Here’s my account of how LAPD assisted a landlord in destroying an unhoused man’s home who was living on the sidewalk - ignored the unhoused person whose property was being stolen - and threatened, attacked, and arrested activists who tried to stop the robbery. (thread) https://twitter.com/BisHilarious/status/1318739353871413248

Early Tuesday morning, 2 workers that were hired by the landlord of the Hollywood Mental Health Center (leased by County DMH), showed up at this camp at Vine & La Mirada with a U-Haul and began silently dismantling the camp.

Alex and 2 others live in the camp, and Alex was there sleeping. Alex was rudely woken up when part of the shelter fell and nearly missed his head. Alex began demanding the lead worker (Dean) identify himself and who he works for. Dean silently refused, and continues dismantling.

Alex became loudly upset with the silent aggressors, demanding they identify, which drew attention, and a bystander alerted me of the situation. As Dean filled black trash bags full of Alex's things, Alex tried to stop him by taking the box of trash bags...

at which point Dean becomes agitated and yells "don't touch my things!". Tragically ironic. Here's Alex sharing his story.

Alex salvaged a few things and set up camp on the other side of the building. He said "I'm not gonna fuck with people who come and destroy my shelter and don't tell me who they are". He was afraid, rightfully so. Two LASD cops watched from the upper windows of the DMH building.

When I arrived on the scene. I immediately began trying to stop Dean from taking things, and I tried to take things out of the truck. I'm posting the full unedited extent of our physical interaction, because he will soon claim that I pushed him off the truck..

and that he injured his leg. You can see for yourself that he's lying. After this he tries to split, so I quickly run to my car and block off the truck. That’s when he calls the cops. He even commits to a fake limp for 15 seconds, and later claims that all 7 of us assaulted him.

Among the several excuses Dean used to justify the robbery, was "You guys burnt down a tent yesterday!" The day prior, doing outreach I discovered the remains of a tent that had burned down that morning. Tragic. This was someone's entire home and possessions burnt to nothing.

Imagine if there was a fire in your neighbors apartment, and your landlord came and stole everything from your apartment and put it in a truck and destroyed it? And then claimed "I'm just doing my job"? It's an insane response with no justification...

yet NIMBYs/landlords see unhoused people as an inhuman borg-like mass, so this makes sense to them. They respond to tragedy with more harm by attacking random poor people.

"Taxpayers don't have any rights in this country!" was another complaint that Dean made.

Another excuse was that the sidewalk was private property. Turns out this building _does_ have a private sidewalk, but not where the camp is. The private sidewalk is on the west side, and the camp is on the north side. Despite this, there is an incorrect sign by the camp.

Meanwhile, a trump supporter got on their megaphone and started threatening violence. Funny enough this is the same top-floor apartment that served as the afterparty for the illegal party hosted for the LASD by the adjacent Sassafras Saloon.

https://knock-la.com/sheriffs-department-parties-hollywood-4c116b9079b7

The cops finally showed up and immediately begin saying "I can't do anything without the victim", which is a lie. Great investigative work. Seeing that the cops clearly weren't interested in figuring out whose stuff that Dean had locked in his truck,

I took on the role of investigator, and went searching for Alex again. I found him just on the other side of the building around the corner, with a few things that he had managed to salvage from the rogue sweep.

I manage to comfort Alex enough so that he will join me in talking to the police. He's afraid of talking to the police, which is not strange considering 1 out of 3 acts of violence by LAPD are against an unhoused person.

As you can see in this video, I try to get the cops to talk to Alex, but instead they immediately arrest me, and have a brief argument with Alex who then retreats to just around the corner. The cops threaten to taze me, and I'm taken to the back of the cop car,

and I overhear one of the cops saying "They're lying, they're playing games". The cuffs were so tight that 4 days later, I still haven't regained full feeling in my hands. Dean lied and said that I pushed him, so the cops claimed that "we had no choice but to arrest you

and book you", which is also bullshit. Dean showed the cops some paperwork that said that the sidewalk was private, and that was enough for them. The cops didn't care to do any actual investigation, which would have shown that the relevant part of the sidewalk was public.

The cops then threatened to tow the 3 cars we had surrounding the U-Haul, so we moved them. Dean tried to immediately hop in his truck and drive away, but 2 of us hopped onto the hood of the U-Haul, and LAPD responded by throwing them to the ground.

LAPD then proudly waved the U-Haul on, where it was driven to a trash compactor, and all of Alex's things inside were crushed and destroyed.

At the Hollywood Jail, flyers for the "defend the LAPD" rally littered the walls. They kept telling me "good job" after I did or didn't answer their questions,as if they were rewarding a dog. They charged me with misdemeanor battery, and said that I was engaging in "vigilantism".

They had the gall to tell me that I should be grateful that I wasn't charged with "false imprisonment" for blocking in the U-Haul. It's incredible that they could say that to me with a straight face, when they had just enabled and abetted the ransacking of someone's home.

Something else surreal happened at the jail. I was cuffed on a bench next to a man that the cops referred to as "Randall the Handle", I assume because he has an alcohol addiction disease. At one point they take him into the room next to me, and strip search him.

I can hear Randall yelling "put your phone away! Don't take pictures of my asshole!". 4 cops quickly rush over, one unholsters his tazer, another mimes kicking Randall, and a third excitedly says "I'm just waiting".

Fortunately it de-escalated from there, and I felt like I was in a mafia movie, but actually these are just the everyday violent impulses of the LAPD, who are jumping at the bit to beat and taze someone who annoys them.

As I was leaving the jail, it was hilarious seeing the wide-eyed stares that the half-dozen cops in the lobby were giving the crowd outside the doors, probably the same cops who were fielding dozens of y’all's calls (). "Who is this guy?" One muttered.

"They need to move away from the gate!" Another squealed, attempting to protect his fragility. To be clear, they weren't shocked with me. For that moment, I was simply the conduit with which we expressed our power. I'm nothing without this movement.

I reconnected with Alex that night, and got him a phone and a tent, because our work is in helping people, keeping them safe, and getting them shelter - unlike the police and landlords. Fuck the police. Fuck a landlord.

The only way to stop these situations is to defund and abolish the police. The cops have proven they will do as little as possible to help us, and as much as possible to help landlords. Phonebank for Yes on Measure J. DM me to send supplies to Hollywood Street Watch for Alex.

Some things that Alex asked for: Sleeping bag, radio, backpack, blankets, socks, pants (32"), camping gear