State of CA Franchise Tax Board Reports Statewide Median Income Up In 2011

Sacramento – April 2, 2013, The statewide median income for all 2011 individual tax returns was $34,684, an increase of 2.2 percent over 2010’s median income amount.  For joint returns, the statewide median income was $68,122, an increase of 3.6 percent over 2010, according to the Franchise Tax Board (FTB).

“Median income” is the point where one half of the tax returns are above and one half is below the midpoint of the range of values.  Median income represents the income reported by a typical California individual or couple.

Californian taxpayers filed 15.8 million 2011 state income tax returns, reporting $1.1 trillion of adjusted gross income.  This is an increase of 5.7 percent from tax year 2010 figures. Adjusted gross income is a tax term that means the total income increased or reduced by specific adjustments, before taking the standard itemized deduction.

Over the past 40 years, the Bay Area counties of Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa have consistently reported the highest median incomes. Marin County still has the highest median income for joint returns, reporting $120,170, an increase of 5.4 percent over 2010.  Santa Clara County ranked second with $103,019, while San Mateo County ranked third with $102,793 and Contra Costa County ranked fourth with $89,924.

Los Angeles County taxpayers filed 25.4 percent of all 2011 income tax returns in California. They reported median incomes of $30,255 for all individual returns, and $58,859 for joint returns, ranking 38th and 26th respectively.


The largest percentage gain in median income for all counties was 8.2 percent, reported in Alpine County. For joint filed returns the largest increase was in Trinity County, with a 7.0 percent increase.

About State of CA Franchise Tax Board:
They are responsible for administering two of California’s major tax programs: Personal Income Tax and the Corporation Tax. They also have responsibility for administering other nontax programs and delinquent debt collection functions, including delinquent vehicle registration debt collections on behalf of the Department of Motor Vehicles, and court–ordered debt. For more information visit https://www.ftb.ca.gov

Source: FTB Newsroom

Board of LADWP Commissioners Approves 2-Year Electric Rate Increase

Legal Mandates and Aging Infrastructure Drive Need for Rate Increase.

LOS ANGELES – September 12, 2012, The Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners moved forward today with a proposed 2-year electric rate change to pay for investments needed to comply with legal mandates that are driving a complete transformation of LADWP’s power supply, to invest in replacing rapidly aging infrastructure to maintain reliability and expand customer opportunities through additional investment in money-saving energy efficiency programs which also comply with state requirements. The rate action, which requires approval by the Los Angeles City Council, would increase LADWP’s system average rate by 11.1% over two years, or 1.4 cents per kilowatt-hour (KWh).  Typical residential customers who use 500 KWh per month would see an increase half that amount (5.5%) over the two years, and pay $3.65 cents more per month on the current average monthly electric bill of $65.79 in the second year of the rate increase.

“It is never easy to raise our customers’ rates, but the Department has made the case that these investments are needed to comply with legal mandates and to invest in replacing aging infrastructure that is essential to maintaining reliable service to our customers,” said Thomas Sayles, President of the Board of Water & Power Commisioners.

The Board also concurred with a recommendation by General Manager Ronald O. Nichols to defer action on a proposed 5% water rate increase that would have taken effect in July 2013, to allow time for the city’s independent ratepayer advocate, Dr. Fred Pickel, to further analyze proposed changes in the water rate structure and capital program. Nichols said unanticipated financial savings realized this summer will enable LADWP to continue critical capital projects for now while further analysis is completed, but that future water rate increases will eventually be needed.

The proposed two-year electric rate increase approved today by the Board follows over 16 months of community outreach and an independent review by the Ratepayer Advocate. The Ratepayer Advocate’s report confirmed that the proposed rate increases are necessary and warranted to comply with legal mandates and invest in basic reliability.  It also credited the Department with cutting costs and made recommendations to further cut costs beyond the immediate 2-year rate period.
The Ratepayer Advocate has recommended further evaluation of future costs beyond the 2-year rate period to seek reductions in levels of future rate increases.

“This was a rates process like no other in the Department’s history. We achieved a level of transparency that is unprecedented, providing more information on what is driving our costs and about the basis for the needed rate increase to the public and to the ratepayer advocate than ever before,” said LADWP General Manager Ronald O. Nichols. “We listened to what our customers and other stakeholders expected from the Department of Water and Power, and supported their priorities in our recommendations.  As a result, we will more than double last year’s investment in energy efficiency to help our customers save money and launch the full 150MW Feed-in Tariff demonstration program to more aggressively expand solar on LA rooftops and include more of our customers.”

