Tag: los angeles

LAPD Orders Cops To Collect Social Media Data On Every Single Person They Stop

Los Angeles police officers have been directed to collect social media information on every civilian they interview, including people who haven’t been arrested or accused of a crime, according to the Guardian, citing leaked records.

According to the report, “field interview cards” used by LAPD officers contain instructions to record a civilian’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and any other social media accounts – along with basic biographical information. Chief Michael Moore has reportedly told cops to collect the data for use in “investigations, arrests, and prosecutions,” and has warned officers that the cards will be audited by supervisors to ensure they’re filled out completely.

“There are real dangers about police having all of this social media identifying information at their fingertips,” said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, a deputy director at the Brennan Center for Justice, which obtained the documents.

The Brennan Center conducted a review of 40 other police agencies in the US and was unable to find another department that required social media collection on interview cards (though many have not publicly disclosed copies of the cards). The organization also obtained records about the LAPD’s social media surveillance technologies, which have raised questions about the monitoring of activist groups including Black Lives Matter. -Guardian

Monitoring of social media accounts began in 2015, when the LAPD’s interview cards contained a line for “social media accounts.”

“Similar to a nickname or an alias, a person’s online persona or identity used for social media … can be highly beneficial to investigations,” wrote former LAPD Chief, Charlie Beck.

According to the LA Times, over half of civilians stopped by LAPD and had their personal details taken were not arrested or cited. Last October, criminal charges were filed against three officers in the LAPD’s metro division for using cards to falsely label civilians as gang members once they were stopped.

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Los Angeles bars protests at homes after anti-vaccine rally supporters show up at officials’ residences

Los Angeles city leaders approved an ordinance Tuesday that would bar protests within 300 feet of the residence belonging to the person being targeted, a move that came following months of demonstrations outside the homes of public and elected officials. 

The City Council voted 12 to 2 to approve the measure, with council members Mike Bonin and Nithya Raman dissenting. A second reading — usually a formality — will be held Sept. 21 for the ordinance to go into effect. 

The ordinance was requested by Council President Nury Martinez and Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who were the targets of anti-vaccine protesters last month. On Aug. 29, a protester at a Santa Monica rally shared their home addresses and encouraged people to show up at the residences if they voted to approve an ordinance requiring partial proof of vaccination before being able to enter most indoor spaces. 

“We have one week to stop the (vaccination) passports … if it’s unanimous, we’ve lost,” a protester said. “Sharpen your knives, get your guns, get your food now. We find out who voted yes and you show up at their house. We need to intimidate these people.”

“No staffers, no family members of ours should be subjected to this kind of treatment. My address and my home is not a public place for you to come and protest,” she added.

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LA To Require Vaccination For Indoor Spaces, Including Restaurants, Bars, Gyms, Stores

KTLA News reported Wednesday that the city council has unanimously voted to introduce vaccination requirements in order to enter indoor spaces, including restaurants, bars, gyms and even stores.

The report notes that the council “voted to direct the city attorney to draft an ordinance requiring patrons to have at least one dose of the vaccine to be able to enter the indoor public spaces.”

Entertainment centers like stadiums, concert venues and movie theaters will also fall under the ordinance.

Council President Nury Martinez declared that “It’s our responsibility to protect the public, that includes protecting them from the unvaccinated.”

Martinez added “The decision to not get vaccinated doesn’t just affect you. We have kids under the age of 12 who are not eligible for the vaccine yet, and someone’s decision to not get vaccinated affects them as well.”

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LA City Council members propose requiring at least one vaccine dose in order to enter indoor establishments

Two members of the Los Angeles City Council are pushing for a requirement that people get at least one vaccine dose in order to enter indoor establishments.

LA City Council President Nury Martinez and Council Member Mitch O’Farrell introduced the motion on Wednesday.

