latimes--2020-07-20--L.A. County reports record number of coronavirus hospitalizations

Los Angeles County officials have announced another record-breaking day among patients hospitalized for the coronavirus .
As of Monday , 2,232 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms — the highest single-day number reported and the sixth consecutive day that hospitalizations surpassed 2,100 .
On Sunday , 2,216 patients were reported , the first time hospitalizations had surpassed 2,200 .
Of those currently hospitalized , 26 % are in intensive care .
Public health officials also reported 3,160 new cases and nine additional coronavirus-related deaths .
More than 155,000 people have been infected in the county since the pandemic began , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 9 , healthcare workers and first responders accounted for 10,450 cases .
That number is up more than 1,000 from the week prior , the largest increase among those professions .
Sixty-three healthcare workers have died from COVID-19 , Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Monday .
Nurses account for 49 % of those deaths , and of those who have died of coronavirus-related infections , nurses in skilled nursing facilities account for 71 % .
There also have been 812 cases of COVID-19 among pregnant women , as of July 17 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 79 % were symptomatic , and there has been one death among pregnant women — a number first reported weeks ago .
No newborns have tested positive for the virus .
Like all Latino residents , pregnant Latina women have been disproportionately affected by the virus , accounting for 3 out of every 4 cases of pregnant women who have contracted the virus , data show .
“ This inquiry is a mirror image of what the Latinx community has experienced since the pandemic began , ” Ferrer said .
Many Latino residents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and may bring the infection home to their pregnant partners .
Of the 3,820 people who have died where race and ethnicity has been identified , officials have said that 47 % have been Latino .
Officials are currently responding to more than 1,000 outbreaks of the virus , Ferrer said .
Although contact tracing remains a key tool in the fight against the spread of the disease , Ferrer said its methods can ’ t be fully relied on .
While the county has added more contact tracers — totaling more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in public spaces and is only as effective as contacted individuals allow it to be .
For example , of the roughly 57,000 people of the contacted individuals who completed an hour-long phone interview with a contact tracer , only 57 % provided information on their close contacts and employers .
Many cited fear over such information affecting their housing , job status or relationships .
“ We are limited in our ability to force people to share important information , ” Ferrer said .
The disease has become most prevalent in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the latest infections occurring in people younger than 41 , and 52 % of the cases to date in the county occurring in that age group .
Supervisor Kathryn Barger said that the increase accounts for activity seen over the Fourth of July weekend and in the weeks prior .
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti repeated a dire warning over the weekend that the city is on the brink of fully shutting down again .
The mayor blamed a rapid reopening of the economy and people becoming less vigilant about following public health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of infections .
The city is in an orange-level threat territory , the second highest of the color-coded categories he unveiled in early July .
But if the situation escalates — for example , if hospital capacity becomes limited — the threat assessment could move to red , which would lead to a total shutdown , Garcetti warned .
“ I stand behind the decisions we made [ to reopen ] , ” Barger said in response to Garcetti ’ s comments .
“ I think it ’ s unfortunate for us to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We need to look forward.
” Among a troubling spike in the number of coronavirus cases across California , Gov .
Gavin Newsom announced a bit of positive news on Monday : The rate of positive infections over the past 14 days has held steady , while the seven-day average has dipped slightly .
Newsom reported that the statewide positivity rate has remained at 7.4 % for the past two weeks and that the one-week average for positive infections decreased from 7.7 % to 7.2 % .
A more concerning number , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which has increased by 16 % over the past 14 days .
Still , that number is a smaller overall increase when compared to the weeks before .
But , Newsom warned , the numbers apply to the state as a whole , which has confirmed more than 337,000 infections and 7,716 coronavirus-related deaths.Several counties are still experiencing a surge in infections .
“ County-by-county , things look very differently than they do statewide , ” the governor said .
“ We are in the midst of this pandemic — it is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angeles is one of 33 counties the state is monitoring for a surge in cases and hospitalizations .
While some counties , like San Francisco , have moved off and on the state ’ s watch list over the last few weeks , L.A. County has remained for the better part of a month .
Among the reasons for monitoring are the county ’ s overall infection numbers .
According to state guidelines , counties must have no more than 100 infections per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period to be able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public health data , Los Angeles County ’ s infection rate is 318.9 per 100,000 residents .
The county is also above the 8 % positivity rate the state has called for .
On Sunday , officials reported a record number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals : 2,216 .
Of those , 26 % were in intensive care , and 19 % are on ventilators .
It was the fifth consecutive day the county saw more than 2,100 patients in hospitals and the first day that number surpassed 2,200 .
Despite the increase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shape with the number of available hospital beds , officials said .
More than 1.5 million county residents have been tested for the virus , and 10 % have tested positive , as of Sunday , data show .
The seven-day average for positive infections is at 8.8 % .
An experimental vaccine trial in the U.S. is scheduled to begin soon .
Roughly 30,000 people , including Californians , will be enrolled .
Scientists at Oxford University recently announced that an experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who got the shot .
Researchers began testing in April in about 1,000 people , and half received the experimental vaccine .

Los Angeles County officials have announced another record-breaking day among patients hospitalized for the coronavirus.
As of Monday, 2,232 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms — the highest single-day number reported and the sixth consecutive day that hospitalizations surpassed 2,100. On Sunday, 2,216 patients were reported, the first time hospitalizations had surpassed 2,200. Of those currently hospitalized, 26% are in intensive care.
Public health officials also reported 3,160 new cases and nine additional coronavirus-related deaths.
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More than 159,000 people have been infected in the county since the pandemic began.
As of July 9, 10,040 healthcare workers and first responders in L.A. County have tested positive for the virus. That number, which includes some workers who reside in other counties, is up more than 1,000 from the week before — the largest increase among those professions.
Sixty-three healthcare workers have died from COVID-19, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Monday. Nurses account for 49% of those deaths, and of those who have died of coronavirus-related infections, nurses in skilled nursing facilities account for 71%.
There also have been 812 cases of COVID-19 among pregnant women, as of July 17, health officials said. Of those, 79% were symptomatic, and there has been one death among pregnant women — a number first reported weeks ago. No newborns have tested positive for the virus.
Like all Latino residents, pregnant Latina women have been disproportionately affected by the virus, accounting for 3 out of every 4 cases of pregnant women who have contracted the virus, data show.
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“This inquiry is a mirror image of what the Latinx community has experienced since the pandemic began,” Ferrer said.
Many Latino residents are essential workers, Ferrer said, and may bring the infection home to their pregnant partners. Of the 3,820 people who have died where race and ethnicity has been identified, officials have said that 47% have been Latino.
Officials are currently responding to more than 1,000 outbreaks of the virus, Ferrer said.
Although contact tracing remains a key tool in the fight against the spread of the disease, Ferrer said its methods can’t be fully relied on.
While the county has added more contact tracers — totaling more than 2,500 — tracing doesn’t occur in public spaces and is only as effective as contacted individuals allow it to be. For example, of the roughly 57,000 people of the contacted individuals who completed an hour-long phone interview with a contact tracer, only 57% provided information on their close contacts and employers. Many cited fear over such information affecting their housing, job status or relationships.
“We are limited in our ability to force people to share important information,” Ferrer said.
California Younger L.A. County residents are increasingly catching COVID-19 The surge of the coronavirus in Los Angeles County continues to be fueled by younger people, with the majority of those infected under the age of 41.
The disease has become most prevalent in the relatively young, with roughly 53% of the latest infections occurring in people younger than 41, and 52% of the cases to date in the county occurring in that age group. Supervisor Kathryn Barger said that the increase accounts for activity seen over the Fourth of July weekend and in the weeks prior.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti repeated a dire warning over the weekend that the city is on the brink of fully shutting down again. The mayor blamed a rapid reopening of the economy and people becoming less vigilant about following public health guidance for the rise in the number of infections.
The city is in an orange-level threat territory, the second highest of the color-coded categories he unveiled in early July. But if the situation escalates — for example, if hospital capacity becomes limited — the threat assessment could move to red, which would lead to a total shutdown, Garcetti warned.
“I stand behind the decisions we made [to reopen],” Barger said in response to Garcetti’s comments. “I think it’s unfortunate for us to be debating what we should have done. We need to look forward.”
Among a troubling spike in the number of coronavirus cases across California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a bit of positive news on Monday: The rate of positive infections over the past 14 days has held steady, while the seven-day average has dipped slightly.
Newsom reported that the statewide positivity rate has remained at 7.4% for the past two weeks and that the one-week average for positive infections decreased from 7.7% to 7.2%.
A more concerning number, however, is the hospitalization rate, which has increased by 16% over the past 14 days. Still, that number is a smaller overall increase when compared to the weeks before.
But, Newsom warned, the numbers apply to the state as a whole, which has confirmed more than 337,000 infections and 7,716 coronavirus-related deaths.Several counties are still experiencing a surge in infections.
“County-by-county, things look very differently than they do statewide,” the governor said. “We are in the midst of this pandemic — it is not going away any time soon.”
Los Angeles is one of 33 counties the state is monitoring for a surge in cases and hospitalizations.
While some counties, like San Francisco, have moved off and on the state’s watch list over the last few weeks, L.A. County has remained for the better part of a month.
Among the reasons for monitoring are the county’s overall infection numbers. According to state guidelines, counties must have no more than 100 infections per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period to be able to relax public health restrictions. According to public health data, Los Angeles County’s infection rate is 318.9 per 100,000 residents.
The county is also above the 8% positivity rate the state has called for.
On Sunday, officials reported a record number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals: 2,216. Of those, 26% were in intensive care, and 19% are on ventilators. It was the fifth consecutive day the county saw more than 2,100 patients in hospitals and the first day that number surpassed 2,200.
Despite the increase, the county is still in good shape with the number of available hospital beds, officials said.
California Newsom reopened California without meeting his own coronavirus testing, tracing benchmarks California Gov. Gavin Newsom defended his reopening decisions and adopted the same argument made by many critics of his original order: The consequences of the COVID-19 shutdown for the economy and mental health were too great to ignore.
More than 1.5 million county residents have been tested for the virus, and 10% have tested positive, as of Sunday, data show. The seven-day average for positive infections is at 8.8%.
An experimental vaccine trial in the U.S. is scheduled to begin soon. Roughly 30,000 people, including Californians, will be enrolled.
Scientists at Oxford University recently announced that an experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds who got the shot. Researchers began testing in April in about 1,000 people, and half received the experimental vaccine.


