June 7, 2018 

LAWT News Service 

 

Over four thousand Angelenos wrapped around the Million Dollar Theater in Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday June 2 to hear U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and Real Justice PAC co-founder Shaun King deliver impassioned speeches on what it will take for America to fix it’s failing criminal justice system and what is at stake if it doesn’t.

 

"I don't believe we've thrown our best solutions at our worst problems," said Shaun King.

 

"Years ago a reporter asked me what we want, we said we want civilian oversight of the Sheriff's Department,” Patrisse Cullors told the crowd. “That reporter laughed at me. Two years later Dignity and Power Now won.  The local fights are where the most important fights are."

 

Political strategist and Reform L.A. Jails Campaign Director Jasmyne Cannick grounded the How to Make Change event by bringing the conversation local to Los Angeles--the home of the largest jail system in the world.

 

Cannick shared “Reform L.A. Jails is about telling the L.A. County Board of Supervisors that instead of planning for us to be in jail by spending $3.5 billion dollars on building new jails--that they should instead be planning on how to keep people out of jail.”

 

Cannick called on a raise of the $221 dollars afford to those on General Relief and for more money to be put into housing and jobs.

 

Senator Sanders told the crowd that five years ago he didn’t know that of the 2 million people incarcerated in the U.S., roughly 400,000 were in jail for “being poor.”

 

“When we talk about criminal justice reform, this reform has enormous political ramifications,” explained Sanders. “Today, 6 million Americans have lost their right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement.  A million and a half of them live in the state of Florida. Now, some of you may remember a little while ago that a presidential election was decided by a few hundred votes in Florida.”

 

Cannick used her time on stage to share the story of 24-year old Mitrice Richardson who was found dead in a Malibu ravine eight years ago after the Sheriff’s Department released her in the middle of night without her purse, a cellphone or her car.

 

 

“Nearly 10 years later, we still don’t know what happened to Mitrice other than she was arrested for something, that today in California, the police wouldn’t even waste their time on.”

 

Additional speakers included Jayda Rasberry with Dignity and Power Now, Melina Abdullah with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, and Ivette Ale with JusticeLA all of whom are in support of Reform L.A. Jails’ commitment to ensuring the L.A. County Board of Supervisors creates a reinvestment plan for allocating funding towards restorative justice models that work.

 

Currently in the signature gathering phase, Reform L.A. Jails needs to collect 170,000 signatures of registered voters in Los Angeles County to qualify for the ballot. To get involved with the campaign and to sign the petition, please visit www.ReformLAJails.com

 

 

 

 

Category: Community

May 31, 2018 

By Charlene Muhammad 

Contributing Writer 

 

Nancy Amelia Jackson, a woman accused of killing a disabled acquaintance, his mother, and stepfather is facing the death penalty or life in state prison without parole if convicted.

 

Police say 65-year-old Phillip White, Orsie Carter, 83, and her husband William Carter, 79, all suffered blunt force trauma to the head, and White and his mother were shot in his home in the 3900 block of South Bronson Avenue on May 21. Family found their bodies stacked atop each other on the bathroom floor the next day, according to police.

 

Police tracked Jackson down in Culver City on May 24, where she was arrested in her vehicle without incident.  Ballistic and other sufficient evidence support the facts connecting her to the incident, they say.

 

Jackson, 55, is being held without bail while awaiting arraignment on July 11.  She has been charged with three counts of murder, with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. A decision on whether to seek capital punishment in the case will be made at a later date, prose-cutors indicated.

 

“From what I know and listening to her, I say and without reservation that what I see in her is pure evil, plain and simple,” said Captain Peter Whittingham, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Bureau’s Homicide Division during a press briefing at LAPD head-quarters on May 25.

 

He said the fact that she may not have had a criminal history to suggest a pattern of behavior or indications that she has the ability to commit the heinous acts is irrelevant at this point.  “It’s what she has done and the callousness that accompanies that behavior in my mind justify catego-rizing her as such,” Whittingham stated.

 

He said the case involves a woman who appeared to be down on her luck.  She found a kind-hearted, giving, and supportive helper in White, who gave her a chance to get off the street.

 

“They were beautiful, loving, gracious, generous people,” Terry Carter, White’s brother, said in a quiet, measured tone during the press conference. 

 

The victims’ family flanked Whittingham during the press conference, had remained silent as he spoke except for the brief statement one reporter begged from Terry Carter.  “They do not wish to be further identified or provide any statements at this time,” Whittingham stated.

 

“I lost my brother, and my mother and my father … and I’m just happy and thankful that we have swift justice,” he told CBS 2 TV’s Amy Johnson after Jackson was arrested on May 24.  Despite earlier reports that Jackson took care of White due to his debilitating disease, his brother said she was never a caregiver.

 

“My brother extended mercy to her, and offered her a place to stay while she gets her house in Las Vegas, which she was supposed to be moving June 6,” he stated. White had grown tired of her being there, and the family discussed ways to get her to leave voluntarily, according to the media report.

 

The next day, according to Terry Carter, his parents made their routine care visit to the home.  “I guess that’s when everything came to a head, and it reached its climax,” he said.

 

According to prosecutors, Jackson stayed in the retired probation officer’s home for about three to six weeks.  Media reports say White was a kind, loving pillar of his community, who ran the neighborhood safety watch program. 

