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“The Cripple of Inishmaan” a Distinctive but not Ideal McDonagh Showcase

Greggory Moore
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“The Cripple of Inishmaan” a Distinctive but not Ideal McDonagh Showcase

There isn’t much life for a 16-year-old orphaned cripple like Billy on the little Irish isle of Inishmaan in 1934. The best he can muster is going out to stare at cows and rereading the same old books. But when an American film crew comes to a neighboring isle and looking to cast some locals, even though “it’s a one in a million chance of him getting it, he has to chance it still — else why be alive at all?”

That’s the “action” driving The Cripple of Inishmaan — “action” in scare quotes, because this is not the Martin McDonagh you want if you’re looking for the guy who brought you Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri — or even The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which Long Beach Playhouse staged a few years ago. Rather, The Cripple of Inishmaan, a comedy on the surface, is a meditation on striving for something, anything, despite the humbleness of your origins and the limits of your horizons.

Because McDonagh is closer to cute here than the wicked wit that characterizes his best humorist turns (e.g., In Bruges), if you’re going to like The Cripple of Inishmaan for more than its whimsical, unmistakably Irish idiosyncrasy, it’s for the pathos — and this works only if you’ve got a Billy who can bring it. Fortunately, Long Beach Playhouse does in Dylan La Rocque, who is solid throughout but shines in his two crucial monologs.

Even if director Susan Boulanger might have put a bit more emphasis on the conversational and leaned a bit less into the idiosyncrasy, there’s no faulting the rest of the cast’s acting; it’s just that, despite its craftsmanship, as a piece of writing The Cripple of Inishmaan scarcely breaks the surface with its supporting roles.

Where the actors come up short is with their bodily interaction. Of the half-dozen or so moments when characters poke/smack/wrestle each other (there’s no full-on brawling), except for a bit with some eggs, the blows are notably stilted. None of this is central to the play, but each such moment takes us out of the action for a trice. There’s actually a fight choreographer listed in the program, so what happened here is anyone’s guess.

Vis-à-vis the mise en scène, everything is simple and functional — this is not a bells-and-whistles play. If anything merits mention, it’s David Zahacewski’s lighting design. Simple as it is, subtle cues continually modulate the brightness/dimness to exactly the right level for any given moment, always befitting the mood and space.

There’s no doubting that Martin McDonagh has a distinctive voice — and Long Beach Playhouse has no problem communicating it in The Cripple of Inishmaan. But shortcomings in both the writing and the production leave this show short of an ideal McDonagh showcase.

The Cripple Of Inishmann

Location: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach 90804

Details: Fri.- Sat. 8PM, Sun. 2PM • $14–$24 • THROUGH AUGUST 20

More Info: 562-494-1014, lbplayhouse.org

Peck Park Shooting — Out of Tragedy: The Best and the Worst

Terelle Jerricks
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Peck Park Shooting — Out of Tragedy: The Best and the Worst

Three Stories, Nine Victims and a One-Hammer Councilman

Harbor Division Capt. Brent McGuire of the Los Angeles Police Department made the trueist observation I heard throughout the entire July 26 town hall meeting about the Peck Park shooting two days earlier where two people were murdered.

“In incidents such as these,” he said, “we sometimes see the worst in humanity, but also, as we have seen in these incidents, we also see the best in humanity.”

McGuire made special note of news footage showing community members working together with law enforcement officers and emergency responders working hand-in-hand, lifting people on stretchers and bringing them to help, getting them aid; regular citizens, cops and firefighters giving CPR trying to help some of the injured victims in the shooting.

I heard similar testimony from witnesses of the shooting who showed up for the morning press conference on July 25 organized by Justice for Murdered Children, San Pedro/Wilmington chapter of the NAACP and community activist Najee Ali. So, what do we know about this incident?

Day of the Event
Sisters of Watts co-founder and chief operating officer Keisha Daniels arrived at the park at 3 p.m. in support of the permitted Low Rider Car show in the upper parking lot. As Daniels recalls, “[July 24] was a peaceful Sunday afternoon at the park, with no conflict … no strife. It remained that way until about 3:40 p.m., when shots rang out.”

On her way to escape the gunfire, she encountered Officer Joshua Rodriguez and a gunshot victim who had crashed his dark colored Hyundai. Officer Rodriguez was one of the first two officers to arrive on the scene and was attempting to assess the situation. Rodriguez and Daniels pulled the victim from his car. Daniels told Rodriguez she knew CPR, and asked him for direction.

