Carlos Montes was not expecting visitors at five a.m. After a confusing shuffle of flashlights, badges and broken doors, he ended up in the back seat of a police car in his pajamas, and with no idea of what was going on. They mentioned something about gun possession but it wasn’t clear. It was...
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Roughly 100 demonstrators marched through downtown Los Angeles yesterday to show their support for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, an alleged government whistle-blower now on trial. Manning is accused of turning over hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, ranging from diplomatic cables, military ground reports and the 2007 video of an Apache helicopter...
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The district attorney’s office agreed yesterday to return property belonging to Chicano activist Carlos Montes, which was seized during a sheriff’s department and FBI raid on May 17. Montes was arrested for allegedly forging a firearm application. Prosecutors say Montes failed to disclose a 42 year-old felony conviction of his while purchasing a shotgun...
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Those with homes, as well as a few without, slept outside last night to raise awareness of, what critics say is, a growing movement to criminalize the homeless in Venice. Advocates say the city is attempting to remove a destitute population from the beachside community through various parking ordinances, such as disallowing overnight parking,...
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April 6, 2007 is a day Cherise Rogers will never forget. It was the beginning of an average Friday, or so she thought. Twenty-five-years-old and not long out of college, she was working as a clerk typist for the Los Angeles Police Department. She just finished her shift, which ended at one in the...
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Pro-immigrant advocates rallied yesterday at Florence Avenue and Main Street to warn drivers of a police sobriety and driver’s license checkpoint. Standing down the street from the checkpoint, members of the Southern California Immigration Coalition, or SCIC, held placards warning motorists of the police stop. Their signs read “checkpoint” in both English and Spanish....
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Activists spoke out today against City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s criminalization of non-violent political protesters. They called on Trutanich to drop the charges against over 30 activists, just moments after their pre-trial hearings at the downtown courthouse. The hearings mark a significant shift in the city’s attitude toward dissenters. Typically, city policy was based on...
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In a quiet Sherman Oaks neighborhood, Pam Ferdin walks up to a car parked on the street. The license plate reads “CA EXEMPT.” Its tinted windows are rolled up and the man sitting in the driver’s seat is barely distinguishable. He is holding a video recorder. Nearby, a group of animal rights activists are...
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Protesters, angry over the FBI’s targeting of anti-war activists, staged a “people’s tribunal” in front of the federal building in Westwood yesterday. Demonstrators heard statements from many activists that accused the Bureau of political oppression. Speakers representing a broad coalition of anti-war, social justice and international solidarity organizations stated their cases to a mock-judge...
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In Los Angeles, when a group of people drive in a van and visit homes in affluent neighborhoods they are usually celebrity-infatuated tourists. But yesterday was different. A group of animal rights activists traveling by van took their own “tour.” Instead of celebrities, the homes belonged to UCLA researchers; instead of gawking, activists stopped...
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