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April  2006  9th Edition       Archives      For information or to submit material please Email us
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Venice Activist Ticketed for Displaying Peace T-Shirts on Venice Boardwalk by Barbara Peck
On Saturday, March 25 some of LAPD’s finest patrolled Venice Boardwalk to enforce the new LAMC 42.15.  I was set up with a group of protestors opposite the Sidewalk Café next to Swami, who sells religious artifacts, T-shirts and incense.  He was given a warning that he could no longer sell incense or T-shirts and decided to close down his booth for the day.  The officers ignored my small booth displaying my hand-made “Peace” T-shirts, peace-sign pendants and caps and proceeded down the boardwalk, where I caught up with them some time later, harassing Jingles for “displaying” his “Meat IS Murder” shirts.  But, instead of ticketing him for that they decided to cite him for space violations and other minor infractions of the ordinance.  I didn’t have to wait long to get my turn. As the group of officers returned, Officer Thusing made a bee-line for my booth and picked up one of my peace-sign pendants and told me I could not display it.  I asked about the T-shirts and she said the same thing applied.  I was, at that point, given a warning to remove T-shirts, pendants and caps from my table or I would be cited on their return in twenty minutes.  If I did not accept the citation I would be arrested.

Fortunately, I had my video camera primed and ready for action so when Officer Bowser (not in the original group) returned to check on me, I was prepared.  Bowser approached and was about to cite me for a space violation (I was between designated spaces) when I reminded him, on camera, that I had not been warned about a space violation but for “displaying” my T-shirts.  As he was on camera and a small crowd was gathering, I suppose he felt obliged to go ahead and cite me for “displaying” T-shirts instead. He did, however, warn me I would be cited for the space violation if I did not move into a designated space, and promised to return. When I discussed this with Jingles later he informed me that LAPD did not cite him for displaying his T-shirts because Deputy City Attorney, Gita O’Neill (formerly Isagholian - who prosecuted me last year for holding a “Stop the Lottery” sign in a “designated space” - another First Amendment protected activity) had instructed LAPD that ‘displaying’  T-shirts was not a citable offense. Which begs the question: why, then, was I cited for displaying my hand-made ‘Peace’ shirts?  I suppose the only person who will be able to answer that question will be the judge when I go to court!      © Barbara Peck

The Boardwalk Sweep Act I by Therese Dietlin
The LAPD descended on the Boardwalk on Saturday, March 25, with the Rec and Parks people in the vanguard, waving their blue 8.5 x 11 inch sheets  of RULES. The Saturday before they had handed out notices that commercial vendors would no longer be allowed in the “Free Expression Zone” on the west side of the Boardwalk after yet another new ordinance regulating activities there when into effect on 3/35/06. NO COMMERCIAL VENDING would any longer be tolerated in this space preserved for people who wished to express something from the heart, rather than pick up a few quick bucks by retailing the wholesale items they had purchased at discount from some warehouse downtown and schlepped to the beach to sell at a hefty mark up in price.  Just to make very sure that nobody would slip through an unsuspected crack in the provision, commercial vending had been spelled out in detail:  It was anything that had “dual use.”  Ergo, no T-shirts with political or philosophical messages; they could be worn.  Ditto the faux religious bracelets with crosses or tao symbols on them to give them a spiritual spin.  They, too, could be worn.  Likewise, no incense sticks.  They could be burned.  Etc., etc., etc.  Forget targeting the blatant retailing of wholesale junk that even a five year old could spot.  These guys were going to be  scientific AND politically correct!  (Can you say City Attorney Mark Brown?)

True to their advertised purpose “To protect and serve,” LAPD's finest swooped down on the free expression people who did show up, all the craven commercial vendors knowing very clearly who they were having opted to stay home (or whatever they do when they aren't bilking a gullible public being willing to spend money on clave-labor-produced trinkets).  If they needed help, the Rec and Parks people gleefully gave them an assist in fingering people who “might need a few things explained to them.”  So it was that people were ticketed for DISPLAYING T-shirts. Or warned about not being in “designated spaces” (can you say “robot?) or having displays or easels that had the bad taste to be more than four feet tall, or giving away books that they themselves had not written (the nerve!).  Or being told that what they did was not art no matter what they might consider it.  LAPD has now become an official art critic body.  Be sure to get their imprimatur before going public.  And if LAPD can hear your music fifty feet away, you are IN TROUBLE!  In the meantime, several SWEET YOUNG THINGS, blond, slender, in tight-fitting jeans rolled their noisy little contraptions holding TOXIC TAB – git yer FREE SAMPLE here! - down the middle of the Boardwalk, handing out 12 oz. aluminum cans of their health-endangering drink from Coca Cola, Inc. (was there ever a company that deserved more to be put out of business? - Oh, yes, Halliburton and Carlyle, but that's another story.) to passersby.  What did LAPD have to say to THAT infringement of free expression accompanied by excessive noise on the Boardwalk by a corporation, for god sake?  Something to the effect of: Be careful not to interfere with the flow of pedestrian traffic.  Thank God we have such dedicated and discriminating public servants. Where would we be without them?                                         © Therese Dietlin
                                                                         