Rodriguez asked her to perform CPR, while he did chest compressions on the victim to get him to breathe.

“I did CPR until the paramedics came,” Daniels said. “The victim was alert and still breathing when the ambulance took him away.”

She recalled that the entire time she was performing CPR, she was praying over the victim.

“I was like, if you know God, just talk to Him. Don’t worry about anything else. Just talk to Him.”

The experience was particularly emotional for Daniels because she lost her brother, who was killed due to gun violence.

“All I could think about was that there was someone there to help him [the shooting victim in front of her]. My nephew was shot in the stomach. The bullet went in but it never came out,” Daniels said. “[He] almost lost his life. He was an innocent bystander. So on Sunday, I just … I just went into action.”

I thought it best to lead this column by focusing on the humanity of the first responders and the community members who assisted the wounded and injured when they couldn’t leave the park for several hours. This offers a different narrative as opposed to what emerged on social media and the vitriol of community residents outraged that outsiders would disturb their peace. This narrative speaks to a different reading of the tragedy than the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks’ decision to cancel Sunday events through the remainder of the summer would suggest.

Chronology After the Shooting
According to McGuire’s summary of events, 19 emergency 911 calls began pouring in at 3:50 p.m. of a shooting at Peck Park.

Callers described an unfolding chaotic scene of people who had been shot and wounded on the ground. Some were initially describing the shooting as continuing, leading officers arriving on the scene to believe they were confronting an active shooter.

The LAPD reported that 500 people were fleeing from the park.

When the first two officers arrive on the scene, McGuire paints the scene of 500 people running towards them yelling and screaming, some of them with injuries and blood flowing down their arms and legs as they tried getting to their cars.

Those initial officers were first concerned with identifying the threat, to make sure that there was not an ongoing threat. So there were several officers running against a wave of cars and humanity fleeing the area.

After determining that there was no active shooter, officers arriving transitioned to life preservation mode and a triage site was set up.

Capt. Adrian Gonzalez, South Bureau Homicide Division explained that normally a homicide investigation would have a two-person team who are the primary investigators who come and investigate a homicide. For the Sunday shooting, six teams and more than 20 personnel from South Bureau homicide were assigned.

“The first one was the baseball field and that’s where we believe the shooting actually happened,” Gonzalez said. “It carried over to the second crime scene, which is the parking lot above the baseball field.”

The third crime scene was at the entrance of the community center at Peck Park where blood was found.

Four handguns and 50 shell casings were recovered. Investigators have ruled out rifles being used in the shooting.

Capt. Gonzalez dispelled the rumor that participants of the car show at Peck Park and the participants in the Peace Ride caravan rolling from Harbor Gateway to San Pedro had anything to do with the shooting.

Capt. Gonzalez also dispelled the notion that the violence was the result of an intergang dispute. Rather it was a dispute between two individuals who they have identified. The two shooters, as of publication, have not been apprehended.

Buscaino’s Town Hall Meeting
This was supposed to be a town hall meeting to answer questions about the July 24 Peck Park shooting. Councilman Joe Buscaino turned it into a political talking point, saying, “What took place on Sunday … seeing the men and women of the LAPD respond to the threat … respond to this emergency here in this town. What took place here at our beloved park reminded us of the continued call for more police services, not less.”

He said before making the fantastical claim that such a tragedy will “never happen again” in our backyard.

Since the first years of his long tenure as councilman, he has always been a hammer who looked at every problem as if it were a nail.

He turned even saltier when taking a swipe at recently-elected 1st District Los Angeles councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez when he quipped, “for those local elected officials that don’t want police officers representing them or in their respective districts, bring them here, we will gladly take them, because this reminds us that everything hinges on public safety.”

Buscaino, as had many civic leaders since the shooting, recalled memories of taking his children to the park, and playing there himself as a child in an effort to recall more peaceful days. Except those rose-tinted memories didn’t jibe with the collective memory of violence at Peck Park over the past 40 years.

Social Media, Rumors and Perception
Ahead of the town hall meeting, local social media pages were rife with rumors about whether the groups were permitted, that the shooting was between rival gangs, and a number of commenters wondered why these outsiders were allowed to hold events at the park.

Most newscasts were reporting that the shooting was a gang shooting between two parties. This combined with the KTLA newscast of Moneke Howard, the purported mother of one of the victims, turned her into a social media meme. Howard gave more than one interview for television and print. The more disastrous interview was the one she did with KTLA where she called the shooting a “Compton Massacre,” suggesting that attendees were mostly gang affiliated Compton residents.

