SUPPORT THE RIGHT TO FEED THE HUNGRY AND WORK FOR PEACE
Respect the homeless, don't drive them out of sight
From: "Venice Santa Monica Food Not Bombs"
Date: Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:48:03 PM US/Pacific
To: "FNB network"
Subject: June 11, 2006 - Food Not Bombs Activist Arrested in Venice, CA
June 11, 2006 - Food Not Bombs Activist Arrested in Venice, CA
Venice/Santa Monica Food Not Bombs members were serving free food and
giving away free literature on the Venice Beach Boardwalk Sunday morning
when the LAPD singled out and arrested Food Not Bombs member Peggy Lee
Kennedy, a third-generation Venice resident who was video taping from
across the Boardwalk. This arrest follows a series of on-going
harassments, tickets, police threats to arrest volunteers, and a police
escorted health department visit and warning. Peggy was arrested for
aledgedly violating a newly twice re-created vending law for the west
side of the Venice Beach Boardwalk once famous for its Free Speech
Zone activity.
The law, Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) 42.15, is masquerading as an
ordinance created to control vending and fights over space in what once
was a more fluid area, where people could participate in first amendment
activity - first come first serve. The older law was not perfect (a
one-page municipal code prohibiting commercial vending), but a minor
adjustment to restrict total space allowed per person could have solved
many of the problems.
In stead, the latest of two successive bad Boardwalk vending laws is
four-pages centered in controlling public space. Further to the actual
City law, there are four or five more pages of governing rules created
by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. Some of the
issues are:
- Restrictions and harassment of the Free Speech activists
refusing to participate in the unfair vendor/permit/lottery system.
- Outlawing original political t-shirts offered for donations on
the west side while sweatshop political t-shirts are being sold by
stores on the east side.
- A fifty-foot noise rule directed at performers on the west side
of the Boardwalk and targeting one very out-spoken African-American
performer in particular, but not targeting the loud businesses and bars
on the east side.
- And LAPD ticketing, harassing, and arresting those of us
considered to be hurting precious property values, such as Food Not
Bombs.
The law, very simply, is being used to further a gentrification agenda
and rid Venice Beach of any remaining low-income people, people living
an alternate [Venice Beach] lifestyle, and any unsightly homeless
people. Bring in the cookie-cutter artists and get rid of the likes of
us!
Venice/Santa Monica Food Not Bombs members were not vending or
soliciting donations, not blocking a throughway, and not taking some
permit vendor's assigned space won in the rotten lottery system. They
were protesting war and poverty by giving away free literature and free
food to hungry people in unoccupied public space, which is supposed to
be set aside for First Amendment activity.
Further to this, the west of the Venice Beach Boardwalk was officially
declared a Free Speech Zone (maybe they really meant on Mars!) in the
motion accompanying the passing of the latest LAMC 42.15, and
Venice/Santa Monica Food Not Bombs firmly believes that the intent of
this act should be to protect First Amendment activity, not to create a
"Police State Zone" law used to harass or arrest political activists,
the homeless, or anyone else they do not like on the Venice Beach
Boardwalk.
For these reasons and more, the Venice/Santa Monica Chapter of Food Not
Bombs demands that the City of Los Angeles, including its paid
politicians, its City Attorneys, and the Los Angeles Police Department:
- Stop making or enforcing laws that violate our constitutional
rights to assemble, give out free political literature, protest war and
poverty, and give away free vegetarian food on Venice Boardwalk.
- Stop harassing or arresting any person for violating ridiculous
"vending laws"in a publicly declared Free Speech Zone on Venice
Boardwalk, especially if they are not vending.
- Stop working with developers and citizen groups, such as
neighborhood watch, to actively remove homeless, low-income, or people
with alternative life-styles from Venice.
- Publicly apologize to the homeless, musicians, artists,
activists, and low-income or working-class people in Venice for
destroying their "Quality of Life."
The City of Los Angeles has enforced LAMC 42.15 on Venice Beach with an
army of police using high-tech surveillance to crush the bohemian
artist/activist Free Speech Zone community - paving the way for a NIMBY
maximized "Profit Control"
Venice Santa Monica Food Not Bombs
venicesantamonicafnb@fastmail.fm
June 11, 2006 - Food Not Bombs Activist Arrested in Venice, CA
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