latimes--2020-07-20--O.C. prosecutors committed malpractice in mass killer case, review finds

The Orange County district attorney ’ s office said two of its former prosecutors committed malpractice by willfully ignoring the use of a veteran government informant to obtain a confession from mass killer Scott Dekraai , according to an internal review that was made public Monday of the county ’ s so-called snitch scandal .
The 57-page report concludes that the two men tasked with prosecuting Dekraai — the admitted gunman who claimed eight lives in the 2011 Seal Beach salon massacre — made a “ deliberate choice not to find out the criminal and informant history ” of Fernando @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dekraai when he confessed to the shootings days after his arrest .
Dekraai ’ s trial was key to revealing that the Orange County Sheriff ’ s Department had made a practice of placing seasoned informants near high-profile defendants while in the county ’ s jails , ultimately allowing them to question inmates about crimes for which they were awaiting trial without a lawyer present , a violation of their constitutional rights .
The scandal has led to at least a dozen retrials in Orange County homicide cases as well as reduced sentences @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the misconduct had largely been focused on the Sheriff ’ s Department and former Dist .
Atty .
Tony Rackauckas .
The report released Monday focused largely on the actions of former Assistant Dist .
Atty .
Dan Wagner and Senior Deputy Dist .
Atty .
Scott Simmons , who oversaw Dekraai ’ s prosecution .
Both men resigned late last year and have since opened a defense firm in Irvine .
Calls and e-mails to both men were not returned Monday .
The report did not mention them by name , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their job titles in relation to the case .
“ These apparent acts of deliberate negligence have had devastating consequences to the victim ’ s families , the Orange County criminal justice system and its law enforcement agencies , ” the report read .
The report ’ s main conclusion was that the two prosecutors ignored voluminous evidence that Perez was a longtime jailhouse snitch for various law enforcement agencies , a fact that wasn ’ t disclosed to Dekraai ’ s defense counsel until years after his arrest .
Less than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sheriff ’ s deputy told a district attorney ’ s office investigator assigned to the case that Perez had “ provided good intel in the past ” and wanted to offer information in connection with the Seal Beach massacre .
Less than two months earlier , prosecutors were also given a presentation about a federal takedown of Mexican Mafia members , dubbed Operation Black Flag , that would have included details about Perez ’ s status as an informant , according to the report .
The district attorney ’ s office also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ noted Perez had cooperated with law enforcement as far back as 1999 , yet neither of the lead prosecutors checked the index after he became part of the Dekraai case , the report found .
“ During the first six months of the Dekraai case ... the prosecution team repeatedly ignored clear and compelling evidence that Perez was a veteran federal confidential informant , ” the report read .
Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders , who represented Dekraai and helped expose the informant scandal , said Monday ’ s report revealed little in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ argued many of the details about what Simmons and Wagner should have known about Perez were contained in filings he made during Dekraai ’ s trial in 2014 .
The report also found the district attorney ’ s office had done nothing wrong in five other cases that were negatively impacted by the misuse of informants , a conclusion Sanders scoffed at .
“ We ’ ve written at length about other prosecutors ... we ’ ve detailed it in cases .
And basically , the only thing we get out of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ information to make a determination , ” Sanders said .
“ The only way I can read that is they just weren ’ t willing to take on any of their other employees.
” Somil Trivedi , a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has previously sued county officials to make public a trove of information about its use of informants dating back to the 1980s , also said the report fell far short of the needed accounting of the impact of informant misuse on a wider range of criminal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Sanders filed a motion alleging that deputies who worked for the Special Handling Unit , which managed jail informants , had testified in at least 146 criminal cases without their possible connection to the scandal being disclosed .
“ This is definitely an honest and thorough appraisal of what went wrong in Dekraai .
The problem is the Court of Appeals has already done this work , ” Trivedi said .
“ There ’ s nothing new here , and by diving so deep into Dekraai … you can ’ t help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that safe effort into actually discovering if there was a systemic problem.
” While the report suggested “ severe disciplinary ” action against the prosecutors , their decision to resign late last year largely insulated them from consequences , continuing a pattern of barely anyone facing punishment in one of the county ’ s largest law enforcement scandals .
Earlier this year , a Times investigation revealed the California attorney general ’ s office investigation into deputies at the center of the snitch scandal was woefully lacking .
In the nearly four-year review @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Department were interviewed .
The deputies who were the target of the state ’ s investigation were not among them , The Times found , and no attempts were made to subpoena or compel testimony during the first two years of the probe , when it was run by Kamala Harris , now a U.S. senator .
The deputies never faced criminal charges , and all three have since resigned .
The U.S. Department of Justice is still conducting a review of the district attorney ’ s office , but there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conclude , according to a spokeswoman for the D.A .
's office .

Confessed mass shooter Scott Dekraai appears during a court hearing in Orange County in a case that eventually helped expose a scandal involving the misuse of informants in the county’s jails.
The Orange County district attorney’s office said two of its former prosecutors committed malpractice by willfully ignoring the use of a veteran government informant to obtain a confession from mass killer Scott Dekraai, according to an internal review that was made public Monday of the county’s so-called snitch scandal.
The 57-page report concludes that the two men tasked with prosecuting Dekraai — the admitted gunman who claimed eight lives in the 2011 Seal Beach salon massacre — made a “deliberate choice not to find out the criminal and informant history” of Fernando Perez, who was housed next to Dekraai when he confessed to the shootings days after his arrest.
Dekraai’s trial was key to revealing that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department had made a practice of placing seasoned informants near high-profile defendants while in the county’s jails, ultimately allowing them to question inmates about crimes for which they were awaiting trial without a lawyer present, a violation of their constitutional rights.
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The scandal has led to at least a dozen retrials in Orange County homicide cases as well as reduced sentences for other defendants. But the blame for the misconduct had largely been focused on the Sheriff’s Department and former Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas.
The report released Monday focused largely on the actions of former Assistant Dist. Atty. Dan Wagner and Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Simmons, who oversaw Dekraai’s prosecution. Both men resigned late last year and have since opened a defense firm in Irvine. Calls and e-mails to both men were not returned Monday.
The report did not mention them by name, citing confidentiality laws, but described both of their job titles in relation to the case.
“These apparent acts of deliberate negligence have had devastating consequences to the victim’s families, the Orange County criminal justice system and its law enforcement agencies,” the report read.
The report’s main conclusion was that the two prosecutors ignored voluminous evidence that Perez was a longtime jailhouse snitch for various law enforcement agencies, a fact that wasn’t disclosed to Dekraai’s defense counsel until years after his arrest.
Less than a week after Dekraai was jailed, a sheriff’s deputy told a district attorney’s office investigator assigned to the case that Perez had “provided good intel in the past” and wanted to offer information in connection with the Seal Beach massacre. Less than two months earlier, prosecutors were also given a presentation about a federal takedown of Mexican Mafia members, dubbed Operation Black Flag, that would have included details about Perez’s status as an informant, according to the report.
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The district attorney’s office also kept an “Informant Index” that noted Perez had cooperated with law enforcement as far back as 1999, yet neither of the lead prosecutors checked the index after he became part of the Dekraai case, the report found.
“During the first six months of the Dekraai case ... the prosecution team repeatedly ignored clear and compelling evidence that Perez was a veteran federal confidential informant,” the report read.
Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, who represented Dekraai and helped expose the informant scandal, said Monday’s report revealed little in the way of new information. He argued many of the details about what Simmons and Wagner should have known about Perez were contained in filings he made during Dekraai’s trial in 2014.
The report also found the district attorney’s office had done nothing wrong in five other cases that were negatively affected by the misuse of informants, a conclusion Sanders scoffed at.
“We’ve written at length about other prosecutors ... we’ve detailed it in cases. And basically, the only thing we get out of this report is there wasn’t enough information to make a determination,” Sanders said. “The only way I can read that is they just weren’t willing to take on any of their other employees.”
Somil Trivedi, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has previously sued county officials to make public a trove of information about its use of informants dating back to the 1980s, also said the report fell far short of the needed accounting of the impact of informant misuse on a wider range of criminal cases in Orange County. In 2018, Sanders filed a motion alleging that deputies who worked for the Special Handling Unit, which managed jail informants, had testified in at least 146 criminal cases without their possible connection to the scandal being disclosed.
“This is definitely an honest and thorough appraisal of what went wrong in Dekraai. The problem is the Court of Appeals has already done this work,” Trivedi said. “There’s nothing new here, and by diving so deep into Dekraai … you can’t help but think they didn’t put that safe effort into actually discovering if there was a systemic problem.”
While the report suggested “severe disciplinary” action against the prosecutors, their decision to resign late last year largely insulated them from consequences, continuing a pattern of barely anyone facing punishment in one of the county’s largest law enforcement scandals.
Earlier this year, a Times investigation revealed the California attorney general’s office investigation into deputies at the center of the snitch scandal was woefully lacking. In the nearly four-year review, only four members of the Sheriff’s Department were interviewed. The deputies who were the target of the state’s investigation were not among them, The Times found, and no attempts were made to subpoena or compel testimony during the first two years of the probe, when it was run by Kamala Harris, now a U.S. senator.
The deputies never faced criminal charges, and all three have since resigned. The U.S. Department of Justice is still conducting a review of the district attorney’s office, but there is no timeline for when that might conclude, according to a spokeswoman for the office.


