News & Commentary

On Sunday afternoon, the LAPD yet again trampled on the free speech rights of peaceful protesters, legal observers, and journalists at a demonstration of over 1,000 people held at LAPD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Ironically, the demonstration was against police brutality. Instead of dealing with the handful of individuals engaged in illegal behavior, the LAPD attacked indiscriminately. The police - who did not declare an unlawful assembly - intervened with a heavy hand and without warning, on horseback and in riot gear, dispersing the crowd by indiscriminately using batons and shooting rubber bullets. Two people who were wearing the brightly colored, clearly marked hats of official legal observers were standing on a public sidewalk when they were rammed by two officers on motorcycles.

LOS ANGELES - In a ringing endorsement of free speech, a federal court judge today made clear that he would issue a preliminary injunction enjoining enforcement of Los Angeles Municipal Code �_ 80.75, which prohibits placing "For Sale" signs in cars parked on Los Angeles city streets. The ruling came in a case brought by the ACLU of Southern California in June 2000 on behalf of Edward Burkow, a man who was fined by the City of Los Angeles in September of 1999 for placing a "For Sale" sign in his white Volkswagen while it was parked on a city street.

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of Southern California announced a settlement today in Lifestyles Organization (LSO) v. Stroh, a case involving an erotic arts exhibition in Palm Springs in late July and early August of 1997. The Department of Alcoholic Beverages Control (ABC) threatened to yank the alcohol license of the host convention center. With the help of the ACLU of Southern California, LSO sought and received a temporary restraining order, and the erotic arts exhibition proceeded as planned, drawing 2,000 attendees. LSO pressed the case, seeking damages, attorney's fees, and a guarantee that ABC would not enforce the regulations against LSO in the future. Earlier this year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that made it clear that the Department's enforcement of the regulations was unconstitutional. Since that time, the parties in the case have been working towards a settlement. A settlement was announced to the District Court yesterday.

LOS ANGELES - Federal Judge Ronald Lew firmly signaled to Mattel today that its efforts to quash an artist's free speech rights through litigation will most likely not succeed. In denying Mattel's request for preliminary injunction against artist Tom Forsythe on copyright and trademark grounds for his artistic use of Barbie dolls, Judge Lew stated that Mattel had not demonstrated it was likely to succeed on the merits.

LOS ANGELES The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld a preliminary injunction that stops the City of Los Angeles from enforcing its unconstitutional "aggressive solicitation" ban. When the city passed the ordinance, Municipal Code ﾌ_ 41.59, in July 1997, the ACLU of Southern California filed suit challenging the ordinance on First Amendment grounds; a preliminary injunction was granted, and the city appealed.

On Monday night, the LAPD displayed incredibly poor judgment in their response to the illegal behavior of a handful of attendees at the concert in the protest zone. When a few people began throwing debris over the fence and two individuals climbed the fence, protest leaders acted swiftly to try stop that illegal behavior. When it continued, they voluntarily decided to close the event and ask people to go home. But before they could do so, the police intervened with a heavy hand, shutting off the event's power and entering the protest zone on horses and in riot gear to disperse the crowd using batons and shooting rubber bullets and pepper spray.

The ACLU of Southern California won a key victory this week in its challenge to the Constitutionality of California Penal Code ﾌ_148 6, which makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly file a false allegation of misconduct against a peace officer. The statute has frequently been used to discourage people from filing complaints, as it was in the case of La France Hamilton, an African American man who was attacked by police officers last year during a bicycle traffic stop and who later tried to file a complaint at the San Bernardino Police Department. The watch commander threatened Hamilton with criminal prosecution under Section 148 6, and Hamilton decided not to file.

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of Southern California sent a letter today to the Los Angeles Police Department demanding that it immediately stop the harassment of protesters at their organizing headquarters, the Convergence Center. The ACLU, joined by private attorneys Carol Sobel, Robert Myers, and Karl Mannheim, the Midnight Special Law Collective, the Working People's Law Center, and the National Lawyers Guild, sent the letter on behalf of the Community Arts Network, the D2K Convention Planing Coalition, and the Rise Up/Direct Action Network. The groups have been using a four-story building at 1919 W. Seventh St. in Los Angeles to prepare for the Democratic National Convention.

LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union and the City of Los Angeles signed an agreement today that will allow protesters to engage in free speech at the Democratic National Convention. The plan wasdrawn up as a result of a preliminary injunction issued by Judge Gary Feess of the U.S. Central District Court in a suit brought by the ACLU of Southern California.