The Justice Committee strives to document violations of human and civil rights and to work on specific justice projects with groups or individuals willing to actively participate in an effort to achieve peace and justice in the community.
The Media Group recognizes the need to communicate through multiple forms of media in order to keep the community and others informed about justice issues.
A very short movie made from the police abuse video
taken by members of the Justice Committee
Featured in the LA Times, CNN, Associated Press, etc
Justice Committee Member bios:
Cavlin E. Moss has been active in the struggle for human rights for well over 20 years. He is a founding member of the Venice/Santa Monica Food Not Bombs and of the Venice Justice Committee. He was a Vietnam era anti-war activist who refused induction into the US military and was a conscientious objector. He has studied nonviolent civil disobedience and is a member of the War Resistors League.
Peggy Lee Kennedy - also a member of Venice Food Not Bombs and the Justice Committee - is a third generation Venice resident whose mother, Marvena Kennedy, was on the Venice Town Council in the 1970's. Peggy has carried on a family tradition of standing up for human and civil rights and she is deeply concerned with the consequences of gentrification. Peggy holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Information's Systems with a minor in Women's Studies from Loyola Marymount University and worked as a single mother for most of her adult life.
Both Peggy and Calvin have been trained in Formal Consensus and hold certificates as Trainers of Formal Consensus - taught by C.T. Lawrence Butler, the inventor of Formal Consensus and original co-founder of Food Not Bombs.
To report violations of civil and human rights in Venice or Santa Monica, you can email:HumanrRights@freevenice.org
When describing an incident, provide as much detail and basic facts as possible. Make sure you write down the facts: date and time, location with street names, print names and contact information of witnesses, print number on police car and descriptions or names of police officers or city employees, and provide any paperwork when possible. Provide a copy of the ticket and any pictures attached as pdf or jpg files whenever possible.Our Incident Report
The OPD (Overnight Permit Parking District) law, LAMC 80.54, is a Los Angeles City Law that originated in Venice and it creates a Permit Parking System that is being used to remove people living in vehicles from affluent areas, like Venice.
Venice Gentrification H-Bomb --To Poor, Rainbows, Travelers and the Arts: L.A. City's Newest Plan Will Kick Everybody Living in Vehicles Out of Venice Beach
The Overnight Parking District Committee of the Venice Neighborhood Council is the Council's main source for public support for these Parking Districts in Venice. See who signed this petition:Rose Ave Developer
Oversize Vehicle Permit Law, is for removing the "blight" of oversize vehicles being stored on city streets. Yet there already is a law for vehicles illegally stored on city streets! It is
Councilman Bill Rosendahl is ignoring the letter from Mayor Villaraigosa explaining why he did not sign an amendment to make this law harsher and Rosendahl is pushing forward to implement the Oversized Vehicle Law in Venice - a Permit Parking Program, which restricts use of public streets only to certain vehicles and ultimately certain people between 2am and 6am.
This report is an investigation into homeless deaths in Los Angeles County between January, 2000 and May, 2007, based on statistics provided by the Los Angeles County Coroner's office.
Homelessness in Los Angeles: Los Angeles has the disgrace of being the homeless capital of the United States...It is a disgrace that such a small percentage of the homeless population in LA is sheltered.
Class Action Lawsuit Settlement Helps Venice Homeless!
Carol Sobel, President of the Los Angeles National Lawyer's Guild, settled a class action lawsuit in favor of Venice homeless people whose property was seized by the Los Angeles Police and other City employees, without warrant, and then destroyed during a homeless sweep that took place back in September 2004 - just before Labor Day.
Sobel waived her legal fees, increasing the total cash settlement available to homeless people, and the cash was dispersed the first week of February 2007!
The case, Noe v. the City of Los Angeles, was partly based on written and videotaped statements from twenty-two people directly affected by the sweep along with videotape and still picture evidence of ten or more dumpsters full of the homeless people's belongings found in Westchester (three towns south of Venice) and documented by Calvin E Moss and Peggy Lee Kennedy of Venice Food Not Bombs and the Venice Justice Committee.
Also, and very significantly, Attorney Carol Sobel of the National Lawyer's Guild cared enough to follow through with a lawsuit providing cash settlements to Venice homeless people, which helped move some into housing situations and improved their living conditions.