latimes--2020-07-20--Column: The making of activists? How two Santa Monica women came to stand up for Black lives

Leilah Franklin and Chandler Kennedy don ’ t call themselves “ activists.
” In fact , the longtime friends from Santa Monica seem completely uneasy with the word .
There are rules for white allies , after all — and chief among them is to not steal the spotlight from Black people fighting the good fight against racial injustice .
It ’ s a good rule .
And yet , as I watch protesters from every imaginable background descend on the streets of American cities each week , I can ’ t help but wonder if the rule is , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fast as it once was .
Who gets to claim the label of activist and who doesn ’ t ?
Is it just for the venerated few , such as the late John Lewis , who risked his life for voting rights in Selma , Ala. , in 1965 and spoke at the first March on Washington before joining Congress ?
Or also for people like “ Naked Athena , ” the mysterious white woman who , asmy colleague Richard Read wrote , suddenly appeared amid a cloud of tear gas and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poses on the streets of Portland over the weekend ?
It ’ s a question that brings me back to Franklin and Kennedy .
Their story begins in early June .
The nation had just erupted in what would become weeks of protests , sparked by a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man named George Floyd .
In Santa Monica , tear gas had filled the streets after a group of opportunistic thieves used the cover of a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest to vandalize more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That ’ s when Kennedy , a photographer and casting director , and Franklin , a film producer and manager of a startup , had a pivotal conversation .
“ She was just like , ‘ What ’ s going on in our district ?
’ ” Franklin recalled .
And by “ district , ” she means the majority white and affluent Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District , from which they both graduated in 2011 .
“ We were completely undereducated in terms of conversations about prejudice and race.
” Franklin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the majority of what they learned about Black history began with slavery and ended with the civil rights movement .
And they remembered , with horror , the many micro-aggressions they witnessed , such as the “ Rasta-themed ” pep rally where white students wore wigs of dreadlocks and another one where they wore sombreros and mustaches .
Now 27-year-old women , Franklin and Kennedy wanted to do something — anything — to help break the cycle of racism .
They decided to push the school district to adopt a curriculum developed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lessons about structural racism , antiracism , the intersectionality of Black and queer identities , and Black history that goes beyond the 1960s .
An online petition went out .
Black alumni and students stepped up to share testimonials about racism they experienced .
Teachers , counselors and administrators joined the effort , too .
Together , they got the teachers union on board .
Then , last Thursday , came victory .
The school board approved most of what the group wanted , including a plan to promote the curriculum and designate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black Lives Matter School Week of Action .
Also , the board made more aspirational — and arguably meaningful — promises to recruit , hire and retain more Black educators and expand restorative justice practices by training all employees districtwide .
“ There was a group of alumni that approached us about this resolution , and we happily accepted it , ” Supt .
Ben Drati said at the meeting over Zoom .
“ And on Aug. 25 , there is going to be a deeper conversation we ’ re going to have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racism , through curriculum and everything that we ’ re trying to do .
I ’ m proud of the work that our folks have really engaged in , although we have a lot of work to do .
“ It ’ s notable that this sort of campaign had to be waged at all in the notoriously lefty Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District .
After all , it was Santa Monica High School , with its diversity and cultural sensitivity , that supposedly drove Stephen Miller to President Trump ’ s side @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policies .
Or so the story goes anyway .
“ These challenges were some of the toughest I faced in life , ” Miller told The Times in 2017 .
“ When we think of nonconformity , we tend to imagine kids in the ’ 60s rebelling against ‘ the system.
’ This was my system .
My establishment was a dogmatic educational system that often uniformly expressed a single point of view.
” By now , most Americans know of Miller ’ s racism and , specifically , his hatred of Latinos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Poverty Law Center added the White House senior policy advisor to its list of anti-immigrant extremists — and rightfully so .
Although many have cast Miller as an outlier during his years at Samohi , current and former students tell similar tales of hate .
There was the noose incident at Malibu High School earlier this year .
And at Samohi , Kayla Lewis-Koury and Nayeli Barbosa , both 17 and protest organizers in their own right , told me of white students who regularly made jokes about lynchings and used slurs such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” “ I ’ ve had people ask me if my parents are gardeners , ” said Barbosa , whose heritage is Mexican and Brazilian .
“ I ’ ve had people tell me like , oh , I have to be on the lookout for ICE.
” Although such racism exists in many school districts across the country , it is perhaps most imperative for affluent ones like Santa Monica-Malibu Unified to adopt an antiracist curriculum .
For it ’ s the alumni of these schools who are most likely to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come .
It ’ s one reason why Lewis-Koury and Barbosa worked with alumni to get the district to adopt the Black Lives Matter curriculum .
“ Stephen Miller went to three schools in the district that I went to , ” Franklin said .
Kennedy interjected : “ I mean , he ’ s the closest person to the president.
” What would ’ ve happened if a guy like Miller had gone to a school district that had lessons on systemic racism , starting in elementary school and extending all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there would have been a Stephen Miller , ” said Jeremy Divinity , who went to John Adams Middle School and remembered Miller because he graduated with his sister , Tiffini .
“ But I feel like there would have been more parents outspoken about it , not just Black and Latino parents .
They would have realized and been more involved in a denouncement of it.
” As coronavirus cases surge again and the national conversation shifts from racial injustice to seemingly more pressing matters , such as whether to reopen schools @ @ @ @ @ @ @ masks , I ’ m worried , like a lot of people , about how to maintain the momentum for systemic change to improve Black lives .
The answer perhaps is to broaden the popular definition of an “ activist.
” Most people think of an activist solely as a person who organizes protests , willingly sucking in tear gas to take a stand for racial injustice .
This is true , but it ’ s also a very narrow definition that diminishes the real work of Black Lives Matter , and many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the groundwork for the current movement to defund police departments didn ’ t appear out of thin air .
It took months ’ and even years ’ worth of work behind the scenes .
This is what it will take to dismantle the many systems that prop up racism in this country .
And , as we transition from protests to public policy , hopefully with a large and motivated coalition , this is what the ongoing fight for justice will look like in the days and months ahead .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ led by Black people , yes .
But it also must include people like Franklin and Kennedy , who can use their privilege to amplify Black voices and quietly tap into government power structures to help create change .
That , too , is activism .

