The Thorn West is a state and local news roundup compiled by members of DSA-LA. Our goal is to provide a weekly update on the latest developments in state and local politics, and to track the issues that are most important to our membership.

Issue No. 179 - October 20, 2023

City Politics

• Protesters disrupted an LA County Board of Supervisors meeting as the board attempted to pass a “resolution in support of the State of Israel,” introduced by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. The protest followed several hours of public comment, which was overwhelmingly opposed to the resolution. After the police cleared the public from the meeting, the resolution was passed unanimously in an empty room. In response to the public outcry, Supervisor Holly Mitchell introduced an amendment to the resolution adding a request for humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

• LA Public Press rounds up a week of protests in Los Angeles advocating for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. There will be another rally this Saturday, beginning at 12:30pm in Pershing Square, and the DSA’s No Money for Massacres campaign is holding another phone bank, focused on LA, on Sunday.

• Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez introduced a motion today to end No-Street-Vending Zones in Los Angeles, beginning with the one in Hollywood. These special zones have long been criticized by advocates for exposing overwhelmingly immigrant workers to police harassment, and the city is currently facing a lawsuit for their presence.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Today the LA City Council voted 8–6 against a proposal, advocated by Councilmember Soto-Martinez, that would allow city councilmembers to divert up to $500,000 from the portion of their district homelessness budget that is currently earmarked for police overtime, to instead be spent on other resources that unhoused people need. Magnificently outrageous video here includes Councilmember Bob Blumenfield arguing that this flexibility would amount to the dissolution of the city into “15 different council districts,” and Councilmember Monica Rodriguez warning that the city will soon need more LAPD overtime to police protests over “recent international causes.”

• On the same day as their resolution in support of the State of Israel, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted 4–1 to shift responsibility for parking enforcement from the LA County Sheriff’s Department to the Department of Public Works.

• Content warning: police violence] A federal jury has awarded $13.5 million to the daughter of a man killed by LAPD officers in 2019.

Health Care

• Governor Gavin Newsom has signed SB 43, which vastly expands the definition of “gravely disabled” as it pertains to who can be subject to involuntary confinement by the state. The bill was strongly opposed by disability advocates. It was one of many related to CARE Court, Newsom’s signature program, which began to roll out this month in several counties, including Orange. Los Angeles County will begin its own implementation of CARE Court on December 1.

• Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente will pay a $200 million settlement to the State of California, related to its failures to provide adequate mental healthcare services to patients as mandated by state law.

Transportation

• San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco will become the first cities in California to install speed cameras, as permitted by the recently signed state law AB 645. Los Angeles, Glendale, and Long Beach are the other cities authorized to introduce speed cameras under this law.