Key drivers of the power rate increase include investments needed to keep LADWP on track to meet 33% renewable energy by 2020; stay on schedule with State of California requirements to eliminate the use of ocean water cooling at its coastal power plants; and, ramping up investments in energy efficiency over the next two years to put the Department on the path to achieving at a minimum, the required 10% reduction in electricity use  by 2020.  These efforts, among others, will position LADWP to transition out of coal generation when current contracts for coal power expire, or sooner.

The rate increases will also provide needed investments in replacing or repairing aging power distribution infrastructure. “We need to aggressively invest in replacing aging poles, transformers, wires, cables, and cross-arms, as well as build new power distributing stations and repair old ones,” said Aram Benyamin, LADWP Senior Assistant General Manager – Power.  This increase will allow us to make a significant investment in reducing our current backlog of repairs to maintain the outstanding power reliability our customers expect and deserve. While additional investment will be needed in the future, this gives us a significant boost toward those efforts.”

Click here to learn more about how the rate increase will affect various types of customers, and here to see how LADWP’s rates compare to other utilities.

For more detailed information and to use the LADWP’s online rates calculator, please visit www.ladwp.com/rates.

Source: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Logo credit to: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Actor Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister Agree to Plead Guilty to Conspiracy Charges in Mortgage Fraud Scheme That Cost Banks $3.8 Million

On Friday, August 31, 2012 The Federal Bureau of Investigation released that Actor Tommy Lister, who has appeared in approximately 100 movies, and a San Fernando Valley accountant were charged today in federal court with conspiring to commit mortgage fraud in a scheme that led to $3.8 million in losses.

Lister, who is also known as “Tiny” and “Zeus,” a 54-year-old Chatsworth resident, was charged this afternoon in a criminal information with one count of conspiracy.

A second person involved in the scheme—Arcelia Chavez, 48, of Northridge, who is a self-employed certified tax preparer—was also charged today with conspiracy.

In plea agreements that were also filed this afternoon in United States District Court, both Lister and Chavez agreed to plead guilty to the conspiracy charges.

The court documents filed today outline a scheme that ran from November 2005 through June 2007 and involved Lister, Chavez, and several other individuals, including: Sami Sager Sweiss, formerly a mortgage loan officer based in Woodland Hills; Jason Patterson, a real estate agent in Long Beach; J.R., formerly a manager of a Washington Mutual Bank branch in Woodland Hills; and Wanda Tenney, formerly an escrow officer based in the San Fernando Valley.

Lister conspired with these individuals to fraudulently acquire title to four residential properties he could not afford. With the help of these individuals and others, Lister obtained mortgages for the four properties through fraudulent means, including submitting mortgage applications that included inflated income and asset amounts; fabricating bank statements and falsifying other documents to substantiate the fraudulent statements in the loan applications; and falsifying escrow records to deceive lenders into believing Lister had made required down payments.


In addition to fraudulently obtaining the mortgages, Lister and his co-conspirators concealed from lenders the fact that he would receive kickbacks from sellers after the real estate deals closed.

Relying on the fraudulent applications and documents, lenders issued mortgages totaling $5.7 million. Lister subsequently defaulted on the four mortgages, causing those lenders and their successors to lose approximately $2.6 million.

After acquiring title to the four residential properties, Lister obtained fraudulent home equity lines of credit on each of the four properties. Lister drew down a total of $1,146,000 in cash from the four HELOCs but did not pay back any of the principal.

Lister also admitted in his plea agreement that Chavez aided and abetted him in obtaining one of the fraudulent mortgages and a fraudulent HELOC by preparing a false CPA letter, as well as fabricating W-2s and a pay stub. The false CPA letter stated that Chavez had prepared Lister’s tax returns. Chavez separately admitted in her plea agreement that she prepared the false and fictitious documents, actions that caused lenders to lose approximately $1.1 million.

Lister and Chavez will be summoned to appear in federal court in Los Angeles in September.