Protesters stand near Santa Monica Pier in June, after the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd.
Leilah Franklin and Chandler Kennedy don’t call themselves “activists.” In fact, the longtime friends from Santa Monica seem completely uneasy with the word.
There are rules for white allies, after all — and chief among them is to not steal the spotlight from Black people fighting the good fight against racial injustice. It’s a good rule. And yet, as I watch protesters from every imaginable background descend on the streets of American cities each week, I can’t help but wonder if the rule is, or even should be, as hard and fast as it once was.
Who gets to claim the label of activist and who doesn’t?
Is it just for the venerated few, such as the late John Lewis, who risked his life for voting rights in Selma, Ala., in 1965 and spoke at the first March on Washington before joining Congress? Or also for people like “Naked Athena,” the mysterious white woman who, asmy colleague Richard Read wrote, suddenly appeared amid a cloud of tear gas and scared off federal agents by performing ballet poses on the streets of Portland over the weekend?
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It’s a question that brings me back to Franklin and Kennedy.
Their story begins in early June. The nation had just erupted in what would become weeks of protests, sparked by a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man named George Floyd. In Santa Monica, tear gas had filled the streets after a group of opportunistic thieves used the cover of a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest to vandalize more than 150 businesses, setting some on fire.
That’s when Kennedy, a photographer and casting director, and Franklin, a film producer and manager of a startup, had a pivotal conversation.
“She was just like, ‘What’s going on in our district?’” Franklin recalled. And by “district,” she means the majority white and affluent Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, from which they both graduated in 2011. “We were completely undereducated in terms of conversations about prejudice and race.”
Franklin and Kennedy recalled how, as teenagers, the majority of what they learned about Black history began with slavery and ended with the civil rights movement. And they remembered, with horror, the many micro-aggressions they witnessed, such as the “Rasta-themed” pep rally where white students wore wigs of dreadlocks and another one where they wore sombreros and mustaches.
Now 27-year-old women, Franklin and Kennedy wanted to do something — anything — to help break the cycle of racism. They decided to push the school district to adopt a curriculum developed by Black Lives Matter, which includes lessons about structural racism, antiracism, the intersectionality of Black and queer identities, and Black history that goes beyond the 1960s.
An online petition went out. Black alumni and students stepped up to share testimonials about racism they experienced. Teachers, counselors and administrators joined the effort, too. Together, they got the teachers union on board.
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Then, last Thursday, came victory.
The school board approved most of what the group wanted, including a plan to promote the curriculum and designate the first week of every February as Black Lives Matter School Week of Action. Also, the board made more aspirational — and arguably meaningful — promises to recruit, hire and retain more Black educators and expand restorative justice practices by training all employees districtwide.
It’s a major step toward righting wrongs that the Committee for Racial Justice, made up of parents, students and community members, has highlighted for years.
“There was a group of alumni that approached us about this resolution, and we happily accepted it,” Supt. Ben Drati said at the meeting over Zoom. “And on Aug. 25, there is going to be a deeper conversation we’re going to have in terms of how we are addressing racism, through curriculum and everything that we’re trying to do. I’m proud of the work that our folks have really engaged in, although we have a lot of work to do. “
::
It’s notable that this sort of campaign had to be waged at all in the notoriously lefty Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
After all, it was Santa Monica High School, with its diversity and cultural sensitivity, that supposedly drove Stephen Miller to President Trump’s side to draft a series of heartless immigration policies. Or so the story goes anyway.
“These challenges were some of the toughest I faced in life,” Miller told The Times in 2017. “When we think of nonconformity, we tend to imagine kids in the ’60s rebelling against ‘the system.’ This was my system. My establishment was a dogmatic educational system that often uniformly expressed a single point of view.”
By now, most Americans know of Miller’s racism and, specifically, his hatred of Latinos. Just last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center added the White House senior policy advisor to its list of anti-immigrant extremists — and rightfully so.
Although many have cast Miller as an outlier during his years at Samohi, current and former students tell similar tales of hate. There was the noose incident at Malibu High School earlier this year. And at Samohi, Kayla Lewis-Koury and Nayeli Barbosa, both 17 and protest organizers in their own right, told me of white students who regularly made jokes about lynchings and used slurs such as “monkey” and “blackie.”
“I’ve had people ask me if my parents are gardeners,” said Barbosa, whose heritage is Mexican and Brazilian. “I’ve had people tell me like, oh, I have to be on the lookout for ICE.”
Although such racism exists in many school districts across the country, it is perhaps most imperative for affluent ones like Santa Monica-Malibu Unified to adopt an antiracist curriculum. For it’s the alumni of these schools who are most likely to be running the country in the decades to come.
It’s one reason why Lewis-Koury and Barbosa worked with alumni to get the district to adopt the Black Lives Matter curriculum.
“Stephen Miller went to three schools in the district that I went to,” Franklin said.
Kennedy interjected: “I mean, he’s the closest person to the president.”
What would’ve happened if a guy like Miller had gone to a school district that had lessons on systemic racism, starting in elementary school and extending all the way through high school?
“Maybe there would have been a Stephen Miller,” said Jeremy Divinity, who went to John Adams Middle School and remembered Miller because he graduated with his sister, Tiffini. “But I feel like there would have been more parents outspoken about it, not just Black and Latino parents. They would have realized and been more involved in a denouncement of it.”
::
As coronavirus cases surge again and the national conversation shifts from racial injustice to seemingly more pressing matters, such as whether to reopen schools and how to make people wear face masks, I’m worried, like a lot of people, about how to maintain the momentum for systemic change to improve Black lives.
The answer perhaps is to broaden the popular definition of an “activist.”
Most people think of an activist solely as a person who organizes protests, willingly sucking in tear gas to take a stand for racial injustice. This is true, but it’s also a very narrow definition that diminishes the real work of Black Lives Matter, and many, many others. For example, the groundwork for the current movement to defund police departments didn’t appear out of thin air. It took months’ and even years’ worth of work behind the scenes.
This is what it will take to dismantle the many systems that prop up racism in this country. And, as we transition from protests to public policy, hopefully with a large and motivated coalition, this is what the ongoing fight for justice will look like in the days and months ahead.
It’s a movement that will continue to be led by Black people, yes. But it also must include people like Franklin and Kennedy, who can use their privilege to amplify Black voices and quietly tap into government power structures to help create change. That, too, is activism.


latimes--2020-07-20--Man found shot to death inside truck in Santa Ana neighborhood

Santa Ana police are investigating after a man was found shot to death inside a vehicle shortly after midnight Monday @ @ @ @ @ called to the 500 block of South Flower Street found a man with gunshot wounds @ @ @ @ @ behind the wheel of a pickup truck .
Santa Ana police Cmdr .
Andy Alvarez @ @ @ @ @ shot in the head and neck and was declared dead at the scene .
The @ @ @ @ @ being withheld pending identification and notification of next of kin .
Police said they are @ @ @ @ @ homicide .
Video from the scene shows officers examining what appears to be a blue @ @ @ @ @ rack , stuffed with items , in its bed .
Detectives are encouraging anyone with @ @ @ @ @ County Homicide Section at ( 714 ) 245-8390 .

Police are investigating the death of a man found shot inside his truck.
Santa Ana police are investigating after a man was found shot to death inside a vehicle shortly after midnight Monday, authorities said.
Officers called to the 500 block of South Flower Street found a man with gunshot wounds to his upper body slumped behind the wheel of a pickup truck. Santa Ana police Cmdr. Andy Alvarez said the man had been shot in the head and neck and was declared dead at the scene.
The man’s identity is being withheld pending identification and notification of next of kin. Police said they are investigating the death as a homicide.
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SAPD Detectives Investigating a Homicide in the 500 Block of South Flower Street https://t.co/QNnVCC8NVa — SantaAnaPD (@SantaAnaPD) July 20, 2020
Video from the scene shows officers examining what appears to be a blue Nissan with a tall carrier rack, stuffed with items, in its bed.
Detectives are encouraging anyone with information to call the Orange County Homicide Section at (714) 245-8390.


latimes--2020-07-20--As COVID-19 spreads, potentially deadly fungus infects L.A. County healthcare facility

The shortage of medical equipment , including gowns and gloves , triggered by the coronavirus outbreak may be helping to spread dangerous germs within healthcare facilities , according to officials who warned of a potentially deadly fungus in a Los Angeles County healthcare facility .
L.A. County officials are warning about multiple reports of the fungus , known as Candida auris , in healthcare facilities ; there is also an increase in reports of the fungus in Orange County .
At least one outbreak has been identified at a facility in L.A. County , according to an advisory , intended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department of Public Health .
C. auris is a fungus that was first identified in 2009 in Japan but since has been declared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a “ serious global health threat.
” The yeast “ can cause bloodstream infections and even death , particularly in hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems , ” the CDC said , noting that the fungus causes death in more than 1 in 3 patients who suffer from an invasive infection , such as one affecting the blood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is considered particularly dangerous because antifungal medications are often ineffective against it .
The fungus can live on surfaces for several weeks and can spread through hospitals and nursing homes by contact with infected people and contaminated surfaces and equipment .
The fungus can survive many routinely used disinfectants , county officials said .
“ If a patient is positive for more than one organism , ensure you use an Environmental Protection Agency-registered hospital-grade disinfectant that is effective against all organisms the patient is positive for .
Check the label , ” health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found not only in the bloodstream , but also in the urine , respiratory tract , wounds and ear canals of patients .
“ People who get invasive Candida infections are often already sick from other medical conditions , so it can be difficult to know if you have a C. auris infection , ” according to the CDC .
In L.A. County , officials exhorted healthcare facilities not to reuse gloves and gowns between patients who may be infected with multi-drug-resistant germs or with COVID-19 .

C. auris, which can be particularly deadly for hospital and nursing home patients, has been reported in many countries.
The shortage of medical equipment, including gowns and gloves, triggered by the coronavirus outbreak may be helping to spread dangerous germs within healthcare facilities, according to officials who warned of a potentially deadly fungus in a Los Angeles County healthcare facility.
L.A. County officials are warning about multiple reports of the fungus, known as Candida auris, in healthcare facilities; there is also an increase in reports of the fungus in Orange County.
At least one outbreak has been identified at a facility in L.A. County, according to an advisory, intended for healthcare professionals, issued by the Department of Public Health.
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C. auris is a fungus that was first identified in 2009 in Japan but since has been declared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a “serious global health threat.” The yeast “can cause bloodstream infections and even death, particularly in hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems,” the CDC said, noting that the fungus causes death in more than 1 in 3 patients who suffer from an invasive infection, such as one affecting the blood, heart or brain.
C. auris is considered particularly dangerous because antifungal medications are often ineffective against it. The fungus can live on surfaces for several weeks and can spread through hospitals and nursing homes by contact with infected people and contaminated surfaces and equipment.
The fungus can survive many routinely used disinfectants, county officials said.
“If a patient is positive for more than one organism, ensure you use an Environmental Protection Agency-registered hospital-grade disinfectant that is effective against all organisms the patient is positive for. Check the label,” health officials said.
The fungus has been found not only in the bloodstream, but also in the urine, respiratory tract, wounds and ear canals of patients.
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“People who get invasive Candida infections are often already sick from other medical conditions, so it can be difficult to know if you have a C. auris infection,” according to the CDC.
In L.A. County, officials exhorted healthcare facilities not to reuse gloves and gowns between patients who may be infected with multi-drug-resistant germs or with COVID-19.


