The theme of this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr Day Parade is “The Dream Continues to Live and Grow.” Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas will be the parade’s grand marshal.
The parade is set to begin at 11 a.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Western Avenue in South Los Angeles, head west on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Crenshaw Boulevard, then south to Vernon Avenue, concluding at Leimert Park, where a festival will be held.
Here’s the map:
By Michael Katz
In the same pulpit that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood at nearly 43 years earlier, Reverend Henry Masters delivered the departing words for lawyer Raymond L. Johnson, Sr. Thursday morning. Although Johnson never received the acclaim that King did, it was clear from the moment the service began that Johnson touched the lives of nearly everyone sitting in the sanctuary at the Holman United Methodist Church.
Johnson was born in Providence, Rhode Island on July 31, 1922. His father was a boxer and businessman and taught his son about the importance of hard work at an early age. Johnson Sr.’s accomplishments are numerous. He received his Juris Doctorate from Howard University and served as the Vice President at the Los Angeles NAACP chapter.
He worked on the “Brown vs. Board of Education” case with Thurgood Marshall and with Dr. King when he came to Los Angeles to speak in the very room his family sat in Thursday during his memorial service. He was given the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2007.
But it is not his accomplishments that mourners such as Wilma Pinder, who practiced law with Johnson, remember him for. Rather, it was his strength and friendly nature that she is grateful for.
“[Johnson] was one of those kind enough to pat me on the back and offer to be a mentor to me,” Pinder says. “He just went about his business, and he tried to be helpful to not only the community at large, but one-on-one to individual lawyers.”
The room that the proceedings took place in was large, white, and featured a massive cross. Other than that, the setting was simple; there was little decoration, no choir in the background. It was humble, much in the way that Johnson was described throughout his 89 years.
Ruby Brown, who attended Johnson’s alma mater, says she had no idea he had been a part of the famed Tuskegee Airmen for black pilots until it was brought up at a ceremony. “I recall several years back our alumni club honored the Tuskegee Airmen, and that was the first time I learned he was [part of the group],” Brown says. “[He was] very unassuming.”
Johnson Sr. is survived by his wife of 61 years, Evelyn, and three children. Evelyn Johnson says her husband was defined by far more than his accomplishments; he touched lives.
“He always had a cause … it wasn’t about monetary gains,” says Evelyn Johnson. “He derived a great deal of pleasure just doing things to help other people.”
Raymond Sr.’s son, Raymond Jr., said that his defining memory of his father was working at his law firm after graduation from law school.
“I had the unique experience … [of] going to work for my father and his firm … [and learning] from him the tricks of the trade,” says Raymond Johnson Jr. “Those were the things that I would probably say [were defining] that I will always remember.”
While Johnson was remembered for his tenderness, his son says his father’s gift to the world lay in his courage. He says his father was a man of achievement and attaining goals. He smiled when describing his father’s way of asking him to do things as a child.
“When he asked you to do something, it wasn’t with a ‘please’ … it was ‘get your homework done,’” Johnson Jr. laughs. “Sometimes you just can’t be polite … and you just hope that the people you deal with … are gonna understand that when it comes time for business, you say what you have to say.”
As of Thursday morning, Ruby Evans had only $18.65 in her bank account. She runs Evans Family Day Care in Compton, one of many centers contracted by the state of California to provide subsidized child care.
In December, she only received 20 percent of her paycheck and wasn’t paid for the months of July, August, September or November last year.
Evans joined about 50 other care providers and parents who haven’t received payment to protest the Center for Children and Family Services Thursday morning.
The agency is given money by the state to pay child care centers like Evans’ that serve low-income families in cities such as Compton, Lynwood and South Gate, where few people can afford private day care services.
“I had to pull out my retirement just to pay my utility bills,” says Evans, who is 63 years old. “I can’t pay my house, my gas, lights and water. I’m on the phone all day trying to get extensions and explain to them why I can’t pay.”
The agency has contracts with about 1,000 providers through South Los Angeles and the South Bay, and none were fully paid in November or December.
Evans received only $700 of the $3,700 she was due last month. A representative for the Service Employees International Union said all of the providers they have spoken to have either received 20 percent or zero percent of their paychecks and the agency hasn’t given them any explanation.
The group had signs demanding at least 80 percent of their pay and marched outside the agency’s headquarters in Carson for more than an hour, leaving notes of their grievances taped to the blacked-out locked doors of the head quarters.
No one from the agency responded to the protest aside from a security officer who stepped out to take down the notes.
Vanise Valentine is the parent of a five-year-old and uses the subsidized child care while she works and attends school to become a teacher.
If her provider closes, the 29-year-old mother says she might have to cut back at work or school because she says she can’t afford private day care.
The agency would not comment on the issue, but fiscal problems aren’t new.
The Pasadena Star-News reported last fall that the agency’s Head Start program in Pasadena and Glendale was shut down after a state-run audit showed the agency had a $5.1 million deficit despite receiving a $12 million grant.
Since the audit, the agency has been put on a conditional contract with the state, says Jennifer Barraza of the Service Employee International Union, who has been trying to help the care providers get their paychecks.