From the comments made during the townhall meeting, I had a hard time imagining that that imagery wasn’t what was playing through the minds of community members as evidenced by the continued questions regarding the permits and numbers allowed under the permits. The general sense was that Parks and Recs and LAPD’s Harbor Division should have known that greater police presence was in order given the participants at the softball games were gang affiliated. And more importantly, this shooting happened against a historical backdrop of which shootings and gang violence had been a recurring issue at the park over the past 40 years — regardless of Buscaino’s rose tinted recollections.

The comment of one public commenter at the townhall was illustrative of the challenges in providing greater public safety. She said, “So, 500 people leaving on Sunday wasn’t a large event? The permit that was permitted for the baseball game was for 100 people. Okay … I own a home at Peck Park … I raised two babies there … at the peak of this in 2016, there were crackheads, homeless people shooting up heroin … I saw a LAPD officer at CVS and I told him about my situation. And his response was, ‘ma’am, move to Orange County.’”

Her point: there are all of these elements that are making her community unsafe and the best and quickest solution the police could offer was to move to a wealthier community. More police officers and increased patrolling at a time when housing isn’t becoming more affordable, and paychecks aren’t stretching far enough. As one member from a neighborhood council in San Pedro said, “He’s been the councilman for the past 10 years and now he wants to talk about more police?”

Buscaino has made it a part of his schtick to place air-quotes around solutions other than more police officers.

A local nonprofit organized the softball league about five years ago to safely bring together members of different Crips sets, according to gang interventionist Skipp Townsend. Sunday’s game — just weeks after the death of the league’s founder in a car wreck — was between teams from Compton.

There have been a number of these softball games at Peck Park over the past five years. Of the eight calls to Peck Park before the shooting, none involved the softball league or the car show. Nonprofits such as this and more, are the non-police components in crime reduction and public safety. We can’t afford to overlook tools that don’t look like a hammer in the tool box. If we could, we’d all just move to the tony neighborhoods of Palos Verdes or Orange County.

Update
This story was updated to correct an important assertion made in the Aug. 4 edition of Random Lengths. Keisha Daniels, the COO of Sisters of Watts and Officers Joshua Rodriguez.

Daniels was there with the Low Riders Car show in the upper part of Peck Park, one of the permitted organizations at the Park on July 24, which had no connection to the softball game at the park’s baseball diamond. Daniels and Officer Rodriquez encountered each other near the gunshot victim who crashed his Hyundai near the upper-parking lot above the baseball diamond. We regret the confusion the error may have caused.

Sisters of Watts mission is to unite neighborhoods, promote community, strengthen families and form meaningful relationships.

For other stories about Keisha Daniels and the Sisters of Watts and their work, read:

Jeremiah Goes to Fisk University
The Stars Align for a Homeless Teen and His Family, Supporters Gather to Push Them Forward

Climate Justice Concerns Echo in 710 Fwy Planning

Paul Rosenberg
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Climate Justice Concerns Echo in 710 Fwy Planning

On July 24, the world’s first named heatwave — Category 3 Zoe — hit Seville, Spain, with temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, signaling a new level of awareness of the tragic course the world’s climate is headed down. Los Angeles, with more than 2 million people considered “highly vulnerable,” is one of half a dozen cities poised to follow Seville’s example with a new life-saving alert system, but we’re farther behind many European cities when it comes to a deeper response: changing our built environment to a more climate-resilient mode.

Triple-digits heat waves as far north as England blanketed Europe throughout June and July along with North Africa and the Middle East, bringing a wave of wildfires as well. In Portugal and Spain alone, deaths had topped 1,700 according to the World Health Organization, even before Zoe hit.

East Asia and North America were hit as well, with persistent triple digits in the Pacific Northwest.

In the midst of all this, Joe Biden’s efforts to pass climate legislation were abruptly derailed on July 14, when West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin withdrew his support — highlighting concerns about inflation — only to reverse course 13 days later, announcing support for a renamed “Inflation Reduction Act” that contains $369 billion in climate investments — substantially less than the $555 billion passed by the House of Representatives last fall, a figure that was already a compromise.

