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Los Angeles Coronavirus Update: Mayor Eric Garcetti Says DWP Will Shut Off Water And Power At Homes That Throw Large Parties

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday announced the city was taking action against those who throw large parties.

He called recent gatherings of mostly young people in the Hollywood Hills and Calabasas “flagrant violations of health orders.”

“While we have already closed all bars and nightclubs, these large house parties have essentially become nightclubs,” said the mayor. He then indicated he would hold them to similar scrutiny. “The same thing we would do with businesses,” said Garcetti.

If the LAPD responds to repeated complaints and verifies that there have been violations at a home, the city will within 48 hours have the DWP shut off service at that home. Garcetti also indicated that county health inspectors and other city representatives would be on the lookout for violations.

Asked about the legal standing for his action Garcetti said, “You’re breaking the law. Just as we can shut down bars breaking alcohol laws,” he said, “in places that are in criminal violations, we can shut them down.”

He said that city legal experts had vetted the measure and found it to be on firm legal ground

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How a rural US sheriff’s department was able to obtain a military-grade vehicle

A sheriff’s department in a remote rural California county with only 18,000 people, no incorporated cities, few sworn officers and almost no crime, was able to obtain a second military-grade MRAP armored vehicle in 2017 by giving brief answers to a simple questionnaire, according to documents obtained under freedom of information requests.

MRAP stands for mine-resistant ambush protected, though the prospect of encountering mines or being ambushed would seem to be unlikely in even the toughest US police precincts.

The documents, provided to the Guardian by the transparency non-profit Property of the People, show how quickly Donald Trump’s 2017 reversal of the Barack Obama administration’s curtailment of the transfer of battlefield equipment to law enforcement agencies led to their renewed proliferation, and how little agencies had to do to demonstrate any real need for them.

The documents include Mariposa county sheriff’s office (MCSO) application for the second MRAP from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). The application in September 2017, about a month after Trump reversed a 2015 Obama executive order which prohibited the transfer of equipment like armored vehicles, grenade launchers and high-caliber weapons to civilian agencies.

With one-line or one-paragraph answers to 15 questions, the rural county sheriff was able to add the vehicle to its already extant Mamba MRAP, acquired in 2014.

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