: wants to echo what other callers said about having the LAPD investigate themselves. that's a terrible idea, and is very biased.

cont: questions "non-violent": will a spray can in the hand of a white kid mean a counselor & a spray can in the hands of a Black kid become a "gun", lead to police response.

next caller says @LAPDChiefMoore 's request for more training is just a call for more funding to police, and for programs that have proven ineffective.

says if @HerbJWesson is serious about ushering in a new era for LA, he will #DefundThePolice & have outsider investigate LAPD

next caller: "guys, get off your phone, it's rude"

says that the violence we saw from LAPD is something we'd sanction Venezuela for.

you can't reform these monsters. no amount of $ will. issue is a toxic culture that absolves cops & lets them think they operate above the law.

caller from @LATenantsUnion: i was held in zip ties on a closed air bus in the middle of a pandemic. LAPD is corrupt and violent. they are a scar on the nation.

folx are out of work, Black and Latinx families almost exclusively facing LAPD-assisted evictions.

#DefundThePolice

caller asks city council to be accountable to the people, not the LAPD.

#DefundThePolice and pass a #PeoplesBudgetLA

next caller wants to clarify wording of @HerbJWesson and @CD6Nury motion: let's make sure that the LAPD has no part (as in zero) in any of these programs — we need to clarify verbiage on criminality.

LAPD cannot investigate themselves, they don't want to lose $. duh.

Jacob: thank you to the cops that went on strike, we saw we dont need you. maybe 2k can go on strike this week.

if cops aren't shooting folx w rubber bullets or hitting people on the head w sticks, they're making up stores. that was #NotATampon

next caller: the way community safety partnerships are laid out just sends money back to police. facilitates surveillance, extreme violence, removal of green spaces. this is a slight of hand against communities.

we have been reaching out to the LAPC, they're failing. its on u.

cont: we need to completely uproot the infrastructure that facilitates surveillance and racial profiling — they lead to murder.

next caller: we need to abolish the police and use the money to permanently house ALL the unhoused.

the LAPD can't investigate themselves — NYPD just absolved itself of running over protestors (which is terrorism).

next caller: police don't do anything, and they don't actually know how to deal with crime, especially interpersonal violence. their rape kit has sat untested for years.

#DefundThePolice.

next caller: like everyone else, says #DefundThePolice and pass a #PeoplesBudgetLA.

also LAPD is out there with mental health issues themselves.

next caller says that @HerbJWesson and @CD6Nury motion moves us an inch when we need go a mile. So let's actually do what we are saying: #DefundThePolice.

that ends public comment.

fyi. every. single. person. called. in. to. #DefundThePolice.

@HerbJWesson says, on record, he looks forward to working with the leaders of this movement — aka @BLMLA.

. @mhdcd8 thanks callers for calling in this early. says he was stopped, himself, in his own district, had a gun pointed at his head and was asked what he was doing with a government car in "this neighborhood"

recalls his father — the only time he saw his father scared was when a police car pulled up behind them.

says this is one he wont be "symbolic" about. will only accept true, measurable action.

suggests amendment to Item 1: we need to look internationally for examples

he says he's "very eager and energized to be a part of this process."

@mhdcd8 is that a commitment to #DefundThePolice?

@HerbJWesson says he's with him. Is that a commitment?

. @CD12LA says he's for change, says he stood up for the LAPD bc felt that change that has happened hasn't been acknowledged.

hey @CD12LA, idk if you've heard of Malcom X, but he said, "If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out that's not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made.

now it seems like @PaulKoretzCD5 is trying to repent for his white supremacist actions. in very "I have Black friends" style, says all the Black men he's spoken to have stories like @mhdcd8.

says he's for all the "reforms." dude. we dont want reform. we want to #DefundThePolice

Koretz says he thinks that #DefundThePolice is a step too far. encouraging all folx who are seething at the @PaulKoretzCD5 response to hop on the #CallOutKoretz train.

says mental health workers dont come at 3 am, but they need to if they're responsers. yes, that's the point

white supremacist @PaulKoretzCD5 says that if we got rid of all the police today, we would see something like The Purge.

okay Paul. who do you imagine under the masks? probably says a lot about you.

. @mhdcd8 says that #DefundThePolice folx are raising important questions: why is the dept responsible for murder, for constantly needing "reform," getting more money? and why are we cutting housing, etc?

cont: says you will never convince him that shooting folx is the way to deal with issues.

don't say their demands are scary, unachievable or ridiculous. we have an example — we have former gang members working as trained rapid response.

. @gilcedillo seems to enter a pissing contest w @mhdcd8 about who has had the most terrible experiences w LAPD.

says that he's seen the change — it was illegal to drive if undocumented, but now we have thousands more legal motorists. change can happen.

ps, @gilcedillo just called himself an "activist" for the past 50 years.

says he has his own motions he wants to raise.

says that we have the lowest homicides in decades. Gil: you need to read that Malcom X quote ^^^ too.

. @gilcedillo is worried about an apartheid system of policing — private policing for rich neighborhoods.

then says that some immigrants flee ("from MS13, from Barrio 18) to the US bc of our policing. they want what we're talking about getting rid of.

. @gilcedillo, none of that negates the Black folx in America are murdered by police, and that police in the US were established first as slave patrols and second to protect white property.

ps MS13 was deported from the US & in part are from our overpolicing & overincarceration

. @HerbJWesson: "i can see from some of you on this committee that this makes you uncomfortable, well welcome to being Black"

"It's going to be uncomfortable but the beginning is always uncomfortable."

Wesson wants his staff to come back with a plan, not just a report.

All members vote YES/AYE to Wesson's recommendations — most items with amendments, etc.

but wait, it's not over!

@gilcedillo is asking to make a motion. Wants to do a side by side comparison with all state reform bills, to see where other folx are at. so we can take ideas, look at implementing them as well.

@HerbJWesson: introduce that to council in 20 mins

still not over! @mhdcd8 wants to add an amendment to item 6; committee to reconsider.

wants the CAO and CLA to look into funds w specific attention to liability claims account to support after-action report.

adopted as amended.

meeting is adjourned. hope you all stayed for the end bc it got pretty spicy.

@mhdcd8 welcome to the fight to #DefundThePolice. @HerbJWesson happy to see a bit stronger commitment.
@gilcedillo tbh you confused me.
@PaulKoretzCD5 and @CD12LA go fuck yourselves with "reform."