Designated or non? by Anonymous
Photo Courtesy of Jaccoma Maultsby

First the Rec and Parks people came, with their name badges hanging from their necks and their walkie-talkies.  In their arms were sheets of paper, blue, with the Rules on them.  They inform me that I must be in a designated space, as they wave the Rules in my face while pointing vaguely at the swinging sheet of paper they have taken from the stack.  In a short while, the police join them.  Yes, you must be in a designated space.  Do that and you are okay.  Pick on of those many empty spaces – a broad sweep of the arm to indicate all the vacant spots on the Boardwalk – and you will be fine.  Plenty of empty spaces.  Of course, if the legitimate lottery ticket holder shows up, you'll have to move.  But – well, in summer it might be different – but, now there are all those empty spaces.  Are you  going to give me help in moving, I ask?  No, cannot do.  Why not, I wonder.  I am paying your salary to come and tell me I have to be in a designated space and you cannot even find someone to help me move?  No. If you are not moved in one hour, you will get a citation for not being in a designated space. In the end, Diane helps me shift my tables and papers down the Boardwalk.  When the police come back, they thank me for moving, tell me they appreciate it.  I cannot return the sentiment.  Rather, it is saddening to see law enforcement being misallocated  in this unconstitutional way.  They are targeting the wrong people.  The perpetrators to be nabbed are in City Hall.  Later, as the day draws to a close and foot  traffic lightens, I look at the blue paper.  Nowhere in that paper is there any stipulation that a non-lottery person must be in a designated space.  There are plenty of rules for lottery participants, but no mention of non-lottery people or undesignated space.  What is this game being played upon the Free Speechers and Free Expressionists?  And where will it end?  Will it end?  Do we have a first amendment or not?  What is the people's answer?  It already clear what GW Bush and LA City Hall think. 

'Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you - Ye are many - they are few.' 
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Verica of Venice by Phill Truesdell

Photo Courtesy of Phill Truesdell

Verica immigrated to America. She was Russian, believed to be an accomplished gymnast and may have defected from that country when young.  She could speak five or six languages.  Verica had become homeless in Venice; yet all of Venice was her home for a dozen years.  Although small in stature, she was a free spirit at large in Venice.  Verica rarely journeyed from our famous town, even to riding buses within or without; just prancing and dancing her way along the Boardwalk, sometimes wishing tourists a “Merry Chrishmash!” in her Eastern European accent, or suggesting to a visiting family, “You'd do better on Main Street, do you know what I mean?” and hippies who were attired like denizens of “Water World” or “Escape From New York,” “you'd look better naked!”  to their amusement and consideration. Verica was one of a kind, a real individualist, thoroughly independent.  She always kept clean and was very fashion conscious and artistic minded.  She never panhandled nor accepted help from charitable organizations.  When guys tried to “come on to” her, she quickly and quietly side-stepped them, not being confrontational, usually retiring to an outdoor sofa after dancing to music emanating from a Boardwalk shop, enjoying the sunset, so she could rise early with its return.

Verica consumed very little food and drink, yet she possessed incomparable legs and was sometimes observed to have “six pack” on the rare occasions in summer when she displayed her midriff.  Her great shape at 50 years is attributed to her spending most of the day walking and exercising on the big green lawn or near Muscle Beach Gym, doing a lot of catlike stretching, sit-ups, push-ups and figure, feline movements in walking and stretching as well as her kittenish face, hair and voice.  She was known as “Kit Kat” to some Venetians. Verica was homeless, but her spirit will always have a home in the hearts of her true friends and admirers.
     
