News & Commentary

Living in California is already expensive enough for working families — paying rent, paying for childcare, putting food on the table, etc. — without also having to pay to retrieve a towed car. But every year, California local governments push countless families that are struggling to make ends meet deeper into poverty by towing their legally parked cars. Hundreds of thousands of cars are towed each year for non-safety reasons and to collect minor debts.

California families impacted by police violence, advocates, and allies just made history. Today, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 392, the California Act to Save Lives, a bill to address police shootings — one of the most pressing forms of police violence afflicting Black and brown communities in the

Every Day, prosecutors across Los Angeles County depend on law enforcement officers to prove cases against community members. Precinct reports, officer observations, and police testimony are commonly considered by judges and juries as the strongest pieces of evidence against the accused. But, not only should an officer's word be subject to the same level of scrutiny as that of the general public, growing reports of law enforcement misconduct highlight the danger of formulaically depending on officers to secure a conviction. District Attorney Jackie Lacey can stop this insidious practice of prosecuting cases that hinge upon the testimony of law enforcement officers with demonstrated histories of dishonesty, violence, and racism.

The events that led to the murder of Willie McCoy by City of Vallejo police began with a 911 call came from a Taco Bell employee. In the recording, the employee sounds perplexed: "I have a person unresponsive to car horn honks in my drive-through," he said. He then added, "He's unresponsive. I've already had, like people try to knock on the window. I have no idea what's going on." The dispatcher sent out Vallejo police officers for what's known as a "wellness check." Officers arrived, saw that Willie McCoy was passed out in the driver's seat of his car, and began to evaluate the situation. That this led to police to shooting and killing a Black man who had been sleeping in his car speaks volumes about deadly force and racial bias not just in California, but across the nation.  

As a nation, we must address the brutal reality and deadly consequences of police violence. We have seen far too many people, particularly Black and brown people, killed by police. We have seen too many families and communities shattered by loss and tragedy. Enough is enough. We must limit when police officers can use deadly force and take someone's life.

Much too often, when officers in the Los Angeles Police Department break the rules, their disciplinary process fails to hold them accountable. Now is a moment for serious reform to the way the police department disciplines its officers. The L.A. City Council is preparing to vote on changes to the Board of Rights — the disciplinary appeal board that has the ultimate say in whether officers accused of serious misconduct are punished. The outcome will determine whether the board will be an effective tool to hold offices accountable for their misconduct, or yet another way for officers to escape responsibility for wrongdoing. That's why it's so troubling that the City Council is pushing forward with major changes to the Board of Rights without public input or even taking the time to learn what an effective disciplinary process looks like.

Recent stories about Amazon's invasive face scanning surveillance technology and Cambridge Analytica's exploitation of Facebook data have brought the impact of surveillance and data misuse to the fore. But many people don't realize how often local law enforcement agencies acquire and use similar tec

As stories of state violence against Black men and boys occupy many of the calls for police reform, countless stories of Black women and girls subjected to excessive force and police misconduct remain untold. We must say their names.

Law enforcement agencies are deploying secret and invasive surveillance technologies to collect sensitive location and biometric data, target local activists, and feed ICE's deportation machine. Technologies like drones, social media surveillance, and license plate readers have invaded people's private lives and are being exploited by the federal government to tear California families apart.