The charge of conspiracy carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

On July 30, 2012, Sweiss pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count before United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer. As part of his guilty plea, Sweiss admitted that he conspired with Lister, Patterson, Tenney, and Chavez to commit mortgage fraud. Sweiss is scheduled to be sentenced on March 18, 2013.

The charges in this case are the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS-Criminal Investigation.


About Federal Bureau of Investigation:
An intel-driven national security and law enforcement agency, providing leadership and making a difference for more than a century.
Their mission is to help protect you, your children, your communities, and your businesses from the most dangerous threats facing our nation—from international and domestic terrorists to spies on U.S. soil…from cyber villains to corrupt government officials…from mobsters to violent street gangs…from child predators to serial killers. Along the way, we help defend and uphold our nation’s economy, physical and electronic infrastructure, and democracy. Learn more about how we have evolved into a more proactive, threat-driven security agency in recent years. For more information visit http://www.fbi.gov

You can read more on Diversity News Publications at http://diversitynewspublications.com/2010/09/sugar-shane-mosley-hosted-post-reception-benefiting-diamonds-love-foundation/

Sources: FBI and TMZ
Photo credit to: (C) Gisele Rebeiro/PartyBy5.com
Graphic credit to: Wikipedia

LA Fitness Acquires Lifestyle Family Fitness Florida Clubs

(Irvine, CA/ St. Petersburg, FL) July 2, 2012 — On July 30, 2012 LA Fitness and Lifestyle Family Fitness announced that they have completed their transaction relating to LA Fitness’ purchase of the assets of 32 of the 33 Lifestyle Family Fitness clubs in Florida. The parties hope to come to terms on the final club, located at 1510 West Swann Avenue in Tampa, in the near future. Since their initial announcement on June 14, both parties have been working to complete the deal and prepare for the transition of the existing Lifestyle Family Fitness member base and staff.

LA Fitness will be honoring all of the active membership agreements that it purchased from Lifestyle Family Fitness. All active Lifestyle Family Fitness multi-club memberships will be honored at their current rate, and these multi-club members will have access to all Lifestyle Family Fitness locations acquired by LA Fitness. Similarly, all active single club members will be honored at their current rate with the same access they have now to the Lifestyle Family Fitness location where they joined. Lifestyle Family Fitness is closing its 31,000 square foot location at 2349 Vanderbilt Beach Road in Naples as of July 9th, and those members will be relocated to the 50,000 square foot LA Fitness club located nearby at 871 Vanderbilt Beach Road. These relocated members will have use of certain additional amenities at the LA Fitness club, such as a pool and basketball court, at no additional charge.

LA Fitness has been meeting with all interested Lifestyle Family Fitness employees to discuss employment opportunities. The parties are pleased to announce that many Lifestyle Family Fitness’ employees have accepted positions with LA Fitness, including Senior Vice President Frank Palmeri, Regional Vice President Michael Chaffin, and District Manager Troy Nealey.

Per Wikipedia, LA Fitness was founded by Chin Yol Yi and Lewis Welsh in 1984 with one location in Los Angeles, California. LA Fitness remains a privately owned company, with major ownership interests held by private equity firms Seidler Equity Partners,CIVC Partners, and Madison Dearborn Partners.

About LA Fitness:
Founded in 1984, LA Fitness is one of the fastest growing sports club chains in the U.S. and presently has over 500 locations in 22 states and Canada. LA Fitness’ mission is to help as many people as possible achieve the benefits of a healthy lifestyle by creating a nationwide network of sports clubs, offering its members the widest range of amenities and the friendliest service at an affordable price. To learn more about LA Fitness, visit www.lafitness.com or for the club nearest you, call (800) LA FITNESS.

Sources: Wikipedia,  LA Fitness
Graphic credit to: LA Fitness

Market Breaking News: Facebook Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering at $38 per share

On Thursday, May 17, 2012 Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) today the pricing of its initial public offering of 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on May 18, 2012, under the symbol “FB.” Facebook is offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders are offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.

In addition, Facebook and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 63,185,042 additional shares of Class A common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Goldman, Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Allen & Company LLC, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities are serving as book runners for the offering. RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities are serving as active co-managers.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus related to the offering may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: +1 866 718 1649; e-mail: prospectus@morganstanley.com); J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, (Tel: +1 866 803 9204); or Goldman, Sachs & Co., 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: +1 866 471 2526, e-mail: prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com).