She says one of the reasons the agency has been able to get away with cutting off their providers from any communication or payment is because there are no state regulations for child care.
In October, the California Legislature passed a bill that would allow child care workers to unionize but Governor Jerry Brown vetoed it — just like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed similar bills in 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2004.
“We can not afford a broken child care system. The state cannot afford a broken child care system,” says Tonia McMillian, who runs Kiddie Depot in Bellflower and has rallied in Sacramento on behalf of child care workers.
“We want to have the chance to have some say-so in fixing the system,” McMillian says. “We need a voice or we are going to be forced to close our doors too.”
By Subrina Hudson
Amidst the urban sprawl of South Los Angeles, a 10-acre plot of land is being converted into a much-needed green retreat, just blocks away from Slauson Boulevard, in a noticeably park-poor neighborhood.
The South Los Angeles Wetlands Park will give residents in South Park an opportunity to experience nature in a way that is drastically different from the few parks nearby that feature the standard playgrounds and basketball courts.
The park will feature a deep marsh with a dirt trail that weaves around the park and across the marsh so residents can take a walk or jog. The animal-friendly park has a water fountain for pets, and a small picnic area. All of the vegetation will be plants and marine life native to California.
The first phase of the Wetlands Park is expected to be completed by the end of this year, said Los Angeles City Engineer Gary Moore.
A wetland is an area such as a marsh or swamp that improves water quality by helping to draw out toxins before it goes into the ocean. It also gives residents an opportunity to enjoy nature when many do not have a car or the money to explore neighboring mountains in the Los Angeles Basin, said Moore.
Moore, the general manager of the Bureau of Engineering, oversees 400 projects worth $2.5 billion, and the planning and execution of the $26 million Wetlands Park falls under his jurisdiction. His department of 800 employees is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure of Los Angeles, which means everything from buildings to parks to sewers.
Moore has worked the past 26 years for the Bureau of Engineering. He has been responsible for developing numerous large-scale projects such as the renovation of Griffith Observatory and the construction of the $450 million Police Administration Building.
Although he is responsible for many projects, the South LA Wetlands Park has personal meaning for him.
“I grew up in Lynwood. I went to Lynwood High School. We lived in a 900 square foot home. It was my parents and four kids. I understand the need to get out of the house,” said Moore. “Open space is so great for the soul.”
The city of Los Angeles was developed initially developed so every person could have his or her own front and backyard, said Carolyn Ramsey, program director of the non-profit organization The Trust for Public Land. After World War II, developers began to replace single-family homes with apartments, but the green spaces were never replaced.
“There are many, many communities that have no access to parks. So, obesity is a huge health issue in Los Angeles. Juvenile diabetes, adult onset diabetes among children is a huge problem, and The Trust for Public Land and other organizations feel strongly about creating green spaces to give people the opportunity to exercise and relax and recreate and be with their children,” said Ramsey.
Her organization focuses on building parks in park-poor communities like South LA. The Trust’s next project, called Green Alleys, will reinvigorate the 900 alleys throughout Los Angeles by making them into small green spaces where residents can walk and enjoy murals by local artists.
The first alley is located two blocks north of the South LA Wetlands Park, and many residents are excited about the recent push to beautify their community and clean up the alleys, said Ramsey.
Resident Maria Contreras said it’s better having a park in her community because it gives her a chance to take her children outside and spend quality time with her family. It also gives her an opportunity to get away from home and release some stress.
The main reason for a lack of parks in South LA is simply a lack of money. The majority of L.A. County’s budget is allocated to a general fund that pays for the fire and police departments, said Moore. He added that many projects are a result of special funding.
“There’s a greater need for everything. Why not build a library on every corner? It takes money to build it and money to maintain it,” said Moore.
>In 2004, Los Angeles residents passed Proposition O, which authorized the city to use funding on projects that would help clean up water pollution so the city would be able to meet the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act. Moore said the great thing about Proposition O is that it allowed the city to receive funding for the South LA Wetlands Park. He said it would be easier to build a giant water treatment facility, but 9th District Councilwoman Jan Perry had the idea to build a wetland park instead.
“She really saw it before it was an opportunity,” said Moore.
LA Stormwater website, the second and final phase of construction is to build a historical railway museum highlighting its history in Los Angeles and a multi-use community center.
The South LA Wetlands Park is the second wetland in South Los Angeles. The first one is Augustus Hawkins Nature Park located only a few miles east on Compton Avenue.
The idea for Augustus Hawkins also came from Perry. She was unavailable for comment, but according to her website the Augustus Hawkins Park was the nation’s first man-made wetland in a densely populated urban area.
“It’s nicer than the empty lot that was here before, and it also gives jobs,” said local resident Lorenzo Harris.
Harris exercises at the park three times a week, and he likes that it is located only a few minutes away from his home.
“It gives to the community, and they also use the center here for the neighborhood council meetings and this is also an election place we use. So, without this we’d probably have to drive further out,” said Harris.
Park Ranger Russell Brown has been working at the Augustus Hawkins Park since July. He said even though the park is only 8.5 acres it still offers a lot of opportunities for residents and visitors to explore. Neither Augustus Hawkins Park nor the South LA Wetlands Park is designed for sports.