latimes--2020-07-20--Younger L.A. County residents are increasingly catching COVID-19

The surge of the coronavirus in Los Angeles County continues to be fueled by younger people , with the majority of those infected younger than 41 .
Officials said Sunday that 53 % of the 2,848 new cases reported for the day occurred among that group .
Overall , 52 % of cases to date in the county have been people under 41 .
Statewide , people 18 to 34 years old make up the largest percentage of confirmed coronavirus cases , followed by those 35 to 49 , according to The Times ’ coronavirus tracker .
The surge in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the economy reopened .
Officials believe the coronavirus is hitting younger people who got back to summer socializing or resumed work .
Those dying from COVID-19 continue to skew much older , with people over 80 being the largest group , followed by those 65 to 79 .
There has been growing concern about a rise in young Californians getting COVID-19 .
This month , Gov .
Gavin Newsom called them “ the young invincibles ” — who believe they don ’ t face a risk of becoming ill or passing the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but don ’ t feel it ’ s going to impact them and if it does , it ’ s not a big burden , ” he said .
With hospitalizations reaching new highs this month , officials have closed down some businesses , including bars , indoor restaurants , malls and other retailers .
There remains debate about whether California reopened too soon .
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday that L.A. opened too quickly and again warned that the city was close to imposing some type of new stay-at-home order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Garcetti was asked on CNN about a Times editorial that criticized the rapid reopening of California , which was followed by a major surge in both new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations .
“ I think a lot of people don ’ t understand , mayors often have no control what opens up and doesn ’ t — that ’ s either at a state or county level , ” Garcetti said .
“ And I do agree that those things happened too quickly.
” Despite his comments , local leaders like Garcetti are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that are stricter than those issued by the county or state , just not rules that are more lenient , officials have said .
The mayor has previously suggested that he will be in charge of deciding when the city should reopen .
“ Our timing on opening may vary from other parts of the state , ” he said in early May .
“ I will reopen our city with careful consideration , guided by public health professionals.
” Garcetti also said Sunday that the city was “ on the brink ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The mayor has made the comment before over the last two weeks , saying the city would act if cases continued to rise — even after a series of restrictions imposed by the state this month that included a ban on indoor restaurant dining , and the closing of bars , malls and other retailers in L.A. County and many others .
The mayor urged patience , saying it will take up to three weeks to learn whether the closures have helped slow the spread of the coronavirus .
Los Angeles County @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the coronavirus Sunday .
There are 2,216 people hospitalized with the virus , the county health department reported .
Sunday was the fifth consecutive day on which the number of hospitalizations topped 2,100 and the first time hospitalizations have surpassed 2,200 .
Among those hospitalized , 26 % are in intensive care units and 19 % are on ventilators .
The latest report also includes 11 deaths , bringing the county ’ s total to 4,095 .
“ We continue to reach concerning milestones and today we are seeing the highest number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement .
“ Right now , young adults are being hospitalized at a rate not seen before .
No matter how young you are , you are vulnerable to this virus .
I urge everyone to take collective responsibility — stay physically apart from people you don ’ t live with , properly wear a face covering when you are outside your home but stay home as much as possible .
”

People participate in a session of, “Yoga on the Bluff,” provided by Yogalution Movement along Ocean Blvd. over the weekend.
The surge of the coronavirus in Los Angeles County continues to be fueled by younger people, with the majority of those infected younger than 41.
Officials said Sunday that 53% of the 2,848 new cases reported for the day occurred among that group. Overall, 52% of cases to date in the county have been people under 41.
Statewide, people 18 to 34 years old make up the largest percentage of confirmed coronavirus cases, followed by those 35 to 49, according to The Times’ coronavirus tracker.
The surge in cases began in June as parts of the economy reopened. Officials believe the coronavirus is hitting younger people who got back to summer socializing or resumed work. Those dying from COVID-19 continue to skew much older, with people over 80 being the largest group, followed by those 65 to 79.
There has been growing concern about a rise in young Californians getting COVID-19. This month, Gov. Gavin Newsom called them “the young invincibles” — who believe they don’t face a risk of becoming ill or passing the virus to others.
Advertisement
“They are invincible but don’t feel it’s going to impact them and if it does, it’s not a big burden,” he said.
With hospitalizations reaching new highs this month, officials have closed down some businesses, including bars, indoor restaurants, malls and other retailers. There remains debate about whether California reopened too soon.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday that L.A. opened too quickly and again warned that the city was close to imposing some type of new stay-at-home order if conditions don’t improve.
Garcetti was asked on CNN about a Times editorial that criticized the rapid reopening of California, which was followed by a major surge in both new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
“I think a lot of people don’t understand, mayors often have no control what opens up and doesn’t — that’s either at a state or county level,” Garcetti said. “And I do agree that those things happened too quickly.”
Despite his comments, local leaders like Garcetti are permitted to issue closure and stay-at-home orders that are stricter than those issued by the county or state, just not rules that are more lenient, officials have said.
Advertisement
The mayor has previously suggested that he will be in charge of deciding when the city should reopen.
“Our timing on opening may vary from other parts of the state,” he said in early May. “I will reopen our city with careful consideration, guided by public health professionals.”
Garcetti also said Sunday that the city was “on the brink” of new restrictions but did not elaborate. The mayor has made the comment before over the last two weeks, saying the city would act if cases continued to rise — even after a series of restrictions imposed by the state this month that included a ban on indoor restaurant dining, and the closing of bars, malls and other retailers in L.A. County and many others.
The mayor urged patience, saying it will take up to three weeks to learn whether the closures have helped slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Los Angeles County public health officials reported 2,848 new cases of the coronavirus Sunday.
There are 2,216 people hospitalized with the virus, the county health department reported. Sunday was the fifth consecutive day on which the number of hospitalizations topped 2,100 and the first time hospitalizations have surpassed 2,200.
Among those hospitalized, 26% are in intensive care units and 19% are on ventilators.
The latest report also includes 11 deaths, bringing the county’s total to 4,095.
“We continue to reach concerning milestones and today we are seeing the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. “Right now, young adults are being hospitalized at a rate not seen before. No matter how young you are, you are vulnerable to this virus. I urge everyone to take collective responsibility — stay physically apart from people you don’t live with, properly wear a face covering when you are outside your home but stay home as much as possible.”


latimes--2020-07-20--Column: As an uncertain future looms, Los Angeles' swap meet vendors live in the moment

