FREE L.A. from Police & Prisons: Action Resource Kit 2020

Author: Youth Justice Coalition L.A. @YouthJusticeLA & S.T.O.P Police Terror Coalition @STOPCoalitionCA

#DefundThePolice Demands. Protest Tips. Abolition. Data & Infographics.

Links to plug in: linktr.ee/youthjusticela Donate: www.bit.ly/yjcgift 

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FUND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT:

L.A. CITY:

DEFUND at least $200 million from LAPD and City Attorney’s Budget.

This would fund:

• 50 Youth Centers city wide.
• 25,000 Youth Jobs city wide.
• 500 Full Time Intervention Workers city wide.

LA COUNTY:

• DEFUND: at least $300 mill from Sheriffs
• $25 mill from District Attorney Office (Jackie Lacey)
• $600 mill from Probation

This would fund:

• 100 new youth centers countywide
• 50,000 youth jobs countywide
• 500 intervention workers countywide.

LAPD POLICE BUDGET: 54% of L.A. City unrestricted budget goes towards LAPD. System impacted youth of color have been calling for holistic youth development department in LA city and county for 10 years now, divest from police, invest in youth centers, youth jobs, and community intervention workers. 

L.A. County Police Use Of Force Data: 2000-2020: via Youth Justice Coalition. 

• At least 948 people have been killed police in L.A. County from 2000-2020.
• Almost 50% were under the age of 30. #FREELA
• From 2000 – 2020, Black people have been on average 8.5% of the population in LA County, but 25% of those killed by police. #AllBlackLivesMatter
• Of the people killed between 2013-2019 by LAPD & L.A. County Sheriffs, 14% had a mental illness. #Abolish12
• LAPD is the #1 agency responsible for at least 349 killings. LA Sheriffs is #2 agency responsible for at least 336 killings. #DefundThePolice
• The Police are the Pandemic.

ARRESTS: National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is trying to push for zero bail (cite and release) and have a form people can fill out once they are released: 

George Floyd Protest Arrestees Support Form

CALL National Lawyers Guild: 310-313-3700 hotline.

FREE L.A. POLICY DEMANDS TO PUSH NOW: 

**De-fund, Divest, Re-direct resources and eventually abolish police and replace with intervention workers and community based alternatives to 911. (Follow @CAT911team)**

These Organizations Have Signed On To The Full Policy Demands Below:

BUILD SCHOOLS THAT PROTECT YOUTH OF COLOR AND TREAT US WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT

1. Remove all law enforcement (police, Probation, Sheriffs and school resource officers) from LA County schools. Dismantle the LA Unified School District Police Department and end all contracts and agreements with law enforcement and sheriff’s to patrol in and around schools.
2. Invest in Peacebuilders / Intervention workers to ensure a safe passage to and from schools, to increase student attendance, to address intergroup and inter-neighborhood conflict in schools and communities, to address conflicts between teachers and students, and to keep students, families and staff safe.
3. Have transformative justice at every school as an alternative to suspensions, expulsions and arrests. 
4. Expand LA County’s Youth Diversion and Development program to school districts to prevent student referrals to law enforcement and arrests countywide.
5. Redesign all schools that now look and operate more like prisons including removing metal detectors, police interrogation rooms, random searches, drug detection dogs, intimidating security fencing and razor wire. Instead, plant trees, encourage murals and greet every student and family member with a positive attitude.   
6. End all truancy ticketing and prosecution against youth and their families. Push the state to eliminate Welfare and INstitutions Code 601 that criminalizes status offenses. 

DEFUND LAW ENFORCEMENT AND GIVE YOUTH OUR FAIR SHARE OF OUR CITY AND COUNTY BUDGETS

1. Establish an LA City Youth Development Department and take at least $200 Million from the LAPD’s and City Attorney’s budget to fund 50 youth centers; 25,000 youth jobs, and 500 intervention workers / peacebuilders in schools and streets.
2. Create similar programs by cutting law enforcement budgets in other cities.
3. Expand the County Youth Development and Diversion Program into a Comprehensive County Youth Development Department and take at least $300 Million from the LA County Sheriff’s Department, $50 million from the District Attorney’s Budget and $600 Million from Probation’s Budget (including dismantling Juvenile Probation) to: A. Fund 100 youth centers, 50,000 youth jobs, and 500 intervention workers / peacebuilders in schools and streets, B. Create county alternatives to juvenile halls, Probation camps and the state’s youth prisons (DJJ), C. Fund the new County Youth Commission – by youth, about youth, for youth, and to D. Transfer pre-trial assessment from Probation to the Office of Diversion and Re-entry with a guarantee for pre-arraignment.
4. End all discrimination and guarantee all young people’s access to city and county facilities, benefits, jobs, services and opportunities – prioritizing youth who are undocumented, houseless, in foster care and/or have been arrested.
5. Take at least 25% of the MTA’s contracts with the Los Angeles Police Department, LA County Sheriff’s Department and Long Beach Police Department to provide free, unlimited Metro passes for all youth, Kindergarten through college.
6. End all system fees and fines (citations, vehicle impounds, court, detention and probation) – and clear all past debt – for youth, their families and everyone else in the system. This will keep hundreds of millions of dollars in the community.

