A Long Hot Summer?
By Jim
Smith
There have been three town hall
meetings in Venice since the last issue of the Beachhead hit the streets. Two of
them - focusing on a possible moratorium on condominium conversions, and on
clean money for election campaigns - were well attended and mild
mannered.
The Town Hall on community race relations
held on June 6 was something else again. Although it came just one day after the
shooting of 17-year-old Agustin Contreras at Venice High, it had been planned
for weeks. The murder, and the resulting police activity in Oakwood, simply
added fuel to the fire.
The Town Hall
at Oakwood Recreation Center had been initiated by Venice 2000, the local
gang-intervention organization, which invited L.A. Councilmember Bill Rosendahl
and the city’s Human Relations Commission to participate.
Rosendahl chaired the raucous meeting
that also took up the insulting and racist letter that had been circulating in
Oakwood for several weeks. The letter bore the names of Lisa Feingold and Gary
Buckland, who in a letter to the Beachhead last month, said they did not write
the letter. In their Beachhead letter, and at the Town Hall, they pointed out
errors in the letter including the spelling of their names. Their denial was
accepted at the meeting. However, a loud argument broke out in the back of the
hall between several community members and someone suspected of actually writing
the letter.
Meanwhile, a number of
speakers at the open microphone pointed to the lack of jobs available to
residents of Oakwood. Stan Muhammad of Venice 2000 said that Developer Frank
Murphy and Abbot’s Pizza Company were the only businesses that will hire
high-risk youth. Others said that having a police record makes it hard for
anyone to get a job and “go
straight.”
A Public Safety and
Development committee is being formed to focus on finding more jobs and friendly
employers. It will meet Thursday, July 13, from 6-8 pm at the New Bethel Church,
5th & Brooks 6-8 pm. The meeting is open to the
public.
Others spoke about the
gentrification of Oakwood that is contributing to a feeling of disrespect from
new, mainly white, arrivals towards older, Black and Latino residents. Speakers
commented on the high fences that have been erected by many of the new home
owners.
The biggest uproar of the
evening came in response to police activity after the Contreras shooting. Swarms
of LAPD headed to Oakwood - either on instinct or in response to a tip - to find
the shooter who was identified as a 17-year-old African
American.
Of all the houses and
apartments in Oakwood, they surrounded and laid siege to the home of Laddie
Williams, a community activist. Williams, whose family has lived in Venice for
the past 100 years, is a former elected official of the Neighborhood Council,
the Venice Neighborhood Action Committee and numerous other
groups.
Her two sons and a daughter
were the unlikely targets of the police. One son tried to hide on the roof of
the Williams house, apparently afraid of the massive firepower of the LAPD Swat
Squad.
When Williams, joined by Rev.
Sherwood Fleming, reached the microphone she expressed her outrage at the
previous day’s police behavior. She insisted on an apology from the
police. Captain William Hayes and Officer Teresa Skinner, sitting at the front
table, were representing the LAPD. The following exchange took
place:
Laddie Williams - I saw my house
on TV, guns pointed at my kids heads. My daughter was held in that house for
four hours. Those young men need to be apologized to. We should all respect each
other by living and learning from each other. Two of them were landscaping, with
12 guns on them. They and the community need an apology
(applause).
I couldn’t get in to
my own house to my kids.
Rev. Fleming
said “jail is not the answer.” Education is the answer, but until
you put teachers of color into Venice High, it’s not going to
happen.
My heart goes out to that
mother who lost her child, but I almost lost my child yesterday, with Swats
surrounding them.
Can no one give me a
response? I want an apology. If you really want to help this community apologize
for what happened yesterday. Those boys were almost shot yesterday. I think
right now, Captain, an apology should be given to this whole room. I
haven’t heard you guys say I’m sorry once
tonight.
Bill Rosendahl - Ms. Williams,
I apologize for anything I did or the police did to you or your
daughter.
Laddie Williams -
That’s fine – but the Captain is sitting right
here.
Bill Rosendahl - Ok but the capt.
was part of a larger group of men who were looking for a shooter. And
they’re professionals. The good news is that when they came to Oakwood,
nobody was shot. I want to apologize to Jasmine, your
daughter.
Laddie Williams - The
community has said loud and clear that the shooter did not come from Venice. I
called and told Officer Pickering that I will take him through my
house.
I still haven’t heard one word.
Don’t speak from the Police Handbook. Speak from your
heart.
Captain Hayes - Ms. Williams, I
am a parent and my concern was the safety of everyone in this
community.
We had information related to that
shooting that the suspect was in this area. The young man taken off your roof
matched the description very closely. He ran and hid in your
house.
Your son was detained originally
because of some other activity. I believe we did the best thing for this
community.
Laddie Williams -
You’re telling me these young men were out there doing something, but at
the same time you were out there chasing after a murder suspect? I don’t
get the correlation.
Captain Hayes - I
just explained to you that we have information that the suspect came from this
area and the young man on the roof of your house fit the description almost to a
“t.”
Stan Muhammad - Can I ask
you something? Did you make a
mistake?
Captain Hayes - No sir, we
didn’t.
Stan Muhammad - Did you
apprehend the person who committed the
crime?
Captain Hayes - No
sir.
Stan Muhammad - So what I’m
hearing is all she’s asking for is an apology. Yes we made a mistake we
arrested the wrong individual I think that would solve everything. Did the LAPD
make a mistake yesterday?
Captain Hayes
- No sir, we did not make a
mistake.
Bill Rosendahl - All the
Captain is saying is that this young man matched the
description.
Captain Hayes - what I
said was we had a suspect who we detained. We had a field show up where
witnesses in which he was eliminated. Those witnesses said he very closely
matched the description.
Laddie
Williams - These two back here match the description of a 17-year-old? At 27 and
26 years old?
Captain Hayes - We did
professional police work attempting to locate a murder suspect. we followed all
the investigative leads. The fact that he was eliminated is not a mistake, we
did the best he could.
(crowd
uproar)
Bill Rosendahl - you heard the
answer. You didn’t like the answer, but that was the answer. you
don’t have to agree with what he
said.
Laddie Williams - This is the
type of tension that goes on within a
community.
I’m big enough to say I did
something. It was wrong
information.
Captain Hayes - Your son
was on the roof of your house.
Laddie
Williams - I understand he was on the roof of the house. He has to answer to me
for that.
The mothers in this community
don’t want our children doing wrong, but we also want the police to
protect and to serve this community.
In
the end, the Town Hall underscored the broad gulf that exists between the
Oakwood Community and the LAPD. At the same time, gang intervention programs are
being cut back by the city, Stan Muhammad told the Beachhead. “We are
going to have to lay off our last Latino staff member because of lack of funding
for the position, said Muhammad. “Right now there is no intervention
program at Venice High,” he added. “We are trying to get African
Americans and Latinos from Venice and Culver City to sit down together, but the
city’s budget for these programs is being cut,” continued
Muhammad.
The murder of Contreras did
not produce a gang-war in spite of the breathless predictions of some media
outlets. However, the threat of gang-violence and/or police-community violence
should not be discounted.
The LAPD
website displays a graphic showing the “Current Threat Level” as
Elevated. It’s unclear if this refers to a terrorist threat or a
prediction of a long, hot summer in Venice and L.A.
Posted: Sat
- July 1, 2006 at 11:17 AM