Essential California: Scrutiny over LAPD’s Echo Park response

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, April 1, and I’m writing from Los Angeles.

A week after the city of Los Angeles forcibly removed a sprawling homeless encampment from Echo Park Lake amid protests, fallout from the massive police response to the protests continues. The park itself remains fenced and closed for repairs.

In a new story, my colleague Kevin Rector reports that the Los Angeles Police Department is once again under scrutiny for its use of force, with officers criticized for their use of weapons during the Echo Park protests last week.

[Read the story: “‘It stood out to me as egregious’: Protesters, others allege LAPD violence at Echo Park sweep” in the Los Angeles Times]

Officers were caught on video firing projectiles — so-called “less lethal” weapons that typically contain beanbag or hard foam rounds — in ways that appeared to violate department policy. As Kevin writes, department policies bar officers from shooting people who don’t represent a physical threat and from shooting into crowds, shooting people at close range and shooting people merely for ignoring verbal commands.

Last week was far from an aberration: The department faces a growing number of lawsuits over its use of such force during last summer’s George Floyd protests and last fall’s unruly Lakers and Dodgers championship celebrations, which left several protesters and revelers severely injured.

[Previously: “LAPD faces ‘post-Rodney King environment’ as scrutiny over George Floyd protests builds” in the Los Angeles Times]

Kevin reports that the department has largely defended its actions last week, alleging that officers had sought to facilitate the protests until they became unruly and decisions were made to issue dispersal orders and arrest those who didn’t comply.

But LAPD Chief Michel Moore also told Kevin that 11 complaints were already under review, including one pertaining to a protester’s allegation that a baton-wielding officer broke his arm. Two of the other Echo Park complaints under investigation pertain to the detention of reporters during the protests.

[See also: “The Echo Park homeless camp is gone. What does it mean for L.A.?” in the Los Angeles Times]

Beyond scrutiny over the LAPD’s use of force last week, some public officials have also raised questions about why such a large and potentially costly police presence was deployed to the park in the first place.

On Wednesday, L.A. City Council members Mike Bonin and Nithya Raman issued a letter to Moore, pressing for answers from the department on how much the Echo Park deployment cost — including officer pay, overtime costs, equipment and helicopter expenses — how it affected police patrols in other neighborhoods and why it was needed, as well as information on arrests, detentions and uses of force.

[Read the story: “L.A. officials want answers about police rollout at Echo Park Lake” in the Los Angeles Times]

The public push from council members for answers about the Echo Park operation is “unusual because L.A. council members typically shy from weighing in on matters in other council districts,” as my City Hall colleague Emily Alpert Reyes writes.

The Echo Park area is represented by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who has argued that the encampment was dangerous and the park needed to be temporarily closed for repairs. He rejected the idea that outreach efforts to homeless people had been “violent or police-led,” as Emily reports. But both Bonin and Raman have publicly expressed their dismay about the effort to clear and close the park.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

Four people, including a child, were killed Wednesday evening in a mass shooting at an Orange office complex. A fifth person was injured. Few details were immediately available about the victims or a potential motive for the shooting.

This is the third mass shooting in the United States in two weeks, coming after incidents at three Atlanta-area spas that killed eight people, including six Asian women, and at a Boulder, Colo. supermarket that killed 10. Los Angeles Times

Starting Thursday, all Californians age 50 and over will qualify for a COVID-19 vaccine. But eligibility doesn’t guarantee immediate access. Here’s what you should know. Los Angeles Times

Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.

L.A. STORIES

Eighty percent of L.A. County residents 16 or older could be vaccinated by June — if supplies hold up. “Reaching such a milestone is possible with increased allocations, and it would dramatically change the trajectory of the pandemic here in L.A. County,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a briefing Wednesday. Los Angeles Times

In L.A. County, more than 50 groups have mobilized workers for virtual and on-the-ground vaccine outreach. The efforts have reached hundreds of thousands of people in 82 neighborhoods from Chinatown to South L.A. Los Angeles Times

Soledad Enrichment Action community health outreach workers Maria Mejia, 53, left, and Susan Salcido, 29, give information about COVID-19 vaccine to Marybel Mancimas, 50, center, and her friend David Legunas, 52, in Boyle Heights.

(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

It’s Act 2 for entertainment giant Endeavor’s IPO: Some 18 months after the company withdrew its highly anticipated IPO, the owner of talent agency WME is once again heading for an initial public offering. The public offering comes amid a turbulent period for agencies, which have seen their profits eroded by the rise of streaming and pandemic fallout. Los Angeles Times

A Harvard-Westlake student fires back at Bari Weiss’ portrayal of the school in her “Miseducation of America’s Elites” story. “I’m writing to you in regard to the article you just wrote about ‘Wokeism’ at major private institutions within the U.S. ...” The Chronicle

IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

With Mexico’s vaccination program lagging, elite Mexicans are flocking to the U.S. to get their shots. One 70-year-old Mexican businessman featured in the story chartered a private jet to fly to Brownsville, Texas, and then drove to a farming community about 20 minutes away where he received his first dose. He made the same trip for his second dose. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to return to her home state of California for the third time since taking office this weekend. The trip will combine a personal Easter visit to Los Angeles with an official trip to Northern California to promote the administration’s $2-trillion infrastructure proposal. Los Angeles Times

Democrat Christy Smith announced that she will once again challenge GOP Rep. Mike Garcia for a seat representing northern Los Angeles County in 2022. The former state Assembly member lost to Garcia in November by just a few hundred votes. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

“They buried someone in one of our plots. My wife saw the fresh grave and called them, the person was reburied the next day.” A Tulare City Council member is calling for an investigation into a local cemetery where bodies have repeatedly been buried in the wrong plots and then disinterred. Valley Voice

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

The nation’s hottest housing market? Surprise — it’s Fresno. “While Fresno’s costs have soared, they’re still low enough to provide a respite for people moving from pricier locales. But they have become a crushing burden to the region’s tens of thousands of low-income families.” Los Angeles Times

A road trip to the remnants of Northern California’s rural Chinatowns: “By 1870, half of the miners in California were Chinese, and there were 30 small Chinatowns scattered across Northern California.” SFGATE

Performance artist Marina Abramović has partnered with WeTransfer to teach people her mindfulness method while they wait for files to upload. ArtNet

Point Reyes Station’s Old Western Saloon is on the market. The historic building, which was rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake, features a speaker outside that broadcasts a cow’s moo and a rooster’s crow every day at noon and 6 p.m. Point Reyes Light

A poem to start your Friday: “Spring” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Poets.org

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: scattered clouds will do nothing to temper the heat, 88. San Diego: mostly sunny, 81. San Francisco: nice temperate sunny, 73. San Jose: too sunny, 86. Fresno: even sunnier, 88. Sacramento: regular sunny, 84.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Tim Trujillo:

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.