END YOUTH ARRESTS, INCARCERATION AND DEPORTATION

1. End prosecution of all youth under the age of 16.
2. Expand youth diversion up to age 25 and divert all youth from arrest for misdemeanors and low-level felonies.
3. End detention and immediately release everyone (all ages) who is locked up on Probation and Parole violations, misdemeanors and bench warrants.
4. Push the state to change California’s Welfare and Institutions Code and Penal Code to make diversion possible for all charges.
5. Transfer LA County Probation Department’s pre-trial assessment responsibilities to community-based organizations in partnership with the Office of Diversion and Re-entry and guarantee an assessment for everyone – all ages – within 8 hours.
6. Push the state for 24 arraignment for all ages – including weekends and holidays
7. Close all juvenile halls and Probation camps.
8. Close juvenile Probation and transfer all youth under Probation custody and supervision – along with at least $600 million in Probation funds –  to Youth Diversion and Development (see above).
9. Create youth development and treatment alternatives to the state’s youth prison system (Division of Juvenile Justice) to end youth incarceration (see above).
10. Push the state to expand the age of juvenile court up to age 25 and end all youth transfers into adult courts and prisons.
11. Push the state to end Life Without Parole Sentences, the highest number of people sentenced to die in prison are youth between the ages of 18 and 25.
12. Protect all youth and their families against deportation by fully funding legal support for immigration applications, bailing all youth out of detention and guaranteeing deportation defense.

PROTECT YOUTH OF COLOR AGAINST LAW ENFORCEMENT VIOLENCE AND RACIAL PROFILING

1. End all shared gang databases in LA County and push the state to dismantle CalGang.
2. End all gang injunctions in LA County. (LA created the world’s first “war on gangs,” including the world’s first gang units, gang databases and gang injunctions.)
3. Transform gang injunction zones into community empowerment zones, and invest a larger share of peacebuilders, jobs and youth centers in those areas. 
4. End all use of gang enhancements at sentencing. 
5. End militarized policing including dismantling racist gang units and SWAT units, firing all law enforcement who are a part of sheriff and police gangs, and stopping all local law enforcement acceptance of military aid and equipment – including destroying all military equipment that currently exists in LA.
6. Transform 911 to prioritize and fund community peacebuilders and health workers as first responders.
7. Ban all use of choke holds, hobble restraints, and shooting into moving vehicles countywide.
8. Guarantee full implementation by all of LA’s 57 law enforcement agencies of the changes in state law – AB 953, SB 1421 and AB 392 – and release the records of all law enforcement officers involved in use of force, sexual misconduct, corruption or dishonesty on the job.
9. Appoint a Special Prosecutor to immediately investigate all use of force incidents in LA County and report results to the LASD Civilian Oversight Commission, the LAPD Police Commission, and local City Councils. Make the Prosecutor available to families to re-open past cases. 
10. Eliminate all MOUs between the District Attorney and law enforcement agencies that the DA won’t investigate use of force until the law enforcement agency responsible completes their investigation – usually many months after the incident.
11. Guarantee full implementation by LA County and all cities of the Family Bill of Rights following law enforcement use of force.
12. Eliminate ICE from LA County, from all courts and jails, and end all collusion between local law enforcement and ICE.
13. Work with local communities to design and place an historic marker at site of every person killed by law enforcement, as well as at the sites of law enforcement attacks on the community including the Chinese Massacre, Sailor Riots – wrongly called the Zoot Suit Riots, the location of the police stop of Ronald and Marquette Frye that sparked the Watts rebellion, the first use of SWAT against the Black Panthers on Central Avenue, and the location of the beating of Rodney King to name a few.  

PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF YOUTH OF COLOR TO PROTEST AND EXPRESS OUR ANGER, FRUSTRATIONS AND DEMANDS

1. Put peacebuilders and legal support on the streets to protect the youth from law enforcement use of force and arrests during all protests now and in the future.

2. Declare an amnesty (including erasing all convictions, dropping all pending charges, eliminating all fees and fines, releasing impounded cars and reimbursing all impound fees for everyone criminalized during the protests against police violence.

3. Teach movement building history and legal rights to all LA County youth – elementary through high school – as part of school curriculum – including what to do when you are stopped by the police taught by legal defense organizations – not by law enforcement or prosecutors.