A registration statement related to these securities has been filed with, and declared effective by, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Sources: http://www.prnewswire.com and Facebook.com

Graphic logo credit to: Facebook

Los Angeles Times to Charge for Online Membership Program Access Starting March 5, 2012

On Monday, February 27, 2012 we received an email from The Los Angeles Times stating that effective March 5, 2012 they will start charging readers for accessing their online site.

The initial rate of 99 cents for four weeks, then  $1.99 a week with a total of $3.99 a week.

Here is what the email reads:

An important message to our readers…‏

Dear Readers,
	We are making an exciting change to latimes.com, and we want you to be the first to know how we’re evolving.
	NEW LOS ANGELES TIMES MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM
	On March 5, we’re launching a membership program. If you’re an avid latimes.com reader, but not currently a home delivery customer, we hope you’ll consider joining for a nominal fee to get:
	Unlimited digital access to all of The Times’ award-winning news and information Unique storytelling Investigative reports In-depth local news Signature blogs Compelling photo galleries Original video content Revealing data projects and analysis
	Membership privileges also include:
	Special opportunities at select Times events Exclusive discounts and deals Giveaways and contests
	If you are already a subscriber, you simply need to follow a few registration steps to activate your membership at no additional cost. Non-members can continue to browse The Times online for limited reading and breaking news.
	To activate or join on March 5, please visit latimes.com/membership.
	As always, the Los Angeles Times is your all-access pass to the news, culture and happenings that matter. Our high-quality journalism consistently wins the country’s most prestigious accolades and provides you with the trusted news and information crucial to navigating and enjoying Southern California. We believe our coverage — from around the world and right down to your neighborhood — provides perspective and incomparable value and we appreciate that you do too.
	Welcome,
	Eddy Hartenstein Publisher and CEO Kathy Thomson President and COO

On February 24, 2012 Staff Writer Jerry Hirsch wrote: The Los Angeles Times will begin charging readers for access to its online news, joining a growing roster of major news organizations looking for a way to offset declines in revenue.

Starting March 5, online readers will be asked to buy a digital subscription at an initial rate of 99 cents for four weeks. Readers who do not subscribe will be able to read 15 stories in a 30-day period for free. There will be no digital access charge for subscribers of the printed newspaper.

Separately, The Times announced plans to launch a new weekly lifestyle section called Saturday for its print subscribers.

Other news outlets that have begun charging for online journalism include the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Dallas Morning News. Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper company, this week announced plans to launch a similar program at 80 publications, saying it could boost earnings by $100 million in 2013.

Digital subscription programs are intended to increase revenue and reverse a long slide in paid subscriptions for printed newspapers as more people go to the Internet for news.

“We want to be able to serve customers when they want the news and where they want it,” said Kathy Thomson, president and chief operating officer of Los Angeles Times Media Group.

After the 99 cents for the first four weeks, the rate will rise to $1.99 a week in a package that also includes the Sunday newspaper. Digital-only access will cost $3.99 a week.

The Times priced the digital subscription with the Sunday newspaper at a lower rate because they are complementary products, Thomson said. The Sunday edition of The Times has the most advertising and readership, making that the company’s most profitable publication day.

“Every newspaper that has launched a digital product has been pleased with the results,” said Edward Atorino, media analyst at Benchmark Co. in New York. “No one has said it is a bummer.”

Although more people read Times content than ever before because of the Internet, it has seen print circulation drop, as have many other newspapers. Paid daily circulation for the newspaper averaged about 575,000 for the six months ended in September 2011, down about 200,000 from the same period five years earlier. Sunday circulation has fallen by about 265,000 to just over 900,000 during the same time span.

Although digital payment plans are commonly known as “paywalls,” The Times is billing its plan as a “membership program” that will include retail discounts, deals and giveaways, as well as access to digital news.

Times readers who access online news through a mobile phone, iPad or other tablet app won’t have to pay for now, although the company plans to charge in the future, Thomson said.

Newspapers are taking this so-called porous approach to establishing paywalls because they don’t want to erode the Web traffic they generate. The Times was the third-most-viewed U.S. newspaper website in 2011, averaging nearly 17 million unique visitors a month, according to ComScore Inc., a web analytics company. The New York Times and the Washington Post rank first and second, respectively.