A portion of the motion that Martinez shared on social media declares: “I THEREFORE MOVE, that the City Council instruct the City Attorney to prepare and present an ordinance that would require eligible individuals to have received at least one dose of vaccination to enter indoor spaces, including but not limited to, restaurants, bars, retail establishments, fitness centers, spas, and entertainment centers such as stadiums, concert venues, and movie theaters.”

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Los Angeles County officials are advising essential workers to wear masks at home to avoid further spread of Covid-19

Things are so bad in Los Angeles County that health officials are now advising all essential workers to wear masks inside their own home to prevent spreading Covid-19 within their household.”Right now, because there is so much spread, we’re recommending that people wear their face coverings while they’re inside the home,” Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said in a news conference Monday. That’s for people who are either leaving their home every day for work or who are running errands regularly for their family, Ferrer said.Doing so, she said, “will add a layer of protection while we get through this surge.”

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$130,000 for an 8-foot-by-8-foot shed? That’s what L.A. is paying in a bid to house the homeless

In other cities, 64-square-foot aluminum and composite sheds are being used as quick and inexpensive emergency shelter for homeless people.

Not in Los Angeles. Here, plans to employ the minimalist structures, known as “tiny homes,” have blossomed into expensive development projects with access roads, underground utilities and concrete foundations — and commensurate planning delays.

At the city’s first tiny home village, scheduled to open in January, each of the 39 closet-sized homes is costing $130,000, about 10 times what some other cities are spending. Five more villages are planned to open later.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the program in March, signaling that the concept of sheltering people in tiny homes, long neglected in Los Angeles, had emerged as a leading strategy in the city’s response to a federal lawsuit alleging it has done too little to get homeless people off the streets.

He told the court that the city had purchased 50 of the prefab structures as the first installment of a plan to shelter homeless people in villages of tiny homes around the city.

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Mayor Garcetti Bans Walking As Latest LA Lockdown Begins

As LA Mayor Eric Garcetti kicks off the most restrictive lockdown in the country in the City of Angels, it appears even walking and exercise are now banned as California takes a page out of Australia’s COVID-19 playbook.

During comments earlier this week, the LA Mayor warned “it’s time to cancel everything”, including “unnecessary travel on foot” – also known as ‘walking’.

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L.A. County walks back Halloween ban, says trick-or-treating ‘not recommended’

Less than a day after issuing new health guidelines that banned trick-or-treating and other Halloween activities, Los Angeles County public health officials walked back the decision Wednesday.

Citing an inability to maintain safe social distancing and the potential for gatherings beyond household members, county officials initially nixed trick-or-treating along with other Halloween traditions, including haunted houses and parades.

But Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Wednesday that the guidelines have been “slightly revised.”

Ferrer said the change distinguishes between activities originally prohibited under the health officer order from activities that are “not recommended.”

“This year, it’s just not safe to celebrate in the ways we usually do,” Ferrer said. “We are recommending that trick-or-treating not happen this year.”

The Department of Public Health previously said that because some of the traditional ways in which Halloween is celebrated do not allow contact with nonhousehold members to be minimized, it is important to identify safer alternatives.

“Trunk-or-treat” events involving car-to-car candy dispersal, which are sometimes held by churches or schools, also are not recommended under the revised order.

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Here’s What All Those Black Helicopters Were Doing Zipping Around Los Angeles Last Night

One of our readers reached out early this evening—September 1st, 2020—letting me know he saw a formation of four MH-6 Little Birds flying in tight formation over Interstate 5 near downtown Los Angeles. I joked at the time that it will be just a matter of hours until people start freaking out due to the urban training operations they were likely about to execute. Just like clockwork, a few hours after the sun had set, the social media posts began emerging. People couldn’t understand what they were seeing, and how can you blame them? Watching blacked-out little helicopters, most of which usually run with no lights, ripping low over rooftops, landing on tall buildings and quickly departing, and even flying down city streets, is certainly concerning—any action movie will tell you that. But the reality is that it’s only the world’s best helicopter pilots that are tasked with the hardest missions practicing to fight future wars and to respond to terrorist incidents in what the Pentagon has dubbed ‘megacities.’

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