Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

April 7, 2015: Marchers carried 617 life-sized cardboard coffins, one for each of the 617 confirmed people killed by Los Angeles County law enforcement since the year 2000.

Four Winds of victims' families and supporters--north, south, east, and west--met at separate locations and demonstrated at various places before converging at the LA County Board of Supervisors. The West Wind met at MacArthur Park and, in its travels, visited 6th and Union (site of the police killing of Manuel Jamines); the Rampart police station; and the LA Unified School District Headquarters building; before their ultimate destination, the LA County Board of Supervisors.

The East Wind gathered outside the East LA Sheriff Department before rallying at Mariachi Plaza, LAPD headquarters at 1st and Main St., and finally the LA County Board of Supervisors.

The North Wind began at the Men's Central Jail at Bauchet and Vignes and marched past Union Station, through Skid Row, past the memorial site for slain Brother Africa, before joining the other Four Winds at the Board of Supervisors.

The South Wind traveled to the LAPD Newton Division Station, and the Hill Street Court en route to County Board of Supervisors.

Occupy Los Angeles OWS reports, "As the crowd first took the streets for a die-in adjacent to the array of hundreds of coffins, songs played over the portable address system included 'Every Breath You Take / I'll Be Missing You,' and 'What's Going On.' Danza Azteca led the hundreds assembled in a musical dance ceremony honoring Mother Earth."

"Even those who prepared the hand-painted coffins in the weeks leading up to the march expressed a somber, awestruck silence upon seeing hundreds of paper memorials occupying the entire roadway outside the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration," Occupy Los Angeles OWS continues.

Full story and photos: United Families For Justice Carry 617 Coffins to Downtown L.A. #DeathByCop Rally by Occupy Los Angeles OWS

After the jury returned a hung verdict, the Fullerton district attorney announced their intent to retry independent journalist livestreamers AJ Redkey and PM Beers for their presence at the January 18, 2014 protests of the police murder of Kelly Thomas

Following the January 2014 acquittal of Fullerton police officers Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli for beating Kelly Thomas to death, outraged people took to the streets for a day of protest against police murder and violence against the unarmed citizenry.

Starting in the early morning of January 18, 2014 , signs with messages such as "If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention" and "We Want Justice" began to appear outside the police station and Fullerton City Hall.

Livestreamer PM Beers interviewed a witness whose friend had just been snatched off the street by police. After following police who got out of a patrol car, she witnessed the arrest of another one of the people with whom she had been marching all day. When she tried to leave the scene herself, she ended up streaming her own arrest live across the Internet.

Livestreamer AJ Redkey also filmed the police at locations around downtown Fullerton throughout the day, but he was never arrested. The Fullerton Police Department waited until May 7, 2014, the day before a planned protest of unlawful arrests at Fullerton's North Justice Center, to stalk and arrest him at another rally in Pasadena. A "snatch squad" of six Fullerton police officers--four undercover and two in uniform--traveled many miles out of their jurisdiction to arrest the independent journalist, an event which was filmed by another livestreamer from inLeague Press.

Yes, you read that right. Independent journalist AJ Redkey was arrested for "failure to disperse" nearly four months after he left (or dispersed from) the area of downtown Fullerton.

Full story: City of Fullerton Conspires to Silence Free Press Following Hung Jury #LivestreamOnTrial by USvMJ

Long Beach: What the frack?! On Tuesday, March 24th, the state of California held an "Aquifer Exemption Workshop" to show oil industry representatives how to exploit loopholes for drilling and disposal projects to obtain aquifer exemption approval. Concerned water drinkers interrupted the state-sponsored workshop on how to get away with poisoning our drinking water.

As the presenter at the podium droned on about “EPA Aquifer Exemption Criteria,” one woman stood up from her banquet table to declare: “I just have to say one thing. This is backwards. It was just announced in the news that industry injected 2,500 wells illegally... Shouldn't you be having a workshop on how to stop that instead of how to get around, to get exempt from these regulations?"

Another woman entered the room waving two bottles of brown liquid. “I actually brought some poisoned water to show everyone what we’re going to be exposed to and forced to drink if this poisoning of our water by our regulators continues.”

Approaching the podium and handing out the poisoned water, she asked, "Would you feel like drinking this water?"

Full story and video: Californians Shame Regulators For Teaching Big Oil How To Skirt Law and Pollute Our Water by Los Angeles Peoples Media

Thousands of Angelinos took to the streets to demand an end to violence against women in Los Angeles. on March 8th.

Demonstrators pointed out that women's rights are human rights. Some of the groups' spokespersons expressed anger over the recent fall of women's rights and said that they would not stop marching and demonstrating until equality was achieved.

Domestic violence was a major theme of the day and women demanded that the police join them in fighting domestic violence instead of being part of the problem.

There were events in Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura Counties on March 8th as well.

Full story: Los Angeles Stands Up for Women's Rights by Women Against Slavery, International

On February 20 a Federal Court of Appeals in Washington DC rejected an attempt by Pacific Gas & Electric and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to quash a lawsuit filed by environmental group Friends Of the Earth (FOE). According to Friends Of the Earth, the suit alleges that the "NRC illegally allowed PG&E to alter Diablo Canyon's nuclear plant license.

"FOE contends the NRC acted in secret and collusion with PG&E to hide Diablo Canyon's vulnerability to earthquakes stronger than it was built to withstand. A decision in favor of Friends of the Earth could result in PG&E having to shut down its reactors, pending a public hearing to examine the new risks at the plant."

Diablo Canyon has been controversial since the beginning. Located on California's Central coast near San Luis Obispo, and in an earthquake and tsunami zone, 1900 no nukes protesters associated with the Abalone Alliance were arrested in 1981 over a period of two weeks in an attempt to stop its construction.

Several years before that, The China Syndrome, a movie starring Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas, appeared on silver screens across the nation, at least partially inspired by the struggle at Diablo Canyon. This was 1979, the year the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster melted down into American consciousness.

And in fact Friends of the Earth itself was founded all the way back in 1969 by environmentalist David Brower because of concerns about the possible construction of Diablo Canyon.

Full story FEDS ALLOW LAWSUIT TO SHUT DOWN DIABLO CANYON TO PROCEED by Michael Steinberg