Our Mission
PUSH LA was formed in response to decades of racist policing that has plagued Black and Brown communities in Los Angeles. This inclusive cross-sector coalition of base building, advocacy and religious/interfaith organizations launched after data analyses in 2019 revealed that the LAPD Metro Division officers stop and arrest Black people at a rate more than five times their share of the city’s population. The reality for Black and Brown Angelenos is that going about our every-day activities can turn into life-or-death situations when law enforcement officers choose whom they will follow, harass, and harm based on the color of our skin, our accents, or our zip codes.
We need to ensure that those sworn to protect and serve us also respect and understand us. That is why PUSH LA has come together to push for reinvestment in our communities while pushing for divestment from punishment and criminalization.
VALUES
PUSH LA encompasses a diversity of perspectives but is united around the following values and strategies:
- Dignity, self-determination and respect for all.
- Building the power of everyday residents, both youth and adults, while waging community-informed campaigns to impact legislative and administrative policy.
- Equitably shifting resources from law enforcement and incarceration to community-based and culturally competent prevention, intervention and other holistic wellness services.
- Replacing the dominant public safety narrative with a community-driven, asset-based narrative.
- Increasing accountability for law enforcement officers through data transparency and criminal prosecution.
DEMANDS
The LA Times published a major data-driven story revealing that LAPD officers search Black & Latinx drivers at rates of more than 4 to 1 and 3 to 1 compared to white drivers, despite finding higher rates of contraband among white drivers. Many of these searches are happening after stops for minor equipment violations.
This is exactly the type of criminalization and racial profiling we’ve formed a coalition to fight against. In light of the article’s findings, PUSH LA has the following demands for Mayor Garcetti & Chief Moore:
- We demand an end to these stops. Specifically, we demand an immediate moratorium on these pretextual stops that are used to initiate a search and racially profile the city’s Black and Brown residents. As part of this request, we demand an immediate withdrawal of the Metro Division from South Los Angeles.
- We demand that the LAPD officially and publicly admits to racial profiling and issues an apology to all residents of South LA and elsewhere in the city who’ve been unjustly stopped and searched.
- We demand reparations for these unlawful stops and searches.
- Officers who engage in unwarranted pretextual stops, who have patterns demonstrative of racial profiling, or who engage in misconduct and abuse must be disciplined and removed from our communities.
Coalition Members
PUSH LA partners include the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal); Advancement Project CA; Black Lives Matter Los Angeles; Brotherhood Crusade; Brothers, Sons, Selves; Children’s Defense Fund California; Community Coalition; Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA); LA Voice; Labor Community Strategy Center; Million Dollar Hoods; SEIU 2015; SEIU Local 99; and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Southern California.
