At the Farmer’s Field EIR public hearing meeting in support with LACAN
Remembering Rampart, Remembering the Rebellion, Many Changes, Little Improvement
Rampart, Abandonment and No Community Input Process
As so many reflected on the 1992 civil unrest last week, we heard stories of fundamental change in the LAPD and how conditions have changed so much within the City of LA since then. However, given the experiences in our communities in Downtown, South and East LA, we couldn’t disagree more. The fact that there have been changes does not mean that there have been improvements. Extreme poverty, lack of meaningful employment, a continuously growing housing and homelessness crisis, a deepening economic and social inequality, and continuing police abuse and racial profiling reflect the same conditions that spurred the uprising in 1992. At the same time we are still dealing with the self-righteous arrogance in LAPD that made Daryl Gates famous. Last week the Times reported that Chief Beck was giving only “conditional reprimands” to officers committing major violations, including unjustified police shootings (sound familiar?), causing discord among some Commissioners and the public. Yet, just one week later spurred by the 20-year anniversary, the same media outlets report on the supposed “changed” LAPD.
It is fitting, then, that the public meeting on the future of the Old Rampart Station also happened last week. The Old Rampart Station, a symbol of police abuse and arrogance, has been abandoned for the last 4 years and is a painful reminder of LAPD’s past that is worsened by the abandonment, neglect in and around the property, and a total disregard for the community that surrounds it. When the LA Human Right to Housing Collective chose the Old Rampart Station for its International Human Rights Day actions last December, it was selected as a symbolic representation of much that is wrong in the City of Los Angeles: the site of some of the worst and most pervasive police abuses in LA’s history; an abandoned and blighted City-owned property that could instead be used for human rights promoting purposes; the City’s budget priority of more than 50% of its budget going toward LAPD when housing, libraries, schools, parks, and other human rights programs are seeing devastating cuts; and the list could go on and on. The Housing Collective created a human rights camp that cold weekend in December to call attention to the abandonment and to demonstrate to the City and LAPD that this site should be used for community serving purposes. What is the city’s response? Rampart is planned to be the new headquarters for LAPD’s Metro Division, including SWAT.
There are two problems with the Metro/SWAT proposal. First, the community was unaware of these plans. There was no community input process in deciding what should happen at a space that holds such painful memories of crime and abuse. In fact, the LAPD representative at last week’s public meeting admitted there had been no community involvement, simply stating they weren’t required to do it. Second, what is the message sent by establishing a SWAT training ground in a community that was victimized and abused by the Police? The site will be turned into a militarized zone controlled by the police without providing any community services. The self-righteous arrogance of LAPD and the complicity of the city with its plans ignore the community’s needs and reaffirm the role of the police as an occupying force in Rampart. Certainly nothing has changed, and most definitely we see no improvement. The police plans and policies do not take into consideration community’s needs and desires.
Since January, local residents and other concerned Angelinos have been working to Reclaim Rampart – to ensure that community-serving purposes are included in any plans for the site and that the site is not solely used to house Metro Division, which will not serve the local community. Community members are also demanding transparency and more comprehensive public input as the City moves forward with its plans. The hearing was the first step, but much more work is needed by local residents, City Officials, and other concerned residents to be sure that LAPD is accountable to the community on this infamous site, and fully accountable to our communities across Los Angeles. That will be a change to welcome and a certain improvement for this community.
Submitted by:
Leonardo Vilchis and Becky Dennison, on behalf of the LA Human Right to Housing Collective
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Tenants Demant Reimbursement for Illegal trash fees
Delmira Gonzalez. We’ve been talking about these trash fees, but nobody would listen. We told our manager and she would not respond. Then we came to the board and they ignored us. I pay one of the highest rents and this was not taken into consideration.
We need to come into an agreement we have a hard t
ime paying bills and rent. Your refusal to negotiate is going to turn into high legal fees.
De estación de policía a nido de maleantes – laopinion.com
POR: Isaías Alvarado / 02/10/2012 | La Opinión
“¡Mire!”, expresa José Andrés Castillo apuntando un preservativo tirado en el suelo. “No le estoy mintiendo, vienen aquí a tener relaciones sexuales”, comenta este residente de Westlake sobre lo que ocurre todas las noches a sólo unos pasos de su vivienda.
Al caminar sobre la calle Hyans, el señor Castillo encuentra otros tres condones usados, botellas rotas, restos de comida, un escusado viejo, un carrito de supermercado y más desechos. “Por aquí pasan todos los días muchos niños”, expresa indignado mientras señala una escuela preescolar.
Lo más increíble es que el sitio que ahora sirve de refugio de maleantes, drogadictos y prostitutas era hace unos años la parte trasera de la estación de policía Rampart, encargada de vigilar los vecindarios de Echo Park, Koreatown, Angelino Heights, MacArthur Park, Westlake, entre otros.
El edificio, localizado en la esquina del bulevar Temple y Benton Way, fue clausurado a principios de la década pasada tras ventilarse que más de 70 agentes se habían involucrado en balaceras injustificadas, robo y venta de narcóticos, ocultamiento de evidencias, incluso en asaltos a bancos. A ese episodio, uno de los más oscuros de la Policía de esta ciudad (LAPD), se le conoce como “Escándalo de Rampart”.
Los problemas, no obstante, siguen rondando a la base policiaca. En noviembre las autoridades arrestaron a dos sujetos que intentaban robar valiosas piezas de metal y cobre. No se concretó el delito, pero los delincuentes causaron daños a tuberías que se calculan en 37,000 dólares.
“Aunque la estación Rampart está cerrada y protegida por una barda metálica, se meten”, señaló la detective Teresa Hernández. “El edificio se remodelará con más de 100,000 dólares, pero con el daño que causaron costará todavía más… y la ciudad no tiene dinero”, manifestó.
Hernández cree que un tercer sospechoso logró huir, porque en el teléfono celular de uno de los arrestados se encontraron dos mensaje de texto que decían: “El ‘Ghetto Bird’ [como se llama coloquialmente a los helicópteros de la Policía] está fuera” y “¿Están bien allá adentro?”.
Pero antes del incidente otra banda de ladrones logró llevarse componentes electrónicos del inmueble. “Tenían conocimiento de electricidad comercial porque había una línea de energía que, de haberla tocado, se habrían electrocutado”, indicó Hernández.
Desde el frustrado atraco, por la ruptura de tubería de asbesto, material que puede ser causa de cáncer, la vieja estación Rampart luce con un cartel de advertencia, aunque poco lo han respetado. En su fachada principal, en letreros y en lo que fue una pequeña gasolinería, hay grafito.
“Hace un año no estaba así”, aseguró Yolanda Ábrego, quien ya no vive en el barrio, pero lo sigue frecuentando. “Sería mejor que la Policía regresara, porque el área era más tranquila”, dijo.
Desde hace unas semanas, el grupo Unión de Vecinos se ha encargado de limpiar el recinto, con la idea de que se convierta en un espacio para la comunidad. “Los residentes han estado cada vez más preocupados acerca de cómo el sitio[…] se está utilizando”, se lee en un volante.
Peter Sanders, vocero de la Alcaldía, informó que en unos días iniciará la demolición del inmueble y que el próximo año iniciará la construcción del que será el nuevo edificio de la División Metropolitana del LAPD.
“La Policía de Los Ángeles trabajará con la oficina del concejal local [Ed Reyes] en la limpieza de la maleza, etcétera”, subrayó el portavoz.
Cuando Ábrego se alejaba de la vieja estación se topó con el cadáver de una zarigüeya en la banqueta. “¡Ha estado ahí desde hace casi un mes!”, expresó sorprendida.