On October 26, community organizations including the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), Stop LAPD Spying, Mar Vista Voice, Venice Justice Committee, and Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid (PUMA) gathered for a press conference condemning the City’s ongoing destruction of unhoused residents’ belongings and shelters, including the demolition of nearly twenty makeshift shelters in Skid Row just an hour before heavy rain began falling last week.

Mar Vista Voice organizer and CD 11 resident Carter Moon spoke about Councilmember Traci Park’s record of criminalizing poverty, her unwavering support for the LAPD, and the growing network of surveillance cameras installed across Westside neighborhoods. Carter’s remarks connected the City’s treatment of unhoused Angelenos to broader concerns about police violence, immigration enforcement, and mass surveillance.

We are publishing Carter’s remarks in full below. Photo credit: Eric Anders

I’m with Mar Vista Voice, we’re a volunteer run organization advocating for all of the people traditionally shut out of politics on the Westside.

During a decade when more people than ever are willing to admit that LAPD is an out of control liability for the entire city, Traci Park has staunchly stood on the side of letting this rogue, deadly department kill Angelenos and incarcerate the poor. In Traci’s first year in office in 2023, LAPD killed a person almost every single week. One of those people was Keenan Anderson, who was tasered to death mere blocks from Traci’s home. Traci had nothing to say about LAPD’s brutality, instead blaming Anderson’s death on his “mental health”. Traci’s seat on the council was bought by the LA Police Protective League, she represents the interests of that so-called union more than she represents the interests of her constituents, especially her most vulnerable constituents living on the streets. Traci’s time in office has always been about criminalizing poverty and pushing people out of her district, she’s a segregationist and more people in her district need to realize that. 

While she was on the campaign trail, Traci Park paid lip service to caring about immigrants. In reality, Mar Vista Voice works to support street vendors across the Westside who are struggling to survive as ICE raids continue to be a constant threat. There is no way Traci Park can claim to care about the safety of migrants while also collaborating with Flock and feeding immigrants data to ICE. Furthermore, we know that LAPD’s participation in the Joint Regional Intelligence Center means that we are ultimately feeding information to ICE, even if LA is technically declared a sanctuary city.

As one of Traci’s constituents in CD11, I demand to know what kind of agreement was hashed out with Flock to establish such a vast surveillance network in our neighborhoods. I find it appalling that Traci is having to be sued for these records, these should be documents any council office is readily willing to share with the public. I want to know how explicitly Traci and Flock talked about using their cameras to target poor people living out of their cars in our district. I want to know how explicitly Traci planned to use these Flock cameras when Trump’s Olympics comes to our district in two years. Traci’s lack of transparency here is damning.

The Mar Vista Community Council passed a resolution in March demanding Flock be removed from our neighborhood. Mar vista voice helped to organize overwhelming public comment opposing Flock’s presence in our neighborhoods. Traci Park did nothing to engage the public before installing these cameras, if she had she would have found the strong opposition our community feels towards these cameras. 

I’ll conclude by saying that Mar Vista Voice has been reporting on the ongoing controversy with Flock in our newsletter, the Dispatch. You can subscribe to our newsletter at Marvistavoice.org for more information.