To read the entire story visit Los Angeles Times at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fiw-times-20120224,0,1301270.story

Photo credit to: Los Angeles Times


Editor’s Note: Should we start charging our online readers too? We do not charge nothing at all for our services. We are independent media company who have hard working people the work for pennies or nothing at all. Any on out there interested to become our paid subscribers? or advertise here your products, events, brand, etc and perhaps we can become big online outlet (As of now we are reaching over 2 million per month), but we promise not to charge you a penny for reading our content online.

LADWP Water Quality Factor Customer Rate Increase Approved Effective March 2012

On Thursday, February 9, 2012 The Los Angeles City Council approved an adjustment (rate increase) to the City of Los Angeles’ Water Rate Ordinance, an action that will ensure that LADWP has sufficient revenues to complete upcoming projects necessary to comply with federal and state water quality regulations and meet compliance deadlines. The modifications include a 35-cent increase to the Water Quality Improvement Adjustment Factor, a component of the rate LADWP charges customers for water, which prior to this adjustment was insufficient to fund major legally mandated drinking water quality projects that are the subject of a compliance agreement entered into by the LADWP with the California Department of Public Health and United States Environmental Protection Agency.

“Keeping the water safe for our customers is the Water System’s top priority and to do that we need to comply with drinking water quality regulations,” said LADWP General Manager Ron Nichols. “Water rates in Los Angeles, even with this increase, remain competitive with other utilities in the region while allowing us to proceed with construction of urgently needed drinking water quality projects. It also protects our water customers from paying more over the long-term by avoiding significant penalties and fines that would result from failing to comply with legal mandates. We are grateful to the City Council for recognizing the urgency of this request.”

Compliance with State and Federal water quality regulations requires major investment in LADWP’s water distribution system, including nearly $600 million in new contracts that must be awarded in the next 12 months. The first of these contracts is for the Headworks Reservoir for $218 million, as part of LADWP’s compliance requirement to cover, bypass or remove from service all 10 water reservoirs in the Los Angeles basin. Five have been covered or bypassed to date, and five more remain — including Silver Lake and Ivanhoe, which will be replaced by the Headworks Reservoir.

The modifications to the Water Rate Ordinance approved by City Council today are subject to review by the Mayor, and are expected to take effect in late March 2012.

Source:  LADWP Newsroom & Graphic credit to: LADWP

Diversity News Magazine Join Millions of Americans to oppose SOPA and PIPA bills

On Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Diversity News Magazine, an online and print consumer news magazine published by Diversity News Publications & Executive Editor-In-Chief Esteban “Steven” Escobar announced that they are on strike today to fight SOPA and PIPA.

They join Millions of Americans to oppose SOPA and PIPA bills. Also Diversity News Publications website on strike today to fight SOPA and PIPA.

More about SOPA and PIPA

Members of Congress are trying to do the right thing by going after pirates and counterfeiters but SOPA and PIPA are the wrong way to do it.

1. SOPA and PIPA would censor the Web

The U.S. government could order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China. Among other things, search engines could be forced to delete entire websites from their search results. That’s why 41 human rights organizations and 110 prominent law professors have expressed grave concerns about the bills.

2. SOPA and PIPA would be job-killers because they would create a new era of uncertainty for American business

Law-abiding U.S. internet companies would have to monitor everything users link to or upload or face the risk of time-consuming litigation. That’s why AOL, EBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga wrote a letter to Congress saying these bills “pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation.” It’s also why 55 of America’s most successful venture capitalists expressed concern that PIPA “would stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competitiveness”. More than 204 entrepreneurs told Congress that PIPA and SOPA would “hurt economic growth and chill innovation”.

3. SOPA and PIPA wouldn’t stop piracy

To make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won’t even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won’t shut down pirate sites. These sites will just change their addresses and continue their criminal activities, while law-abiding companies will suffer high penalties for breaches they can’t possibly control.

There are effective ways to combat foreign “rogue” websites dedicated to copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting, while preserving the innovation and dynamism that have made the Internet such an important driver of American economic growth and job creation. Congress should consider alternatives like the OPEN Act, which takes targeted and focused steps to cut off the money supply from foreign pirate sites without making US companies censor the Web.