I ’ ve spent many afternoons trying to make sense of the infinitely jumbled world of commerce that is the Los Angeles swap meet .
It ’ s mostly clothing , jewelry , electronics and luggage stores , but there ’ s also baby Jesus statues of every skin tone , oil paintings of Michael Jordan with his arm around Kobe Bryant and LeBron James , replica samurai swords , banh mi and live music .
Vendors produce custom T-shirts so rapidly that their slogans read like a screen-printed alternative to the newspaper front page : “ Rest in peace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Gianna , ” and the overly optimistic “ I survived coronavirus 2020.
” These days you ’ ll see a lot of masks , gloves and face shields .
And inevitably , you will turn a corner and find yourself caught in the menacing gaze of a parakeet from a swap meet pet shop .
I ’ ve been thinking a lot about swap meets lately , because as we confront deep economic uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic , swap meets live in the moment .
They are a flexible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public space and economic opportunity out of thin air and unused real estate , and they enable poor families to get what they need at a price they can afford and in a language they can understand .
And no other business successfully serves so many different kinds of people at the same time — elderly Spanish-speaking video game fans who can ’ t use the internet , Asian immigrants looking for bargains on kitchen supplies , kids with little or no allowance who nevertheless still need to pull off an outfit .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hussein , a swap meet clothing vendor from Pakistan whom I met before the pandemic hit and changed everything .
I was surprised to see him back at work unpacking boxes with his wife .
The swap meet was busier than ever and actually featured several new businesses .
I asked Hussein if he was worried about the future and the ongoing healthcare crisis .
“ What if the building is sold ?
What if we are kicked out ?
My friend , I don ’ t know .
Maybe someone will come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ll die tomorrow !
” Hussein said , joking but not smiling .
Hussein and the people in the swap meet have always known something that most of us are just coming to grips with : The future is not guaranteed .
A swap meet manager , whose name I ’ m not using because he is in the country illegally , summed it up : “ Down here , we live always in the moment .
We want what we want , right away , and it doesn ’ t matter if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not .
Because the moment is sometimes all we have.
” I couldn ’ t tell whether he meant it out of hope or despair .
Swap meets and flea markets are an old practice in the United States , and until the 1960s , they were mostly populated by white vendors who sold mostly secondhand goods outdoors , said Edna Ledesma , an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has researched swap meets .
In the 1970s , Latino immigrants started selling cultural goods and affordable services at swap meets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take on the look and feel of tianguis , or open-air markets in Mexico .
At the same time , the decline of drive-in movie theaters led to a proliferation of swap meets and flea markets , driven by property owners who sought ways to bolster their flagging profits by renting out their properties during the day .
The streets and alleys of many outdoor swap meets are still laid out in the fanned pattern of drive-in movie parking lots , and many stalls were former parking spots , Ledesma said .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wave of imported goods from Asia flooded U.S. markets .
Asian immigrants , mostly Korean , used their connections in the import/export industry to supply goods to swap meet shops and set up their own stalls .
Swap meets began to feature new , cheap goods from Asia rather than secondhand possessions , and they started to resemble Korean bargain markets .
In Los Angeles , as investors fled South L.A. in the ’ 80s and ’ 90s , Korean immigrants bought the vacant and unused properties they left behind and turned them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appealed to immigrants who were shut out of the formal economy by discrimination , cultural barriers and lack of capital .
Selling to mostly Black customers , swap meets in South Los Angeles were the site of unprecedented and historic cultural interactions that helped give rise to West Coast hip-hop .
Steve Yano , a Japanese American from Whittier who owned a record store at the Roadium swap meet in Torrance , helped introduce Dr. Dre to Eazy-E. Wan Joon Kim , a South Korean immigrant , ran a record store in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when record companies were ignoring hip-hop .
L.A. swap meets , especially the Compton Fashion Center , became a celebrated part of hip-hop culture .
In one of the two music videos for “ California Love , ” Tupac Shakur goes to the Compton Fashion Center so he can pick up a new outfit for a party at Dr. Dre ’ s house .
Kendrick Lamar continued the tradition in his music video for “ King Kunta , ” dancing on the swap meet ’ s rooftop .
But today the Compton Fashion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s a testament to the fact that swap meets rarely inspire community pride .
No swap meet enjoys historical protection , even though some are nearly a century old .
Southern California city leaders actually considered them blights and regulated them as they would liquor and tobacco shops , with Gardena even adopting a moratorium on new swap meets .
In the ’ 80s and ’ 90s , swap meets acquired a reputation for selling fake or illegally obtained goods .
Shootings in swap meets caused many leaders to conclude that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safety concern .
In the city of Los Angeles , operating a swap meet requires a permit from the Board of Police Commissioners , and if criminal activity at a swap meet causes a rise in police spending , the swap meet operator may be required to compensate the city ’ s general fund for the time .
Swap meets had a complicated relationship with the communities they served as well .
Black residents accustomed to shopping at brand-name stores considered the swap meets a downgrade .
The prospering businesses , mostly owned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Black community , sparking tension in neighborhoods long robbed of resources .
At least 385 Korean American-owned swap meets were looted or burned down in 1992 , and 191 swap meets were totally destroyed , according to Edward Chang , an ethnic studies professor at UC Riverside .
Even vendors themselves feel conflicted about the swap meet , which offers them economic opportunity but with a low ceiling .
Some swap meet shop owners learn American business practices and move on to bricks-and-mortar spaces , but others , like Yoyo Juan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , get stuck there .
Juan started working at her parent ’ s stand in 1984 because “ I was tricked , ” she said in Mandarin , another joke with no smile .
“ I was the oldest and I was supposed to help my parents .
It ’ s a really inexplicable situation.
” She was 32 at the time , and now she ’ s 68 with a lot of inventory that no one wants to buy anymore , a situation she describes as mo ming qi miao — inexplicable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last week , she said she was getting ready to close up shop and return to Taiwan — if she can get a flight .
Jennifer Renteria , whose parents ran a bicycle shop in the Starlite Swap Meet in South El Monte , also had a love-hate relationship with the swap meet .
“ It was more hate than love , for sure , ” Renteria said .
As a kid , she always tried to sign up for school activities that happened on weekends , which were usually reserved for helping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lingering at the foot of her bed after her mother woke her at 5 a.m. , half-asleep and waiting hopelessly for the infinitesimal chance that her mom wouldn ’ t need her that day , which of course never happened .
But as she got older , she grew to appreciate the experience more — how a swap meet could let a kid with no domingo , or Sunday allowance , get into affordable nail polish and makeup , even if the brands were fake sometimes .
She saw how their stand helped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ injured and had to leave his job at the Santa Fe Railway .
She grew fond of what she called her “ swap meet wardrobe ” — the potentially real Unionbay T-shirts , the definitely fake Converse , the cheap Casio watches she ’ d accessorize with as a teenager .
In high school , Renteria and her brother took over the family bicycle stand .
One month they were late on a payment , and the swap meet operator tried to take away their space .
All of a sudden , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Renteria and her brother collected signatures for a petition , lobbied their neighbors and fought until they reached a compromise that allowed them to use the space on Sundays .
“ As much as my brother and I hated the swap meet , it was like , you can ’ t do this to us !
How dare you ?
We ’ ve been so loyal , people know us , this is our spot , ” said Renteria , who now works as a designer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ without that space — this former parking spot for a drive-in movie theater on which they had built their lives and , against all odds , made into their own .

Normally packed with vendors and shoppers, the vast lot near the drive-in screen at the Paramount Swap Meet is mostly empty on a recent Saturday.
I’ve spent many afternoons trying to make sense of the infinitely jumbled world of commerce that is the Los Angeles swap meet.
It’s mostly clothing, jewelry, electronics and luggage stores, but there’s also baby Jesus statues of every skin tone, oil paintings of Michael Jordan with his arm around Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, replica samurai swords, banh mi and live music.
Vendors produce custom T-shirts so rapidly that their slogans read like a screen-printed alternative to the newspaper front page: “Rest in peace Nipsey Hussle,” “RIP Kobe and Gianna,” and the overly optimistic “I survived coronavirus 2020.” These days you’ll see a lot of masks, gloves and face shields. And inevitably, you will turn a corner and find yourself caught in the menacing gaze of a parakeet from a swap meet pet shop.
I’ve been thinking a lot about swap meets lately, because as we confront deep economic uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, swap meets live in the moment. They are a flexible, agile form of commerce that creates public space and economic opportunity out of thin air and unused real estate, and they enable poor families to get what they need at a price they can afford and in a language they can understand.
Advertisement
And no other business successfully serves so many different kinds of people at the same time — elderly Spanish-speaking video game fans who can’t use the internet, Asian immigrants looking for bargains on kitchen supplies, kids with little or no allowance who nevertheless still need to pull off an outfit.
Last week, I checked on Syed Hussein, a swap meet clothing vendor from Pakistan whom I met before the pandemic hit and changed everything. I was surprised to see him back at work unpacking boxes with his wife. The swap meet was busier than ever and actually featured several new businesses. I asked Hussein if he was worried about the future and the ongoing healthcare crisis.
“What if the building is sold? What if we are kicked out? My friend, I don’t know. Maybe someone will come in and shoot me and I’ll die tomorrow!” Hussein said, joking but not smiling.
Hussein and the people in the swap meet have always known something that most of us are just coming to grips with: The future is not guaranteed. A swap meet manager, whose name I’m not using because he is in the country illegally, summed it up: “Down here, we live always in the moment. We want what we want, right away, and it doesn’t matter if it’s good for us or not. Because the moment is sometimes all we have.”
I couldn’t tell whether he meant it out of hope or despair.
::
Swap meets and flea markets are an old practice in the United States, and until the 1960s, they were mostly populated by white vendors who sold mostly secondhand goods outdoors, said Edna Ledesma, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has researched swap meets.
In the 1970s, Latino immigrants started selling cultural goods and affordable services at swap meets sometimes, and swap meets began to take on the look and feel of tianguis, or open-air markets in Mexico.
At the same time, the decline of drive-in movie theaters led to a proliferation of swap meets and flea markets, driven by property owners who sought ways to bolster their flagging profits by renting out their properties during the day. The streets and alleys of many outdoor swap meets are still laid out in the fanned pattern of drive-in movie parking lots, and many stalls were former parking spots, Ledesma said.
As swap meets exploded in number, a wave of imported goods from Asia flooded U.S. markets. Asian immigrants, mostly Korean, used their connections in the import/export industry to supply goods to swap meet shops and set up their own stalls. Swap meets began to feature new, cheap goods from Asia rather than secondhand possessions, and they started to resemble Korean bargain markets.
In Los Angeles, as investors fled South L.A. in the ’80s and ’90s, Korean immigrants bought the vacant and unused properties they left behind and turned them into indoor swap meets. The business appealed to immigrants who were shut out of the formal economy by discrimination, cultural barriers and lack of capital.
Selling to mostly Black customers, swap meets in South Los Angeles were the site of unprecedented and historic cultural interactions that helped give rise to West Coast hip-hop.
Steve Yano, a Japanese American from Whittier who owned a record store at the Roadium swap meet in Torrance, helped introduce Dr. Dre to Eazy-E. Wan Joon Kim, a South Korean immigrant, ran a record store in the Compton swap meet and sold N.W.A records when record companies were ignoring hip-hop.
L.A. swap meets, especially the Compton Fashion Center, became a celebrated part of hip-hop culture. In one of the two music videos for “California Love,” Tupac Shakur goes to the Compton Fashion Center so he can pick up a new outfit for a party at Dr. Dre’s house. Kendrick Lamar continued the tradition in his music video for “King Kunta,” dancing on the swap meet’s rooftop.
But today the Compton Fashion Center is a Walmart Supercenter store. It’s a testament to the fact that swap meets rarely inspire community pride. No swap meet enjoys historical protection, even though some are nearly a century old. Southern California city leaders actually considered them blights and regulated them as they would liquor and tobacco shops, with Gardena even adopting a moratorium on new swap meets.
In the ’80s and ’90s, swap meets acquired a reputation for selling fake or illegally obtained goods. Shootings in swap meets caused many leaders to conclude that the swap meets themselves were a public safety concern. In the city of Los Angeles, operating a swap meet requires a permit from the Board of Police Commissioners, and if criminal activity at a swap meet causes a rise in police spending, the swap meet operator may be required to compensate the city’s general fund for the time.
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Swap meets had a complicated relationship with the communities they served as well. Black residents accustomed to shopping at brand-name stores considered the swap meets a downgrade. The prospering businesses, mostly owned by Korean immigrants, took money out of the Black community, sparking tension in neighborhoods long robbed of resources.
At least 385 Korean American-owned swap meets were looted or burned down in 1992, and 191 swap meets were totally destroyed, according to Edward Chang, an ethnic studies professor at UC Riverside.
Even vendors themselves feel conflicted about the swap meet, which offers them economic opportunity but with a low ceiling. Some swap meet shop owners learn American business practices and move on to bricks-and-mortar spaces, but others, like Yoyo Juan, 68, an immigrant from Taiwan, get stuck there.
Juan started working at her parent’s stand in 1984 because “I was tricked,” she said in Mandarin, another joke with no smile. “I was the oldest and I was supposed to help my parents. It’s a really inexplicable situation.”
She was 32 at the time, and now she’s 68 with a lot of inventory that no one wants to buy anymore, a situation she describes as mo ming qi miao — inexplicable, baffling. When I saw her last week, she said she was getting ready to close up shop and return to Taiwan — if she can get a flight.
Jennifer Renteria, whose parents ran a bicycle shop in the Starlite Swap Meet in South El Monte, also had a love-hate relationship with the swap meet.
“It was more hate than love, for sure,” Renteria said.
As a kid, she always tried to sign up for school activities that happened on weekends, which were usually reserved for helping out at the stand. She remembers lingering at the foot of her bed after her mother woke her at 5 a.m., half-asleep and waiting hopelessly for the infinitesimal chance that her mom wouldn’t need her that day, which of course never happened.
But as she got older, she grew to appreciate the experience more — how a swap meet could let a kid with no domingo, or Sunday allowance, get into affordable nail polish and makeup, even if the brands were fake sometimes. She saw how their stand helped buoy the family when her father got injured and had to leave his job at the Santa Fe Railway. She grew fond of what she called her “swap meet wardrobe” — the potentially real Unionbay T-shirts, the definitely fake Converse, the cheap Casio watches she’d accessorize with as a teenager.
In high school, Renteria and her brother took over the family bicycle stand. One month they were late on a payment, and the swap meet operator tried to take away their space. All of a sudden, she felt rage, grief, disbelief.
Renteria and her brother collected signatures for a petition, lobbied their neighbors and fought until they reached a compromise that allowed them to use the space on Sundays.
“As much as my brother and I hated the swap meet, it was like, you can’t do this to us! How dare you? We’ve been so loyal, people know us, this is our spot,” said Renteria, who now works as a designer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
They couldn’t imagine their lives without that space — this former parking spot for a drive-in movie theater on which they had built their lives and, against all odds, made into their own.