Using inflation first to kill climate legislation and then to sell it highlights a profound absurdity. Inflation today is a global phenomena, largely resulting from the pandemic and pandemics, in turn, will become increasingly common as a result of further global warming. The shifting of wildlife ranges “poses a measurable threat to global health, particularly given several recent epidemics and pandemics of viruses that originate in wildlife,” according to a recently-published article in Nature. So delaying climate action on account of inflation only increases future harm from inflation — along with the more deadly aspect of pandemics, and the enormous costs they entail.

IRA Still Points to Uncertain Future

Although passage isn’t assured, the IRA would easily be the most substantial climate legislation ever.

“This is a game changer,” said Dr. Leah Stokes, a climate-focused political scientist who advised Senate Democrats in negotiations. “It would get us 80% of the way to President Biden’s climate goal,” she tweeted. And it would answer Manchin’s concerns: “This bill will cut energy costs for everyday Americans. 41% of inflation is driven by fossil fuels,” she explained. “The bill will help Americans buy clean energy technologies, like EVs, solar and heat pumps, which will lower their energy bills every month.”

But even 100% would not be enough, as this summer’s heatwaves underscore that catastrophic impacts are arriving much sooner than expected, which means an even greater need to invest in mitigation and adaptation in addition to clean energy transition. Phasing out fossil fuels won’t be enough.

Some of that is addressed in the bill, including good news for us locally. “This bill also contains key environmental justice investments — and at $60 billion it will be the largest EJ investment in American history,” Stokes noted. “There’s funding to clean up ports, set up community grants, and clean up dirty vehicles that hit communities of color the hardest.”

The 710 Freeway as Microcosm

A microcosm of what lies ahead can be seen in the 710 Corridor planning process following the abandonment of the freeway expansion we reported on in June. That decision was monumental, according to Commissioner Joe Lyou, California Transportation Commission, president of Coalition for Clean Air and 710 Task Force member.

“We’re witnessing a profound and systemic shift in how we think about and act on transportation in California. The 710 freeway — both north and south — is a good example of that.” Lyou told Random Lengths News. “Now we need to deal with the huge backlog of historic projects planned long before our thinking shifted from car-centric freeway building to a much greater focus on mobility, equity, air quality, and climate protection. Fixing these problematic pipeline projects will require commitment, persistence, leadership, money and lots of hard work.”

But even as big-picture thinking has begun to change, old habits die hard, especially when powerful interests are involved. Although 710 funding is unrelated to the IRA, the struggle to shape an equitable future involves many of the outstanding major issues on a down-to-earth scale. European cities like Munich start off less auto-dependent and plan to become even less so. Munich’s 860 acres Freiham district plan will create an ecodistrict with 15,000 jobs, a mix of homes for 25,000, schools, daycare, cafes, shops, car-free streets, parks and courtyards, all combined with high capacity transit.

No American city plans anything like this, but the revised 710 project represents progress in that direction, with guiding principles of equity and sustainability. The equity principle is stated as “A commitment to: (1) strive to rectify past harms; (2) provide fair and just access to opportunities; and 3) eliminate disparities in project processes, outcomes, and community results.” The sustainability principle is defined as “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

“We see the vision for this project as supporting sustainable communities by enhancing health and quality of life of residents,” Fernando Gaytan, an Earthjustice attorney told Random Lengths. “That for us is the most important guiding principle because it encapsulates each of the other goals of improving air quality, mobility, safety, economy and protecting the environment. But it also centers the critical role that community plays in making sure that each of the goals are carried out in a way that repairs past harms.”

Standing in the way of that, Gaytan said, “The biggest obstacle that we’re going to face, in carrying out that principle is the insistence on really catering to the needs of industries that have really laid claim to the 710 as a freight corridor, without recognizing their culpability in creating the very inequities that we now have an opportunity to address through this re-envisioning of the 710.”

Neighbors Say Walker’s Cafe has Unpermitted Construction, Owners Say It’s Just Repairs

Hunter Chase
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Neighbors Say Walker’s Cafe has Unpermitted Construction, Owners Say It’s Just Repairs

San Pedro residents say that Walker’s Cafe has been under construction the past few months without permits. However, a representative of Prospect Group, which owns the café, said they are only completing repairs, and that permits are not necessary.

Walker’s Cafe, a beloved San Pedro diner that had been in operation since the 1940s, closed in October 2021. After a campaign and petition to save the café and have it preserved as a historical monument, Prospect Group purchased it in March 2022.

“I just assumed they had pulled permits to do what they were doing,” said Noel Gould, a member of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council who lives next door to the café. “So, I didn’t really say anything about it for a while. And then we checked and found that they hadn’t pulled a single permit.”