If these bills pass, one infringement would be enough for a copyright holder to file to take down an entire website. YouTube could disappear overnight. Same with Vimeo, Flickr, Twitter, or even WonderHowTo. Enacting such a draconian law would stifle innovation from new web startups. It would be too risky to create a website where people could submit their own whatever. Even the White House has spoken out about its concerns, emphasizing that they “will not support” any bill “that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

Sources: Google, http://www.businessinsider.com
Video courtesy of YouTube.com/EngineAdvocacy

Fitness International, LLC, an affiliate of L.A. Fitness International, LLC, Acquire 171 Bally Total Fitness Clubs

On Thursday, December 1, 2011 Bally Total Fitness announced that they have sold a number of clubs to  Fitness International, LLC, an affiliate of L.A. Fitness International, LLC.

Statement posted on LAFitness.com website:

Chicago, Illinois-based Bally Total Fitness and its subsidiaries currently owns and operates 271 fitness clubs across the United States. The acquisition relates to all of the Bally locations in the states of Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington, the District of Columbia, all of the locations in the greater Los Angeles area and certain locations in, New Jersey (Deptford, East Brunswick, Echelon, Maple Shade and Union City), New York (Copiague, Lake Grove and Levittown), Texas (Meadow Creek and Red Bird) and Virginia (Falls Church, Landmark, Pentagon Square, and Prince William Crossing). The remaining Bally owned clubs will continue to be operated by Bally under the Bally name.

About L.A. Fitness: Founded in 1984, LA Fitness is one of the fastest growing sports club chains in the United States and presently has over 360 locations in 21 states and Canada. LA Fitness’ mission is to help as many people as possible achieve the benefits of a healthy lifestyle by creating a nationwide network of sports clubs, offering its members the widest range of amenities and the friendliest service at an affordable price.
To learn more about LA Fitness, visit www.lafitness.com or for the club nearest you call 1 (800) LA FITNESS.

Sources: Bally Total Fitness and LA Fitness
Photo credit to: LA Fitness

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Issues Statement on the Occupy LA Eviction & Closure of City Hall Park

On Wednesday, November 30, 2011 Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued the following statement regarding the closure of City Hall Park:

“Last night, we witnessed perhaps one of the finest moments in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department.

After 58 days of the Occupy LA protest, 1,400 officers enforced the closure of City Hall Park. The closure, conducted in a professional and restrained manner, was meticulously planned and involved coordination with multiple city departments. Over 200 people were arrested with a minimal use of force and with no major injuries to the police or to protesters. The activists’ fundamental rights were respected.  This was a peaceful and orderly conclusion of the encampment at City Hall.

Today, the LAPD stands as a shining example of constitutional policing.

I commend the officers who took part in the operation. They are an honor to their profession. Their restraint – in the face of a potentially dynamic situation – is a key reason why City Hall Park was closed in an orderly manner. I also want to commend Chief Beck and his command staff for their leadership over the last eight weeks. At every turn, Chief Beck displayed a steady hand and excellent judgment in developing his department’s response to Occupy LA. The General Services Police Officers, social workers and other City personnel also made key contributions to the successful closure of the park.

From the start, we pledged to do things differently in Los Angeles. We took a measured approach, respected protesters’ first amendment rights, sought to de-escalate conflict and supported open communication.

We did not rush. We respected the dignity of the protesters and gave them time to gather their belongings and arrange their departure. When we made the decision to close the park, we made sure that ample human services, such as shelter beds, were available to those who needed them. As a result, the LAPD was able to avoid the violent confrontations that have marred similar operations in other cities.

The Occupy movement should not be about defending a particular patch of parkland, but rather about spreading the message of economic equality and pushing for social justice. I thank participants who heeded our call and left City Hall Park before the operation, those who stayed, but departed peacefully or were arrested without incident. These Angeleno activists have also demonstrated to the rest of the country that social change is best achieved through peaceful means.

Instead of grinding to a halt amid confrontation, the Occupy LA movement can now amplify their calls for social justice and economic opportunity. In the days ahead, we must build on the foundation of cooperation that we have established over these last two months.

Although we expect further protests as Occupy LA works to broaden its movement, we will work hard to ensure that the City handles these actions with the appropriate restraint. I hope that the Occupy LA activists will do the same.

The movement’s message of restoring the balance to American society is too important to be lost amid clashes and conflict.”

Source: LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Facebook.
Photo credit to: LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Facebook.

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