RFK in EKY, The Robert F. Kennedy Performance Project , is a series of public conversations and activities centered around the real-time, site-specific intermedia performance that recreated, on September 9th and 10th 2004, Robert Kennedy’s two-day, 200 mile “poverty tour” of southeastern Kentucky in 1968.
An Appalshop project directed by John Malpede. Recreating Imbalance
A short description by John Malpede that describes the conceptual links between Agents & Assets and RFKinEKY. |
LAPD Funding provided by
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Is it a crime to be poor? |
UTOPIA / dystopia public events:
April 19 2007: IS IT A CRIME TO BE POOR?
screening of The REAL DEAL, Tom Jones’ film on LAPD at the
ALOUD series at the Central Library.
 Tom Jones, Medeleine Stoner, John Malpede, Kevin Michael Key, Andy Smith
Panel discussion with Tom Jones, film maker,
John Malpede; founder and director of LA Poverty Department ,
K. Michael Key; community resident and proud member of LAPD, LACAN and Critical Resistence (a prison abolitionist group).
Andy Smith;
captain of the Central Division LAPD police force that is currently
executing chief Bratton's 'broken window's policy' on Skid Row.
Madeleine Stoner; teaches policy in the foundation curriculum of USC, macro practice in the health concentration, and mental health policy.
Dr. Stoner's major area of interest is homelessness. She has
written extensively in this field. Her first book, Inventing a Non-Homeless Future: A Policy
Agenda for Preventing Homelessness, was nominated for the Park Award of
the American Sociological Association. During her sabbatical, Dr.
Stoner served as Director of Social Services at the SRO Housing Corporation in LA. Dr. Stoner's second book,
The Civil Rights of Homeless People, analyzes litigation on behalf
of homeless people. Its central argument is that all gains made by
homeless people have been derived from class action litigation that has
successfully challenged public efforts to disenfranchise them.
LA TIMES April 25, 2007 --- excerpt
LAPD skid row searches found unconstitutional
A judge orders a change in tactics used in the city's crime crackdown.
By Cara Mia DiMassa and Richard Winton, Times Staff Writers
A
federal judge has ruled that some Los Angeles police tactics in
patrolling downtown are unconstitutional, raising questions about the
city's successful campaign to dramatically reduce the number of crimes
and homeless people.
U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson found
that officers question — and at times search — parolees and
probationers without evidence that they might have committed a crime,
which the judge said was unconstitutional. He ordered the LAPD to
change its practices.
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-downtown25apr25,0,2444457.
story?coll=la-home-local
DAILY JOURNAL NEWSWIRE ARTICLE
© 2007 The Daily Journal Corporation. All rights reserved.
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January 29, 2007 --- excerpts
PROSECUTORS TARGET DRUGS ON SKID ROW
Public Defenders Say Plea Deals No Longer Available
By Anat Rubin - Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - Since launching their "safer cities" initiative in early
August, Los Angeles police have made 4,800 arrests on Skid Row. The
program, police say, is aimed at making Skid Row a safer area. But
opponents say the purpose is to clear the homeless and make way for
development.
As part of its enforcement effort, police say
they have been targeting drug dealers who prey on the region's homeless
population.
Tough on Sales
Prosecutors also have been
getting tough on drug sales stemming from Skid Row, an area in downtown
Los Angeles that is home to the nation's largest concentration of
homeless people.
But some defense attorneys say their
caseloads have doubled with homeless addicts who would have been
brought in on possession charges just six months ago and are now
charged with sales, usually of small amounts of rock cocaine, known as
crack.
'Blatant DA Policy'
And they contend the district attorney's office no longer negotiates on drug sales cases coming out of Skid Row.
According to 10 public defenders who talked to the Daily Journal,
district attorneys now discriminate between a drug case coming out of
Skid Row and an identical case coming from another part of Los Angeles
County.
"This is a blatant DA policy that they are going to
treat these cases differently," said a public defender, speaking on
condition of anonymity for fear her comments might negatively affect
her clients.
"It's not abnormal for the DA to have a policy.
But this policy is about targeting the homeless in that area because
the city is redeveloping that area. It's a policy to get people off the
streets and into state prison, jumping right over rehab and jail."
Read the whole article: http://www.dailyjournal.com
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