[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap]nyone claiming that democracy is alive and well in Los Angeles is certainly sitting on the right side of privilege.
This was crystal clear last Monday as several social justice orgs - LA CAN, DSA-LA, NOlympics LA, Ground Game LA, LA Catholic Worker, WP4BL, Stop LAPD Spying, and others - protested and shut down a speech by Eric Garcetti at an event at USC "Celebrating 70 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" in partnership with the United Nations. The goal of the action was to no-platform Mayor Garcetti because he’s been a major direct and indirect driver of human rights abuses throughout his tenure.
Sound extreme? Consider: several UN rapporteurs have visited L.A. in the past year and likened conditions on the ground to Syrian refugee camps. That’s not hyperbole. L.A. is among the world’s leaders in income inequality (median income is around $27K; we have 59 billionaires), deportations, incarceration (most in the world), police killings, and on and on. From destroying the property of unhoused Angelenos to presiding over a police department that kills unarmed civilians, to softness on ICE, to pimping the displacement and militarization machine of another Olympics, Garcetti’s 17 years of elected office are marked by abuse after abuse.