NOTE:  Some other great tributes to Verica can be found in the new, fabulous Boardwalk Free Speech monthly newsletter, “Spirit of Venice Speaks” and a table-top portrait by talented artists and writer Dian Butler opposite the Venice Bistro.  And in the March 2006 “Venice Beachhead,” there is also a beautiful illustration on the cover entitled, “Tiny Dancer, RIP” with a story inside by artist, exceptional dancer herself and poetress Erica Snowlake.  And neither last nor least an outdoor wall mural i dedicated to Verica is in the works.  If anyone knows of any family contacts for Verica or any information leading to the arrest of her killer, please contact the police at the 24-hour toll free  number 877-529-8355 or the above named papers.  We need to stop the assault on the homeless that is increasing nationwide.                                                  ©  Phill Truesdell  

Coming to Affluent Areas Near You: More Sidewalk Ads  By Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writer
The Los Angeles City Council acted Friday, December 16, 2006 to remove roadblocks that have kept hundreds of ad-bearing bus shelters and other street furniture out of affluent areas of West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. The council voted to curtail the power council members have to block such things as bus shelters, kiosks and self-cleaning toilets from their districts. Neighborhood activists from Westwood, Mar Vista, Woodland Hills and Pacific Palisades objected to the new policy, saying that it would lead to a proliferation of "sidewalk billboards."
 
Viacom Decaux is installing shelters and other street furniture on city sidewalks under a contract that allows the firm to sell advertising to display on the sides. Los Angeles could receive a $150-million share of the profits over the next 20 years. "This is really an embarrassing and repugnant and gross amendment because you have relinquished the obligation to control this to Viacom," said Bennett Cohon, a Westwood community activist.

Under the current process, Viacom Decaux submits to each council member a list of proposed sites for street furniture in the council member's district, and council members can reject a site and request alternative sites. However, some council members have declined to act on requests, preventing street furniture from being installed for years. The program has been operating since 2002.  Of the 2,035 requests by Viacom Decaux, 1,300 have been approved. The new policy — which only applies to council districts where fewer than 75% of the requests have been approved — requires each council office to respond to a request within 15 days. If they say no, the council members must offer Viacom Decaux three alternate sites within 500 feet of the proposed location, or  work collaboratively with the firm to find another site within 15 days. Westside Councilman Jack Weiss was the lone vote against the change, arguing that neighborhoods shouldn't be forced to accept the advertising. Weiss said Viacom Decaux is concentrating its street advertising in more affluent districts. He said 15 kiosks were proposed for the 15th Council District, which includes Watts, and 11 were approved, while 126 kiosks have been proposed in his 5th District and 19 were approved.

Weiss said he is listening to constituents. "This is not a street furniture issue. We are talking about sidewalk billboards," Weiss said.  Other council districts where fewer than 75% of the furnishings have been approved include Wendy Greuel's 2nd District, Tom LaBonge's 4th District, Bill Rosendahl's 11th District and Eric Garcetti's 13th District. Councilman Greig Smith said he warned his colleagues a year ago in a memo that red tape and other glitches are costing the city millions of dollars because Viacom Decaux is not paying for furnishings that are denied. One report in February said the city could have received $14 million since 2002, but had only received $9.7 million. "We weren't doing our job in moving them through the system," Smith said. The new policy will be conditioned on negotiations to get Viacom to pay Los Angeles all or part of the lost revenue.   © LA Times
VENICE ARTISTS & VENDORS
 STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS ! 
STOP BUYING INTO THE
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
PERMIT/LOTTERY PROGRAM
NYC Activists WON
 Their Battle Three Years Ago http://www.bluecollarpolitics.com/lederman
BOSTON Activists WON
Their Battle Two Years Ago
http://www.communityartsadvocates.org/saahistoryBoston.html
SEATTLE Activists WON
Their Battle One Year Ago
http://www.funandmagic.com/performersrights.html
          WHAT HAPPENED TO VENICE ?
      