However, Silva Harapetian, a representative of Prospect Group, said this was a misunderstanding.

“It’s not construction, there have been repairs,” Harapetian said. “All of the stuff that we’re talking about have not required permits, there have been repairs.”

Harapetian said these repairs were discussed in a meeting with representatives from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, the Office of Historic Resources and Council District 15. These repairs included a leaking roof, exposed electrical wires and termite damage that threatened the structural integrity. She said that the city representatives did not make any approvals of these repairs, but they discussed them.

“These repairs were absolutely necessary, otherwise the integrity of the building was in jeopardy,” Harapetian said. “This property has not been touched in decades. It has been in disrepair for decades.”

In addition, Harapetian said there have been many break-ins and vandalization, so Prospect Group often has people looking after the property even if they aren’t working on it. The city council is currently considering the building for historical monument status, so no major changes are supposed to be made. But Harapetian said these changes would not affect its status.

Nora Frost, public information director of the City Of Los Angeles Department Of City Planning, confirmed that such a meeting took place online on May 25.

“The owners discussed minor maintenance-related work they were planning to do,” Frost wrote in an email. “The Office of Historic Resources requested an outline of the work to review for conformance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. Since that meeting, OHR has not received such a report or any such communication from the owners.”

Emma Rault, a member of Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council and the leader of the initiative to have Walker’s Cafe declared a historical monument, has heard complaints from neighbors.

“A number of people sort of passed by the site and said just from the level of noise it seems like it’s fairly invasive, not just kind of minor fixing,” Rault said.

Gould has witnessed the work being done on the property, and has taken video by looking over his fence. He has also spoken to an inspector from the Department of Building and Safety.

“He went down there initially, and caught them in the middle of construction,” Gould said. “He asked permission to gain entrance to the property, but he was denied. And he issued a stop work order on the spot.”

Gould said the workers got their boss on the phone and said they were just doing routine maintenance, but the inspector did not believe them.

Tony Pelaez, senior management analyst for the Department of Building and Safety, could not confirm anything about the inspector, but did say the department is currently investigating a complaint against the property. On the department’s website, it lists a complaint of construction done without permits or inspections, and lists the date received as June 29. It lists two additional violations, that the building is substandard due to hazardous electrical wiring and plumbing. However, it has an effective date of July 14, and says it is under investigation.

Harapetian denies that any stop work order was given.

“The inspector, he showed up to the property, and he wanted access to the property,” Harapetian said. “There was no representative with Prospect to allow him in. … Because of the fact that he couldn’t gain access, he wrote us up.”

Harapetian said that repairs were not still being done, and that they were addressed several weeks ago. However, Rault said this is false.

“I received a video from a community member of work being done on site yesterday,” Rault said on July 31.

Rault and Gould say that construction work has continued even after the stop work order. Gould said they do not do it as often, but it has happened at least a couple of times.

“They’ve got the place all fenced off and very dark,” Gould said. “But I was able to peer in at one point when they were working and I could see that the floors had been worked out and there was all kind of Romex, you know, electrical stuff, that they were laying on the floors and everything. So, it’s obvious that they were doing major electrical work.”

Gould said they also put in windows in the back where they had not previously been, and did major plumbing work, including replacing a pipe about 40 feet long.

“They’ve kind of struck out on their own in effect,” Rault said. “And we don’t know the extent of the work they’ve been doing. And it’s not inconceivable that they might have at this point done irreparable harm to a historic structure.”

In addition, as of July 30, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, or AQMD, placed a notice to comply on the fence surrounding Walker’s Cafe, asking for proof of a prior asbestos survey, where hazardous waste is being transported to, among other things.

“They didn’t get any permits from AQMD either,” Rault said. “At this point, they have fallen foul of the city and the Air Quality Management District. … So [what] we’re looking at is pretty serious, basically completely ignoring the regulatory bodies that exist when you’re doing work on a building.”

Rault has spoken with a man who was in talks with Prospect Group about potentially renting the property, but he said the company was only willing to rent him the front building, not the buildings in the back.

“He said in order for it to be a viable business concept, [he] would need access to the café,” Rault said. “But also think about things like outdoor seating in the back, or having an ancillary building that could be a fully-functioning kitchen if you want to offer a bigger menu. And it was his impression, just from his conversations with them, that they were more interested in using the rest of the parcel and or the buildings that are currently in the back and converting that into some sort of residential units as a different income source.”

Harapetian said Prospect Group will not turn part of the property into residential units.