latimes--2020-07-20--Latinos hope George Floyd protests brings focus on police violence in their community

You don ’ t know these names , but Alejandra Merriman does .
She wrote them on a piece of poster board and held it as she marched to demand justice : Frank Mendoza .
Anthony Pacheco .
Martin Escobar .
A purple-inked chain linking dozens of names of Latinos killed by law enforcement in Los Angeles since 2000 .
And then there was the latest name , the reason she was out there marching alongside hundreds of others .
The one belonging to Andres Guardado .
“ In the brown community , we ’ ve always been taught by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and keep pushing .
But our generation , my generation … we ’ ve had enough , ” Merriman said .
“ We need to speak up for our own people .
We can ’ t rely on others to speak up for us .
We need to come together.
” Protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd — a 46-year-old Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck while he was begging for air — conjured up the centuries-old past of brutality against Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of police brutality .
It has also helped energize efforts by Latinos , the largest minority group in the U.S. , to use some of that momentum to draw attention to deaths of Latinos by police .
For Latino organizers , getting any kind of traction on these issues has been hard .
They say the names of the dead don ’ t stick in the public ’ s memory .
They rarely lead to large protests and national movements .
The reasons , advocates and experts say , are numerous : media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a national leadership vacuum among Latinos on this issue and the fact that in some parts of the American Southwest , including L.A. , Latinos make up a sizable portion of law enforcement .
In the Los Angeles Police Department , half of the officers are Latino , making it by far the largest group in the department .
And when Guardado , an 18-year-old , was shot five times in the back in a Gardena street , it was a Latino L.A. County sheriff ’ s deputy who pulled the trigger as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ killing generated national attention — and protests — in a way that almost no other shooting of a Latino had in years .
At some protests , the influence — and inspiration — of Black Lives Matter is hard to miss .
Signs in solidarity with that movement , many held by Latino protesters , are hoisted high .
“ I think we as a Latino community owe a great gratitude to the Black community and to the Black Lives Matter movement , ” said Julissa Natzely Arce Raya , an author who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on social media .
“ Because of the work that Black organizers have done and the Black community has done to bring forward police brutality and police killings , really to the national consciousness of America , we are starting to wake up to that same reality .
...
In many ways , the Black community has shown us how to organize and speak out for our community.
” Latinos are no stranger to police brutality in a city in which they now make up almost half the population .
In 1943 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against Mexican Americans in East Los Angeles and downtown , in what became known as the Zoot Suit Riots , the police looked on and then arrested mostly Latinos .
During the “ Bloody Christmas ” of 1951 , there was the unprovoked beating of seven prisoners — most of them Latino .
The beatings , dramatized in the 1997 film “ L.A .
Confidential , ” resulted in the first grand jury indictments of serving LAPD officers and the first criminal convictions for use of excessive force in the department ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Community Service Organization , a Boyle Heights grass-roots group , was part of the fight to indict the officers .
As the years passed , Centro CSO focused its attention on immigrant rights and education , said Sol Marquez , an organizer with the group .
But then , in 2016 , came a rash of killings of Latinos by police in Boyle Heights and the focus shifted once more to police brutality .
“ It was horrible and such a slap in the face of all of us that we had to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cops to be jailed or something to happen to them , ” Marquez said .
The group gained greater attention earlier this year , after video showed an LAPD officer beating a homeless man .
Centro CSO is pushing for the officer , Frank Hernandez , to be fired .
Merriman began researching police brutality against Latinos after learning about the death of Michael Ramos , a 42-year-old fatally shot by an Austin , Texas , police officer in April .
It prompted the 30-year-old to join Centro CSO .
She compiled the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Times database published last month that showed that since 2000 , there have been nearly 900 killings by local police that were ruled a homicide by county medical examiners .
Almost all of the dead were men , nearly 80 % were Black or Latino .
In nearly all cases , the use of force was deemed legally justified by the L.A. County district attorney ’ s office , which conducts an investigation into each death .
Since 2000 , only two officers have been charged as a result of shooting a civilian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president and general counsel of the legal advocacy group LatinoJustice , cited multiple factors for why killings of Latinos by police have not garnered as much attention .
According to Cartagena , some of those factors include mainstream media focusing on immigration as the biggest concern for Latinos , “ an inability to talk about criminal justice policing beyond a Black-and-white binary in the U.S. ” and the lack of institutions in the Latino community , such as churches , pushing hard on such issues like in the Black community .
“ We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Sunday saying , ‘ We ’ ve got to stop these killings , ’ ” Cartagena said .
Cartagena stressed the need for the Latino community to stand in solidarity to stop the killing of Black people , something that he said would go a “ long way to address the issues we have with Latinos too.
” “ At the same time , we can not lose sight of the fact that police abuse also kills our own [ people ] , ” he said .
“ It is important for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we are at a cusp of significant debate about policing as a concept.
” On June 21 , hundreds of people gathered for a three-mile march from Gardena to the sheriff ’ s station in Compton to protest the killing of Guardado .
They held signs that read “ Latinos for Black lives ” and “ Black Lives Matter.
” Najee Ali , a longtime civil rights activist in South L.A. , attended the protest to offer support .
“ As much as we ’ ve been saying Black Lives Matter … and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lives matter too.
” But that ’ s a term that Latino organizers are careful to avoid , not wanting to take away from the Black community ’ s “ plight for justice , ” said Ron Gochez , a member of Unión del Barrio , which organized the protest .
“ We don ’ t use brown lives matter , Latino lives matter , ” he said .
“ We support the Black community.
” Unión del Barrio , which began in 1980 , has long held marches and protests for immigrant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A few weeks before the June protest , the organization held a caravan in Compton that grew to be more than 10 miles long and ended at the LAPD headquarters .
The Sheriff ’ s Department has said that Guardado was shot and killed around 6 p.m. on June 18 , after two deputies saw him speaking to someone in a car blocking the entrance to an auto body shop on West Redondo Beach Boulevard .
Investigators said Guardado “ produced a handgun ” and ran away , and that deputies chased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Earlier this month , the L.A. County coroner ’ s office determined that Guardado was shot five times in the back .
Guardado had surrendered and was lying facedown on the ground when a Los Angeles County sheriff ’ s deputy who had been chasing him down a driveway holstered his weapon and approached the 18-year-old to put him in handcuffs , the deputy would recount .
Suddenly , according to this account , Guardado reached for the gun he ’ d moments before agreed to drop , which was still on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the deputy to redraw his weapon .
The deputy fired six rounds , five of which struck Guardado in the back , killing him .
The narrative of Deputy Miguel Vega , provided to The Times through his attorney , raised fresh questions about the tactics used during yet another deadly police encounter .
Guardado ’ s case garnered attention rare for police shootings of other Latinos , with Ice Cube and Kim Kardashian sharing the case on their social media .
In June , several public officials called for an independent investigation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sen. Kamala Harris ( D-Calif. ) and U.S. Reps. Nanette Barragán ( D-San Pedro ) and Maxine Waters ( D-Los Angeles ) .
Last month , Melina Abdullah , one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter , stood amid a growing crowd in front of the Hall of Justice .
People held signs that read “ Black and brown unity ” and “ Tu lucha es mi lucha.
” Your struggle is my struggle .
They were there not only to call for the ouster of L.A. County Dist .
Atty .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ were killed by law enforcement .
“ We will get justice in their names , because we can ’ t get justice for them , ” Abdullah said .
“ Justice for Andres Guardado would mean that he is still here.
” In addition to reciting the names of Black lives lost , including George Floyd , Tamir Rice and Rayshard Brooks , Abdullah also called out Anthony Vargas , Guardado , Eric Rivera , Jesse Romero , Cesar Rodriguez and Christian Escobedo .
Gochez said it was “ too early to tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be a tipping point .
“ But I think , ” he said , “ there ’ s something in the air about change.
” Times staff writers Alene Tchekmedyian and Ben Poston contributed to this report .