        Legal and advocacy sites to explore:
         American Civil Liberties Union ACLU
         http://www.aclu.org

         Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts link from National             Endowment of the Arts (NEA)  
            http://arts.endow.gov/artforms/Manage/VLA.html

          Freedom Foundation and First Amendment    
          Center http://www.freedomforum.org and  
              http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org

Findlaw.com http://www.findlaw.com

lexisONE http://www.lexisone.com/legalresearch

CataLaw is the catalog of catalogs of worldwide law on the Internet. http://www.catalaw.com

Government court links http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html

Cornell University Law School links http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/first_amendment.html

Villanova Sports and Entertainment Law Journal http://vls.law.vill.edu/students/orgs/sports/

The Free Expression Network http://www.freeexpression.org/index.htm

Center for Individual Freedom http://cfif.org

Center for Constitutional Rights http://www.ccr-ny.org

Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression http://www.tjcenter.org

National Coalition Against Censorship http://www.ncac.org/

Rock Out Censorship http://www.theroc.org

New York Foundation for the Arts http://www.artswire.org

American's for the Arts http://www.artsusa.org

Ocean State Lawyers For The Arts http://www.artslaw.org/

StarvingArtistsLaw.com http://www.StarvingArtistsLaw.com/

Two great overview briefs on art censorship:
The 'Lectric Law Library http://www.lectlaw.com/files/con04.htm

 Artistic Freedom http://www.aclu-mass.org/issuebriefs/artfreedom.html
Many times street artists are arrested and then the officers do not show up for the trial. The case is dismissed, but the harassment and threat of jail often curtails the artists from performing in the future. I do urge you to fight. The exuberant feeling of winning these battles is well worth the effort.  Not all police offices abuse their public safety mandate. Diplomatic, courteous and non -confrontational behavior can often lead to successful resolution of most incidents. Think of each encounter as an opportunity to educate the individual and public on the traditions of street performing.  A police officer who was sent down by a superior can not back down. Arguing with him will be futile. The real battle is with the superior officer. Try to determine if there was a complaint and who is responsible for asking you to leave. Write down names, witnesses, times, locations and as many details as possible. Nine times out of ten there are no complaints and even if there were it is still not enough reason to stop the performance. However, you can only change attitudes by making individuals responsible for their actions. You can not blame the entire police department for one officers' abuse of power, just as you would not want to be accountable for every other street artists' actions. A UCLA Department of Urban Planning research book chapter summary on the use of public space can be found on this site:
 http://www.communityartsadvocates.org/sidewalkdemocracy.html

 IMPORTANT: Please consider sendng in a $10 donation for this information. It takes time and money ($500 year) to keeep it posted and updated. Make checks payable to Community Arts Advocates, Inc. in US Dollars International Postal Money Orders and send to:

 Street Arts and Busker Advocates, P.O. Box 300112, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130-0030 USA. Donations can also be made by credit card through Community Arts Advocates at the on line secure site of the Wainwright Bank's www.CommunityRoom.net.

 Good luck with your performances and keep me updated and informed of new court cases, legal issues and performance locations.    ©  Stephen H, Baird
Crime and the Criminals who Commit it
 by Anonymous
“Behind every great fortune there is a crime.”  Honore de Balzac - For those who think the corruption of today is something new or more venal than in the past, consider these excerpts from “History of the Great American Fortunes” by Gustavus Myers, published in 1909 and reissued with updates in 1936. What is happening on the Boardwalk and in the nation is what has always been happening. Now we know. What are we prepared to do about it? Committee of Outraged Citizens (COOCs) If you are aware of what's going on in our “government,” you are a member. Consider starting your own chapter. Begin by talking to your neighbors, stop by my Sunday table on the Boardwalk (between Dudley and Rose), contact me through this newsletter.

Courts and Constitution by Scarlett Pimpernel
The trading class has already learned the importances of the principle that while it was essential to control law-making bodies, it was imperative to have as their auxiliary the bodies that interpreted law.  To a large extent the United States since them has lived not under legislative-made law, but under a purely separate and extraneous form of law which has superseded the legislature product, namely, court law.  Although nowhere in the United States Constitution is there even the suggestion courts shall make law, yet this past century and more they have been gradually building up a formidable code  of interpretations which substantially ranks as the most commanding kind of law. And these interpretations have, on the whole, consistently followed, and kept pace with, the changing interests of the dominant class, whether traders, slaveholders, or the present trusts.  On corruption in New York City, particularly during the Boss Tweed era and after, he had
the following to say: For New York City in the 1800s, insert Los Angeles today.  Do you see any similarities?