“There’s been no discussion, no plans, no permitting, none of that has been part of our conversation internally,” Harapetian said.

Rault said that Prospect Group quoted the buyer $10,000 to $12,000 a month for the rent on the front building alone.

“That’s not a sum of money that anyone could recoup with that kind of square footage,” Rault said. “What that suggests to me is that perhaps they are not acting in good faith, and they are not serious about leasing it out as a café.”

While the buyer in question could not be reached personally for comment, Rault shared an email from him, confirming everything she said about him.

However, Harapetian said it’s not written in stone how much Prospect Group will be charging for rent.

“[If] we have to change, for example, the kitchen, or get permits, whatever it is, if Prospect Group is spending the money, then the rent and business structure with the operator would be different than if someone came in and spent their own money to bring it up to operation,” Harapetian said.

Harapetian said everyone she has spoken with has been in discussion to rent the entire property.

“Everyone we’ve spoken to, the conversations have been geared towards specifically finding someone who can operate a restaurant that is going to protect the integrity of Walker’s Cafe,” Harapetian said.

Ports Postpone Container Dwell Fee For Four Weeks

Reporters Desk
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Ports Postpone Container Dwell Fee For Four Weeks

SAN PEDRO — The San Pedro Bay ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will postpone consideration of the “Container Dwell Fee” for four weeks, until Aug. 26.

Since the program was announced on Oct. 25, the two ports have seen a combined decline of 26% in aging cargo on the docks.

The executive directors of both ports will reassess fee implementation after monitoring data over the next month. Fee implementation has been postponed by both ports since the start of the program. The Long Beach and Los Angeles Boards of Harbor Commissioners have both extended the fee program through Oct. 26.

Briefs: Gubernatorial and County Appointments Announced – LACoFD & Dental Board of California

Reporters Desk
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Briefs: Gubernatorial and County Appointments Announced – LACoFD & Dental Board of California

Gov. Newsom Announces Appointment

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom July 29, announced the following appointment.

Joni A. Forge, 65, of Long Beach, has been appointed to the Dental Board of California. Forge has been a dentist at the CDI Dental Group since 2018 and has been an adjunct clinical instructor at the USC Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry since 2022. She was owner and a dentist at Overhill Dental from 1995 to 2021. Forge was owner and a dentist at Joni Forge DDS from 1985 to 2004. She is a member of the American Dental Association, California Dental Association and National Dental Association. Forge earned a Doctor of Dentistry degree from the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Forge is a Democrat.

Supervisors Appoint Anthony C. Marrone As LACoFDs Acting Fire Chief

LOS ANGELES — Following the retirement of Fire Chief Daryl L. Osby, the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors has appointed Deputy Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone to serve as acting fire chief over the County of Los Angeles Fire Department, effective Aug. 1.

Marrone steps into the role with previous experience serving in the same capacity during his predecessor’s leave of absence in 2021. With more than 36 years of experience, his well-established career combines broad experience in both emergency and business operations with an extensive list of accomplishments and assignments, including supervising and managing the Leadership and Professional Standards Bureau, Special Services Bureau and Emergency Medical Services Bureau.

Marrone will lead one of the largest and most diverse fire departments in the world, providing traditional and non-traditional fire and life safety services to more than 4.0 million residents and communities in 60 cities and 122 unincorporated areas served by the department within its 2,311-square-mile service area. The department operates out of 177 fire stations, with just over 5,000 emergency responders and business professionals operating within an annual budget of $1.4 billion. In addition, the fire department provides ocean lifeguard, 9-1-1 dispatch, health hazardous materials, and forestry services throughout the county.

LA County Briefs: Empowering Students and Launch of New Department of Economic Opportunity

Reporters Desk
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LA County Briefs: Empowering Students and Launch of New Department of Economic Opportunity

Empowering Students to Call School Threat Response Teams

Los Angeles County Supervisors Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger have proposed a new education campaign that would inform local students about how to report potential threats of school violence.

The School Threat Assessment Response Teams or START program was created in 2009 as a way to prevent school violence. In 2019, Hahn and Barger championed expanding the START team members from 10 to 42. The teams consist of mental health professionals who respond to reports about students who may be a threat to themselves or others.

Anyone can contact START and make a referral when they see warning signs by emailing START@dmh.lacounty.gov or calling 213-739-5565.

The Board of Supervisors July 26, unanimously approved a motion instructing the Department of Mental Health to implement an education campaign to inform students about what START does, how to make a referral to START if they see concerning behavior from a peer and examples of warning signs and behavior to report.

