(Pandemic in Los Angeles: Day 91)
JIMBO TIMES: The L.A. Storyteller stands fully in support of Los Angeles Public Library workers, patrons, and all others calling for an end to the LAPD presence at our beloved public libraries. As noted by the authors of the Open Letter to LAPL’s Board of Library Commissioners over the board’s proposed increase to LAPD presence at our libraries next fiscal year:
“Since 2000, LAPD have killed 886 people. Countless others have been victims of police harassment, violence and intimidation, abuses that are disproportionately inflicted on Black and Brown people. The continued occupancy of LAPD and their agents are incompatible with LAPL’s stated mission ‘to provide free and easy access to information, ideas, books and technology that enrich, educate and empower every individual in our city’s diverse communities.’
Public libraries are among our most valued and vital institutions. LAPL provides crucial resources to the city’s most vulnerable populations—youths, students, elders, the disabled, the unhoused, and the undocumented. LAPL facilities must be safe spaces for all Angelenos to read, learn, and access educational services, just as they must be safe workplaces for library staff. LAPL’s partnership with LAPD has failed to meet these obligations and, furthermore, the very presence of LAPD prohibits the security of many patrons and staff members.”
To add your name in support of this statement, please find the Open Letter HERE. And rest assured: this is what remaking our city for a better world looks like, Los Angeles.
J.T.
To subscribe to jimbotimes.com, add yourself to the list HERE.