Profiting from Gigantic Theft...The men who really profited directly or indirectly by the gigantic thefts of money (est. between $100,000,000 to $200,000,000), and the franchise tax-exemption, and other measures put through the legislature or common council were men of wealth in the background, who thereby immensely increased their riches and whose descendants now possess  towering fortunes and bear names of the highest “respectability.” The original money of the landholders came from trade; and then by a combination of cunning, bribery, and a moiety of what was considered legitimate investment, they became the owners of immense tracts of the most valuable city land.  The rentals from these were so great that continuously more and more surplus wealth was heaped up.  This surplus wealth, in slight part, went to bribe representative bodies for special laws giving them a variety of exclusive property, and another part was used in buying stock in various enterprises the history of which reeked of corruption. From being mere landholders whose possessions were confined mainly to city land, they became part owners of railroads, telegraph, express and other lines reaching throughout the country.  So did their holdings and wealth-producing interests expand by a cumulative and ever-widening process.  The prisons were perennially filled with convicts, nearly all of whom had committed some crime against property, and for so doing were put in chains behind heavy bars, guarded by rifles and great stone walls.  But the men who robbed the community of its land and its railroads (most of which latter were built with public land and money) and who defrauded it in a thousand ways, were, if not morally exculpated, at least not molested, and were permitted to retain their plunder, which, to them, was the all-important thing.  This plunder, in turn, became the basis for the foundation of an aristocracy which in time built palaces, invented impressive pedigrees and crests and coats-of-arms, intermarried with European titles, and either owned or influenced newspapers and journals which taught the public how it should think and how it should act.  It is one thing to commit crimes against property, and a vastly different thing to commit crimes in behalf of property.  Such is the edict of a system inspired by the sway of property.
 © Pimpernel                                                

Finality of Proofs on the Fabrication of the Story of the Cross by I.M.Love
The Bible testifies to the fact that Jesus was known among the Jews; he used to preach and deliver sermons in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.  It was therefore unnecessary to hire a Jew for thirty pieces of silver to direct his arresters to him as related in Matthew. 
   
    The truth shall set you free.             © I.M. Love

Voters Unite! By Jane Doe
Insist on hand-counted paper ballots in all state and federal elections (local, too!!!!) This is the year that the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) kicks in full time.  This legislation has no interest in helping you or me vote.  Its real intent is to decide how it thinks we ought to have voted and then make it so.  It does this by mandating electronic machines for all elections.  We have seen the meltdown from malfunctioning (by chance or by design) machines; tabulators  that magically create voters who vote in the desired way, that equally magically lose whole blocks of votes, that make mistakes adding and subtracting, even though subtraction is not an option in the simple act of counting.  We have seen what happened in our state to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley when he mandated a paper trail and refused to certify Diebold because their voting machines were notoriously unreliable unless you were a Republican candidate.  And now we  witness his Arnold (himself a Diebold appointee) appointed replacement, Diebold -sanctioned McPherson, agree that Diebold could easily be hacked by a two-year-old and therefore certifiable, wait until 5pm the Friday before a holiday weekend, and certify Diebold after everyone else in the office had left.

Well, part of the good news:  Some Californians are fighting back.  They have just sued McPherson.  But, if you have read the article elsewhere in this newsletter about Courts and the Constitution, you know that action needs a little help from other sources. Besides, electronic voting using corporate controlled systems with proprietary software is not acceptable under any circumstances. Join in the movement to demand hand-counted paper ballots.

Check out www.studycaliforniaballots.org. 

Get a petition and collect signatures. Or just sign one. For more information on this under-reported news (surprise! surprise!) go to www.thebradblog.com.  Join with the people who don't agree with Scalia that we have no constitutional right to vote. With no justice there is just us.                                           © Jane Doe

Rule of Thumb by Anonymous
Based on  observations of a former city employee who wishes to remain anonymous and alive. Percent of your tax dollars going to graft and corruption:
 
Local – municipal                 50%
State                                  75%
Federal                               90%

The federal amount may be low, given the revelations about Halliburton, Bechtel, etc. We do not need more bond issues or higher taxes. We need more honest public servants.


If you like what we’re doing and want to support “Spirit of Venice Speaks” please bring contributions and donations to Diane Butler in the Rose Ave parking lot opposite the Venice Bistro.  Thank you!
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JOIN 4-TIME GRAMMY AWARD WINNER EDWIN HAWKINS IN HIS APPEALTO RAISE FUNDS FOR AMERICA’S HOMELESS


Donate $10 online and download a copy of Edwin Hawkins’ “People In Need” (PIN) song 

http://www.benefitnetwork.org/PINCD.htm

 or send $15.00 check/money order for CD copy to :

The Benefit Network/PIN Fund
P O Box 1952  Venice CA 90294

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