The education campaign should be launched during the 2022-2023 school year.

Details: https://tinyurl.com/4e45vf37

Los Angeles County Launches New Department of Economic Opportunity

On July 21, the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity or DEO became an official county department. DEO unites services previously performed by four different agencies within the county, including workforce development, strategic economic development and advocacy, and small business assistance and growth.

Details: opportunity.lacounty.gov and @EconOppLA

A Day In Nature

Reporters Desk
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A Day In Nature

Join LA County Parks & Recreation in celebrating our connection to the land, health and wellness and all things wild found in our parks and surrounding ecosystems at Deane Dana Friendship Park, Aug. 13. The event will feature activities including live animal ambassador presentations, story time, crafts, live entertainment, guided hikes, community booths and plant giveaways. The center will be in attendance with a resource booth for the community.

Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 13

Cost: Free

Details: 310-519-6115; http://parks.lacounty.gov/deane-dana-friendship-natural-area/

Venue: Deane Dana Friendship Park, 1805 W 9th St., San Pedro

Jeremiah Goes to Fisk University

Terelle Jerricks
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Jeremiah Goes to Fisk University

The Los Angeles Coordinated Entry System is the backbone of the county’s services for the unhoused and it is nowhere near perfect. Even with billions invested, and policies enacted, the system still has many gaps and gaping holes. But in all the ways that this imperfect system connects, individuals are gradually being saved. And for the individuals and families being helped, It can seem as if the stars are aligning and divine intervention is happening just for them, when the many hundreds of nonprofits fill in the gaps of this imperfect system.

Last week, I learned of the Herculean effort to get 17-year-old Jeremiah Armstead to Fisk University and his family off the streets after spending in turns living in their van and Los Angeles County’s 90-days shelters for women and children.

Jeremiah said the family’s bout with homelessness was a struggle at first. In time, due to his gregarious personality and desire to make people around him smile, he formed a support network outside of his family, which was comprised of close friends and a coach with whom he could confide in and rely on.

“My mom would have to wait outside practice in the car all day,” Jeremiah said. At that time, the promising Fisk enrollee was on the varsity basketball team at Long Beach Polytechnic High School

“Basically, school started, 8 in the morning to 5 at night,” the teen said. “She’d be in the car all day, and then we still be in the car all night. There’s just stuff like that. It was just hard, you know. I didn’t want to just leave her out there by herself.”

Jeremiah says he has always been an outgoing person.

“I always felt as if I had to make people smile and stuff like that. So once like teachers or coaches started to know about what I was going through, they did everything in their power to help out. So it was just a blessing,” Jeremiah said.

The Brooks-Armstead family began the month figuring out their next steps after their time at Harbor Interfaith Services 90-day shelter for women and children was up. Without a place to sleep at night, the family of four were back to living in their van again. However, the stack of parking tickets — and with finances still too tight to even mention registering the van, it has only been an additional stressor for the entire family. The family had basically been driving around one police stop away from having their vehicle impounded.

Mindy, a domestic violence survivor, left her abuser, taking her three children with her. While there are numerous resources for domestic violence survivors, shelters providing housing for mothers with children have age restrictions.

“A lot of places for women with children don’t take big boys,” Mindy explained.

At 17, Jeremiah is 6’ft 4’’ while his 15-year-old and his younger brother, Marcus at over 6’ft in height would cause much of the world to treat these boys as grown adults rather than the teenagers they are.

Sisters of Watts Keisha Daniels. Photo by Terelle Jerricks

It takes about 30 days or more on average to transition a family living on the street into a 90-day shelter program and there are several in Los Angeles County. Mindy and her family stayed in two different 90-day shelter programs, including Upward Bound House in Santa Monica in Special Service Area 5 and Harbor Interfaith Services in Service Planning Area 8. The biggest issue is that placement is based on priority in a Service Planning Area’s Coordinated Entry System. Because there is such a significant need and the inventory of landlords willing to take Section 8 housing is so meager, it can take time for families to get housing.

For Jeremiah’s mother, Mindy, desperation and a stepped up sense of urgency gripped her. She began Googling on her phone to find resources on her own.

“After leaving Harbor Interfaith Services after our 90 days were finished, I started Googling nonprofit organizations… like anybody that could help,” Mindy explained.

Mindy called several organizations but did not get to speak to a person until she called the Do Good Daniel’s Family Foundation and spoke to Christy Daniels.

