News & Commentary

Ahilan T. Arulanantham is director of immigrant rights and national security for the ACLU/SC. He wrote this piece for the American Constitution Society.

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LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The ACLU of Southern California welcomes the civil rights probe being conducted by the Department of Justice into the polices and practices of the Inglewood Police Department in the wake of a series of officer-involved shootings, and we applaud U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters for calling for an investigation. Use of force by law enforcement has been a persistent problem in Inglewood and has sparked well-founded community outrage. We agree that reforms are necessary and call for an overhaul of the Inglewood civilian review board.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California is deeply disturbed by the Los Angeles County district attorney's decision not to prosecute an El Monte police officer who clearly violated the law by brutally kicking a suspect in the head even though the suspect posed no physical threat.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The director of the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, Kristy Underwood, has written new policies that spell out prohibitions on discrimination in enforcement functions and narrow the board’s role in inspections conducted jointly with other agencies, as part of a settlement announced today in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Southern California and Seyfarth Shaw LLP on behalf of several African American barbers in the Riverside area.

Join us Sunday, Nov. 15, 2:30-4:30 p.m. for this special talk with Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project.

Join us Sunday, Nov. 15, 2:30-4:30 p.m. for this special talk with Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project.

The following statement is from Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California:

Chief Bratton's resignation is a great loss for the city of Los Angeles. He believes in community policing, and he restored the confidence of the community in the LAPD. I watched three prior police chiefs run the LAPD, and the reality is that progress was not made until Chief Bratton became chief and imposed his will and values on the department.