City attorney files charges against protesters who disrupted L.A. City Council meeting
City attorney files charges against protesters who disrupted L.A. City Council meeting
LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles city attorney has filed charges against the individuals who disrupted a recent City Council meeting.
Attorney Rick Barnwell told reporters Tuesday that the case involves six charges against the six individuals who violated a court order to leave the meeting but refused.
“For the moment, we’re not going to press charges for trespassing, or for the destruction of the meeting, but for the other five offenses,” Barnwell said. “It’s going to require us to file charges here.”
The order the six individuals violated forbid any disruption, destruction of the meeting and the distribution of “any written material” during the meeting.
“The conduct that we allege is causing disruption, it’s causing disruption in the conduct of the meeting, it’s also causing a potential risk to people who could hear it,” Barnwell said.
The case is separate from a similar situation involving Los Angeles police officers at a recent protest rally against a controversial City Council plan to allow the construction of a $600 million homeless shelter that could displace hundreds of homeless people.
LAPD Lt. Jeff Neely was suspended for 20 days without pay after he engaged in disorderly conduct at the rally.
Neely did not speak publicly about the case during the Council meeting.
Councilman Gil Cedillo told reporters he expected the charges against the protesters to be similar to Neely’s suspension. Cedillo has criticized the protesters’ disruptive behavior, as well as what he called a failure of LAPD leadership to properly police the demonstration.
The Council voted 5-4 to approve the council plan, which will move forward without a homeless shelter and instead provide 200 housing units for people suffering from homelessness.
The protesters have been calling for the Council to repeal the council plan.
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Published by michaelm
Michael Michael is co-founder of the Los Angeles Progressive Center, an opinion-leading news source in the political, policy, and cultural life of cities in Los Angeles, California. The center’s website is at www.latprogressive.org and its blog is at latprogressive