“She was like, ‘You know what? We don’t have funds right now, but text me your information about what you need. I’m going to reach out to an organization.’”

That organization was the Sisters of Watts and the contact was Keisha Daniels, who also happened to be Christy’s cousin.

After making the connection, Christy and Keisha took Mindy and the kids to dinner at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, spent time getting to know Mindy and her circumstances and ultimately map out a plan of action. One of the first things the Sisters of Watts were able to do was put Mindy and her family up in a hotel on a short term basis. Then she was transferred to the House of Do Good, a shelter for women with children in South Los Angeles operated by The Daniels Family Foundation. The nonprofit was also able to get Mindy’s van registered and her tickets paid off, removing in one fell swoop the family’s biggest stressor to date.

After learning of Jeremiah’s desire to go to college and major in sports medicine. It didn’t sit well with Keisha that a kid as bright and ambitious as Jeremiah wasn’t going straight to a four-year university. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the benefits of physically attending school, such as access to a college counselor and meetings with an academic advisor, just weren’t there.

Keisha started making more phone calls on top of phone calls to see what could be done.

“With the struggles of them having been in a shelter and distance learning, it caused him to kind of get thrown off, not because he couldn’t do it, but because of the world going through a pandemic,” Keisha said. “I was just like, you know what if you’re saying that he’s able to keep up with work, he has good study habits. He wanted to go to college. I told him let’s go for the four-year [university option]. Let me call some people.”

Keisha reached out to Stephen Bernstein, the founder of We Educate Brilliant Minds. Keisha came to know him because of his efforts in helping her nephew get into the historically black university/college, Fisk University.

“He’s helped a lot of students,” Keisha said.

Two weeks ago, Jeremiah received an acceptance letter from Fisk. Keisha and the Sisters of Watts have immediately set to work on helping Jeremiah make up for lost time in filling out financial aid paperwork and raise money to pay the balance of annual $35,000 a year tuition. With that said, there’s more work to be done, and Keisha says she could use all the help she can get.

If you are interested in helping, visit https://www.sistersofwatts.org/ for the details as well information about their nonprofit status.

Amendment To Authorize Supervisors to Remove a Sheriff for Unlawful Actions or Abuse of Power Heads to November Ballot

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Amendment To Authorize Supervisors to Remove a Sheriff for Unlawful Actions or Abuse of Power Heads to November Ballot

Aug. 3, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, approved an ordinance drafted by county counsel that will allow for a special election this November for an amendment to the county charter. If passed by voters, the charter amendment would grant the Board of Supervisors the authority to remove a Sheriff for unlawful actions or a violation of statutory duties by a four-fifths vote of the Board.

The proposed charter amendment preserves the public’s right to elect a Sheriff. It does not interfere with the independent and constitutionally designated responsibilities of a Sheriff. Cause for the removal of a Sheriff is detailed in the measure and the measure would allow the Board to implement a process to provide written notice to a Sheriff of the grounds for removal, followed by an opportunity for the Sheriff to be heard, and a public four-fifths vote by the Board in order to approve any removal.

Unlawful actions and violations of duties that qualify as cause for the Board to vote to remove a Sheriff, include:

Violation of any law related to the performance of a Sheriff’s duties;

Flagrant or repeated neglect of a Sheriff’s duties as defined by law;

Misappropriation of public funds or property as defined in California law;

Willful falsification of a relevant official statement or document; or

Obstruction, as defined in federal, State, or local law applicable to a Sheriff, of any investigation into the conduct of a Sheriff and/or the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department by any government agency, office, or commission with jurisdiction to conduct such an investigation

The Board with support from community advocates and the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, has taken steps to create a system of accountability and transparency in which the Sheriff can operate lawfully — this includes granting the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission the power to subpoena the Sheriff. However, the Board stated this system lacks a sustainable ability to quickly respond to unlawful actions and egregious misconduct within a County that has a history of Sheriff corruption.

In May of this year, after years of hearing testimony regarding a culture of abuse of power by the Sheriff’s Department and from families impacted by Sheriff deputy gangs and violence, the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission issued a resolution urging the Board to place a charter amendment on the November ballot to strengthen accountability for public safety by establishing additional checks and balances on the Sheriff.

The Board approved the July 12, 2022 motion, authored by Chair Holly J. Mitchell and co-authored by Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, that directed county counsel to draft the ordinance to bring the charter amendment to voters.

To read the ordinance, click here.

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