Cristobal Guardado, father of Andres Guardado, speaks at a rally for his son on June 21.
You don’t know these names, but Alejandra Merriman does.
She wrote them on a piece of poster board and held it as she marched to demand justice: Frank Mendoza. Anthony Pacheco. Martin Escobar.
A purple-inked chain linking dozens of names of Latinos killed by law enforcement in Los Angeles since 2000. And then there was the latest name, the reason she was out there marching alongside hundreds of others. The one belonging to Andres Guardado.
“In the brown community, we’ve always been taught by our parents to keep our head down and keep pushing. But our generation, my generation … we’ve had enough,” Merriman said. “We need to speak up for our own people. We can’t rely on others to speak up for us. We need to come together.”
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Protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd — a 46-year-old Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck while he was begging for air — conjured up the centuries-old past of brutality against Black Americans, centered specifically on the issue of police brutality.
It has also helped energize efforts by Latinos, the largest minority group in the U.S., to use some of that momentum to draw attention to deaths of Latinos by police.
For Latino organizers, getting any kind of traction on these issues has been hard. They say the names of the dead don’t stick in the public’s memory. They rarely lead to large protests and national movements.
The reasons, advocates and experts say, are numerous: media coverage that focuses strongly around immigration, a national leadership vacuum among Latinos on this issue and the fact that in some parts of the American Southwest, including L.A., Latinos make up a sizable portion of law enforcement. In the Los Angeles Police Department, half of the officers are Latino, making it by far the largest group in the department.
And when Guardado, an 18-year-old, was shot five times in the back in a Gardena street, it was a Latino L.A. County sheriff’s deputy who pulled the trigger as Guardado lay on his stomach. The killing generated national attention — and protests — in a way that almost no other shooting of a Latino had in years.
At some protests, the influence — and inspiration — of Black Lives Matter is hard to miss. Signs in solidarity with that movement, many held by Latino protesters, are hoisted high.
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“I think we as a Latino community owe a great gratitude to the Black community and to the Black Lives Matter movement,” said Julissa Natzely Arce Raya, an author who has been sharing Guardado’s story on social media. “Because of the work that Black organizers have done and the Black community has done to bring forward police brutality and police killings, really to the national consciousness of America, we are starting to wake up to that same reality. ... In many ways, the Black community has shown us how to organize and speak out for our community.”
Latinos are no stranger to police brutality in a city in which they now make up almost half the population.
In 1943, during days-long attacks by white military servicemen against Mexican Americans in East Los Angeles and downtown, in what became known as the Zoot Suit Riots, the police looked on and then arrested mostly Latinos.
During the “Bloody Christmas” of 1951, there was the unprovoked beating of seven prisoners — most of them Latino. The beatings, dramatized in the 1997 film “L.A. Confidential,” resulted in the first grand jury indictments of serving LAPD officers and the first criminal convictions for use of excessive force in the department’s history.
At the time, Centro Community Service Organization, a Boyle Heights grass-roots group, was part of the fight to indict the officers.
As the years passed, Centro CSO focused its attention on immigrant rights and education, said Sol Marquez, an organizer with the group. But then, in 2016, came a rash of killings of Latinos by police in Boyle Heights and the focus shifted once more to police brutality.
“It was horrible and such a slap in the face of all of us that we had to take up the campaign to bring these cops to be jailed or something to happen to them,” Marquez said.
The group gained greater attention earlier this year, after video showed an LAPD officer beating a homeless man. Centro CSO is pushing for the officer, Frank Hernandez, to be fired.
Merriman began researching police brutality against Latinos after learning about the death of Michael Ramos, a 42-year-old fatally shot by an Austin, Texas, police officer in April. It prompted the 30-year-old to join Centro CSO.
She compiled the names on her poster board from a Times database published last month that showed that since 2000, there have been nearly 900 killings by local police that were ruled a homicide by county medical examiners.
Almost all of the dead were men, nearly 80% were Black or Latino. In nearly all cases, the use of force was deemed legally justified by the L.A. County district attorney’s office, which conducts an investigation into each death. Since 2000, only two officers have been charged as a result of shooting a civilian while on duty.
Juan Cartagena, president and general counsel of the legal advocacy group LatinoJustice, cited multiple factors for why killings of Latinos by police have not garnered as much attention.
According to Cartagena, some of those factors include mainstream media focusing on immigration as the biggest concern for Latinos, “an inability to talk about criminal justice policing beyond a Black-and-white binary in the U.S.” and the lack of institutions in the Latino community, such as churches, pushing hard on such issues like in the Black community.
“We don’t have the reverend on a Sunday saying, ‘We’ve got to stop these killings,’” Cartagena said.
Cartagena stressed the need for the Latino community to stand in solidarity to stop the killing of Black people, something that he said would go a “long way to address the issues we have with Latinos too.”
“At the same time, we cannot lose sight of the fact that police abuse also kills our own [people],” he said. “It is important for us to recognize this moment. Because we are at a cusp of significant debate about policing as a concept.”
Hundreds come out to a rally for Andres Guardado on June 21. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
On June 21, hundreds of people gathered for a three-mile march from Gardena to the sheriff’s station in Compton to protest the killing of Guardado. They held signs that read “Latinos for Black lives” and “Black Lives Matter.”
Najee Ali, a longtime civil rights activist in South L.A., attended the protest to offer support.
“As much as we’ve been saying Black Lives Matter … and they do, well hell, Latino lives matter too.”
But that’s a term that Latino organizers are careful to avoid, not wanting to take away from the Black community’s “plight for justice,” said Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio, which organized the protest.
“We don’t use brown lives matter, Latino lives matter,” he said. “We support the Black community.”
Unión del Barrio, which began in 1980, has long held marches and protests for immigrant rights and against police brutality and gentrification. A few weeks before the June protest, the organization held a caravan in Compton that grew to be more than 10 miles long and ended at the LAPD headquarters.
The Sheriff’s Department has said that Guardado was shot and killed around 6 p.m. on June 18, after two deputies saw him speaking to someone in a car blocking the entrance to an auto body shop on West Redondo Beach Boulevard. Investigators said Guardado “produced a handgun” and ran away, and that deputies chased him, before one shot him.
Earlier this month, the L.A. County coroner’s office determined that Guardado was shot five times in the back. Guardado had surrendered and was lying facedown on the ground when a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who had been chasing him down a driveway holstered his weapon and approached the 18-year-old to put him in handcuffs, the deputy would recount.
Suddenly, according to this account, Guardado reached for the gun he’d moments before agreed to drop, which was still on the ground above his right hand, prompting the deputy to redraw his weapon. The deputy fired six rounds, five of which struck
Guardado in the back, killing him.
The narrative of Deputy Miguel Vega, provided to The Times through his attorney, raised fresh questions about the tactics used during yet another deadly police encounter.
Guardado’s case garnered attention rare for police shootings of other Latinos, with Ice Cube and Kim Kardashian sharing the case on their social media. In June, several public officials called for an independent investigation into Guardado’s death, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and U.S. Reps. Nanette Barragán (D-San Pedro) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).
Jonathan Abarca, left, and cousin Celina Abarca, middle, cousins of Andres Guardado, and Keyanna Celina, of the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police, right, speak to the crowd. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
Last month, Melina Abdullah, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter, stood amid a growing crowd in front of the Hall of Justice. People held signs that read “Black and brown unity” and “Tu lucha es mi lucha.” Your struggle is my struggle.
They were there not only to call for the ouster of L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey but to honor those who were killed by law enforcement.
“We will get justice in their names, because we can’t get justice for them,” Abdullah said. “Justice for Andres Guardado would mean that he is still here.”
In addition to reciting the names of Black lives lost, including George Floyd, Tamir Rice and Rayshard Brooks, Abdullah also called out Anthony Vargas, Guardado, Eric Rivera, Jesse Romero, Cesar Rodriguez and Christian Escobedo.
Gochez said it was “too early to tell” if Guardado’s shooting could be a tipping point.
“But I think,” he said, “there’s something in the air about change.”
Times staff writers Alene Tchekmedyian and Ben Poston contributed to this report.