The settlement further included an order regarding removal of property if not abandoned and property must now be held for ninety days. Common sense, the constitution, and the State of California seem to all say we are supposed to be protected from the police seizing our property without a warrant or probable cause.
Legally and morally, Police should not seize and destroy property in order to rid an area of it's homeless population. Such is the situation, though, in Venice Beach, California.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Homeless Haters Go Nuts, Right-wing Radio Loves It, Mainstream Media Stokes The Hate Fires Along, the City Reacts with More Criminalization and Violates theJones Settlement
The attempt to turn public opinion against the human beings living in vehicles was just a cheap publicity stunt. The sewer putsch brought out the most negative dehumanizing elements in Venice Beach. City attorneys being interviewed on the hate radio station, politicians bringing out hazardous material trucks where two 55 gallon drums where filled with sludge from a sewer that hadn’t been cleaned in years, and a staged one sided press conference at this site on a Venice street corner. The recent rejection of the permits to create overnight parking districts has angered the hate mongers. City Officials and police working with the reactionary putsch leaders are trying to run the street residents out. Humanistic groups have monitored these underhanded tactics with the hope that the people living on the streets of Venice will be given a little something, like a safe place to park their homes.
The Venice Justice Committee is one of the groups that opposes the Criminalization of the poor. This group was formed after a meeting with Micheal ZinZin at the Quaker House in Los Angeles. Micheal ZinZin was community leader who lost his eye after a police beating. A Court settlement was reached after this incident. He then formed Coalition Against Police abuse which documented and made complaints against police abuse. Members of the Venice Justice Committee are legal workers Who document the harassment of the people of Venice by any person or group who violates their civil and human rights.
Bill of Rights
Amendment VIII (1791)
No Cruelty Nor Excessive Fines, Excessive Bail Shall Not Be Required
Nor Excessive Fines Imposed, Nor Cruel and Unusual Punishment Inflicted
UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution Recognizing Access to Clean Water and Sanitation as Human Right
By a vote of 122 in favour to none against, with 41 abstentions, the UN General Assembly adopted on 28 July 2010 a resolution calling on States and international organizations to provide financial resources, build capacity and transfer technology, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all. The resolution “declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.”
Venice Neighborhood Council &Councilman Rosendahl working to have a Neighborhood Watch on every blockBUT...Who's Watching the Neighborhood Watch?
The latest dirt on the Venice Neighborhood Watch is that the newest watch s/hero and queen anti-homeless blogger must have got into it with another neighborhood watch person – triggering a background check that revealed a felony conviction, among other things. Even as a felon, she is just another tool for a snitch police state culture.The true intention of Community Policing, which is the umbrella organization for Neighborhood Watch, is to create civilian groups that directly communicate the needs of the community to the police. The end result should be that the police are more receptive to the community. It is basically a good idea – if it were not controlled by such negativity toward poor people. The problem is that Neighborhood Watch leaders are not always picked from a diverse cross section of the community. Even if moderate people do join the local Neighborhood Watch, they may be pulled into a police snitch culture that does not foster diverse points of view. ----> read entire article
Read why the Justice Committee has moved out of its office at the Venice United Methodist
UN General Assembly Adopted a Resolution Recognizing Access to Clean Water and Sanitation as Human Right
The resolution “declares the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.”
The public toilets are closed nightly in Venice - Is It Just So The Housed People Can Complain
about something every human must doand lobby for more enforcement to remove homeless people from the area?
The Justice Committee, Occupy Venice, Lawyers with the National Lawyers Guild, Long Time Venice Locals and Venice Community Unity all came together on 3rd Ave in Venice to stop a homeless sweep from happening on March 29. 2012.It was a good day. Venice Homeless Sweep Stopped
June 2013 the California Coastal Commission said NO to OPDs in Venice.
As the 2013 struggle to oppose OPDs heated up...See why so many fought all this time to stop the OPDs and keep Venice Beach Free and our Coastal Zone open to All.Read The Story Here
The City of Los Angeles closed the beach from midnight to 5am without following State law, specifically the California Constitution and the Coastal Act. A municipality must apply for a Coastal Development Permit and it must show a severe enough reason to justify closing a beach. Even if they do provide some proof of a great public safety condition, they can not close a beach without going first through the Coastal Development Permit process, which requires considering other options and mitigation. The City created a law, closed the whole darn beach, they arrested poor people for being on the beach, and then the city even arbitrarily moved the law to include the Venice Boardwalk.
