On Tuesday, attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union SoCal (ACLU SoCal) and First Amendment Coalition sent a letter to LAPD Interim Chief Dominic Choi on behalf of L.A. TACO Investigative Reporter Lexis-Olivier Ray, demanding that Choi order his officers to not obstruct Ray’s access to documenting homeless encampment cleanups.
The letter details how four times, within less than a month, Ray was denied access to CARE+ homeless encampment cleanups while reporting and threatened with arrest by police.
Officers threatened to arrest Ray for crossing caution tape into a sanitation “workzone” and documenting city workers who were clearing encampments twice in 24 hours in late August and twice again in September.
“This has been reviewed all the way up and down our department including our city attorney,” LAPD Sergeant Scott Alpert told Ray after he denied our reporter access to a sanitation “work zone” during a CARE+ operation on Cotner Avenue on L.A.’s west side on September 5. “If you have an issue with it, feel free to go through them but right now we’re not going to let you in here.”
“If I cross the tape, what’s going to happen?” Ray asked.