Over the years, California has taken up the fight to replace laws that have enabled discrimination with ones that prioritize justice. We’ve done good work so far, including eliminating certain sentencing enhancements that extend prison time for questionable factors like gang-related allegations, and taking other steps to reduce racial discrimination in the legal process including jury selection. But many unjust…
As a Los Angeles Unified School District insider and whistleblower, I certainly know where the bones are buried. The LAUSD’s complicated relationship with charter schools in the District has often been the subject of quiet conversations in dark corners. The Office of Inspector General and its leaders played a pivotal role in the scheme. This became abundantly clear in October…
While I applaud the intentions of Los Angeles lawmakers in attempting to prevent underage tobacco use, a ban on flavored cigarettes that includes menthol cigarettes will be counterproductive to this goal and detrimental to the society at large. The City Council should reconsider this ban. As a retired sergeant and veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, having spent my…
I spent twenty years as a Los Angeles Police Department officer and patrol sergeant. I’m also a black woman and a mother to four sons. In 2014, a spate of deadly police use-of-force killings began with the choking death of Eric Garner by New York police and the shooting deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Ezell Ford in…
What should have been a 10-minute officer-initiated Q&A ending with a parking ticket or stern warning quickly escalated to a violent assault and arrest. On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Police Department released bodycam footage of a violent encounter between several of its officers and NBA Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown earlier this year in January. A lone patrol officer was waiting…
LOS ANGELES — A former Los Angeles police officer was not surprised that District Attorney Jackie Lacey decided not to file charges against a former police officer who killed an unarmed black man near the Venice Beach boardwalk in 2015. Retired LAPD Sgt. Cheryl Dorsey said, “When the District Attorney’s Office has a symbiotic relationship with the LAPD, it would…
*On March 9, 2018, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Office of Inspector General (OIG) Deputy Inspector General, Investigations Frank Cabibi was forced to resign in lieu of termination. The reason for Frank Cabibi’s sudden, teary-eyed, departure is a closely guarded LAUSD secret. In the era of hashtag #MeToo and based on my personal working relationship with Cabibi; I understand…
Shortly after unarmed Stephon Clark had been shot and killed by Sacramento police officers, Mayor Darrell Steinberg acknowledged that implied racism and bias was a major factor in Clark’s death. Sacramento police officers pumped 20 bullets into the body of Clark because they “thought” Clark had a gun. Factually, he was holding a cellphone in his hand. As a 20-year…
Imagine a police officer snatching a “suspicious” Black man off the street to spend the weekend in jail. The probable cause? Dealing Newport cigarettes. A growing under-the-radar movement to criminalize menthol cigarettes is starting us on a slippery slope toward just such a scenario on a street corner near you. San Francisco was the first city to ban the sale…
The Baton Rogue (Louisiana) Police Department recently charged 20-year-old Brittany Stephens with negligent homicide in the traffic-related death of her year-old daughter, Sevaira. On Oct. 12, 2017, 28-year-old off-duty Baton Rogue police officer Christopher Manuel, while driving his 2007 Corvette 94 miles an hour, plowed into a 2002 Nissan Xterra which contained several occupants, including Stephens and her daughter, Sevaira.…