 

“In so doing, she used that opportunity to manipulate Mr. Phillip White, who as we know, was disabled, and take unfair advantage of him and his kindness,” Whittingham said.  White had multiple sclerosis, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system.  It disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body.

 

According to Whittingham, Jackson abused the privileges afforded by White, and his mother, who was also his legal caretaker, insisted Jackson leave. “But as we now know, she was not going to have anything to do with what she was told because she had, in my view, determined that it was a good thing and nobody was going to get between her and a good thing,” he said.

 

According to police, there was nothing to even remotely hint there was any other person in-volved in the case, but they appealed for anyone with any information to come forth immediately.

 

Police further indicated that when Jackson was thought to be a person of interest only, they re-leased her ID number and a photo.  It projected a smiling individual who appeared cheerful.  “I will tell you now, having seen the evidence and the scene, that that smile is nothing but deceiving, because what I saw is pure evil in that individual, and that’s what she is,” reiterated Whittingham.

 

“I am now, like the family, waiting for justice to take its course and hopefully to bring solace to the family,” he added.

 

Initially she was also considered maybe even a material witness, but LAPD confirmed May 25 that she was in fact the key suspect who killed the three, innocent family people.

 

“I will tell you that from my standpoint as a commanding officer and a father, son, and all the family members of homicides feel relief for the family that at least we are at this point on our way to bringing justice and holding the person responsibility for this senseless and brutal murder of this innocent family,” said Whittingham.

Category: Community

May 24, 2018 

City News Service 

 

Police today sought the public's help in locating a woman who was last seen in South Los Angeles more than a week ago and who is in need of dialysis treatments.

 

Sandra Monroy, 49, was last seen about 5 a.m. May 10, in the 1200 block of East 34th Street, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. She is considered a “critical missing” person because she has missed two kidney dialysis appointments, police said.

 

Monroy is Hispanic, 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighs about 180 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes.

 

Anyone with information on her whereabouts was urged to call the LAPD Missing Persons Unit at (213) 996-1800. After-hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to (877) LAPD-24-7. Anonymous tips can be submitted through Crime Stoppers by calling (800) 222-TIPS.

 

Category: Community

May 24, 2018 

City News Service 

 

A Los Angeles City Council committee today approved a Koreatown parking lot as a potential site for a temporary homeless shelter during a raucous early morning meeting attended by hundreds of people who filled the council chamber to capacity.

 

The Koreatown site is among at least two dozen locations that have been proposed as possible sites for temporary shelters as part of a new citywide program crafted by Mayor Eric Garcetti. But it has received the lion's share of the focus due to significant opposition that has arisen in the neighborhood since the mayor and Council President Herb Wesson announced the site as a potential location during a May 2 news conference.

 

Despite the opposition and the outbursts of anger from some community members during the meeting, the Homelessness and Poverty Committee unanimously approved the city-owned parking lot at 682 S. Vermont Ave. as suitable for development as a crisis and bridge housing facility. The full City Council is expected to consider the site at an upcoming meeting.

 

“This is an emergency, and this is nothing short of a matter of life and death. And it has taken us way too long to get to this moment,” Councilman Mike Bonin said. “We must act. If people are dying on the street, we do not say wait until we build a hospital before we treat them.”

 

The overall shelter program was approved by the council on Monday when it finalized the city’s proposed 2018-19 budget, which includes at least $20 million for the “A Bridge Home” initiative and a potential $10 million more that could be used in a variety of ways to support homeless programs.

 

Some of the opponents of the Koreatown shelter expressed concerns it would attract more homeless people to the neighborhood, while others said a shelter may be necessary in the neighborhood but not at the Vermont Avenue site due to its proximity to schools and key businesses. Others argued the city did not do enough public outreach before Garcetti and Wesson announced the site as the first ­proposed for the Bridge Home program.

 

Some supporters of the shelter said the neighborhood is already filled with encampments and could serve as a way to transition the people sleeping on the sidewalks into better conditions.

 

At least 9,000 people have signed a petition opposing the proposed Koreatown shelter, and at least three protests against it have been held in the neighborhood.

 

Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who chairs the Homelessness and Poverty Committee, had trouble keeping order at the meeting. He admonished the crowd on numerous occasions not to yell out or interrupt as he allowed 18 minutes for speakers on each side of the proposal.

 

The number of homeless in Los Angeles spiked in 2017 by 20 percent to over 34,000, according to the results of the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, although the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority recently said the numbers in the county were inflated by 2,746, and it is not yet clear how many of those were within the city of Los Angeles.

 

The shelter program was created after city voters in 2016 approved Measure HHH, a bond initiative expected to raise $1.2 billion for permanent supportive housing over 10 years. But the units take years to approve and build, and the city has not yet opened any HHH-supported units. Garcetti and other supporters say the temporary shelters, which would come in the form of trailers, large tents, or safe parking facilities, will help get people off the streets and into a safer environment where homeless advocates will have a better chance of providing them services and transitioning them into supportive housing.

Wesson, who represents the part of Koreatown where the shelter would be located, provided the committee with a fact sheet that said the site wa selected based on data showing a high concentration of homeless people living in Koreatown. The sheet also said the site would be open for no more than three years, and would have a round-the-clock presence of police and support staff.

Category: Community

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