“It’s strictly to enjoy nature. One of the things that I’m trying to do, is to get the community involved in the park a little more than they are now to get them interested in the science part of it. We have the pond in the back, and to kind of get them familiar with the pond and the things that are in it and to quit throwing trash in it, I want to bring out some microscopes sometimes and just pull water out to see what we can see in the water,” said Brown.
Conservation is an important factor at a wetlands park because its purpose is to provide clean water and a natural habitat for wildlife to grow. Brown believes much of the trash found at Hawkins Park is due to people dropping it on the ground and the trash eventually finding its way into the pond.
“I think through education, and showing we have ownership of the park, you know, ‘This is my park. I’ve got to keep it clean.’ I think that would help,” said Brown.
Maintenance is always an ongoing concern when building a park in any community, said Moore.
“People rise up when you invest in them. People take pride in that, and people take care of it. I never judge a community based on a few people that don’t want to follow the rules,” said Moore.
“Sometimes, you need change to reinvigorate a community.”
 “¡Ay Jalisco, No Te Rajes!” (Jalisco, Don’t Back Down) – 1941. (Photo courtesy Concepción Bauza.) |
A photo exhibit commemorating Jorge Negrete’s 100th birthday is currently on display at the Mercado La Paloma. The black and white photos highlight some of the most memorable moments of the star’s career.
The exhibit consists of 30 photos from the private collection of Concepción Bauza, who organized the showing that ends this Saturday, January 14th.
“Mexican cinema opened the doors to Latin American film,” she says. “Those movies from the ‘40s and the ‘50s are unforgettable… just like its stars – Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante and the great María Félix.”
 Wedding of María Felix and Jorge Negrete – 1952. |
Bauza felt compelled to honor the memory of Negrete, also known as El Charro Cantor (The Singing Charro), whose 100th birthday was November 30, 2011.
Negrete died of hepatitis in Los Angeles in 1953. “I have one of the last pictures taken of Jorge Negrete when he arrived in Los Angeles to perform at the Million Dollar Theater,” says Bauza proudly.
There are also several photos of him with two of his movie co-stars and wives: Gloria Marín and María Félix.
If you’re a fan of old movies and iconic stars, the exhibit makes for a good field trip. Plus, you can grab a bite to eat at one of the Mercado’s restaurants!
 Exhibit photos at the Mercado. |
 Wendy Barnes escaped a life of forced prostitution and is now an advocate helping young girls escape sex slavery. (Photo credit: Wendy Barnes) |
If she loved her daughter, she would do this for her boyfriend. If she wanted to feed her three-month-old daughter, she would sell her body. “It would just be this one time”, he told her. Seventeen, scared and desperate to feed her baby girl, Wendy Barnes turned her first trick. That night started a life of slavery that would last for 12 years.
Barnes was a normal high school girl living in Seattle, Washington when she met Greg, a seemingly kind boy who became her high school boyfriend. Just a few years later, things changed.
Greg began to verbally and physically abuse her. She wore no physical chains, but nothing she did was by choice. She was the victim of calculated manipulation for years by a man who convinced her he loved her.
Human trafficking and sex trafficking isn’t just happening overseas or in history books. Trafficking happens every day on the streets of Los Angeles and in just about every city in America.
Trafficking is not a new issue. In the documentary film, “Flesh: Bought and Sold in the U.S.,” John R. Miller, former director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking In Persons, says trafficking is simply a euphemism for “modern day slavery in a modern day slave trade” – a slave trade larger than any previous time in history.
According to Kevin Bales, author of “Disposable People,” there are currently an estimated 27 million slaves held in captivity worldwide and hundreds of thousands exist here in the United States.
Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, bringing in an estimated $32 billion a year.
The common perception of prostitution is that it is a profession of choice. That may be the case for some. However, the majority of prostitution is by force. It is sex trafficking, a specific form of human trafficking, rampant on the streets of L.A.
“I would say that the majority [of prostitutes] have been coerced, whether it’s at a younger age or by economic means,” said Kristin Lauterbach, director of “Flesh: Bought and Sold in the U.S.”
 A South L.A. Motel. |
The average age of entrance for girls into prostitution is 12 to 14 years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. This is before the age that a girl can even give meaningful consent. The pimps’ sexual exploitation of these minors automatically qualifies as human trafficking.
“Even if you have a prostitute on the streets that is 21, the odds that she’s been on the streets since she was 14 years old are very high,” says Lauterbach.
While international trafficking is a huge problem in America, the majority of sex trafficking here in L.A. is domestic. The trafficked girls are often from L.A. neighborhoods, a fact that Kristin Humphris, an LAPD officer in the Prostitution and Human Trafficking Division of the Vice Unit, says many citizens find shocking.
“The general public doesn’t even think that pimping is a real thing. When I talk to people about the issue, they always say, ‘What? You’ve got to be kidding me. Our own children from L.A. are literally kidnapped off the street and forced into prostitution?’ And the sad thing is that it’s absolutely true,” says Humphris.
Many vice officers say the pimps that take advantage of these girls don’t tell the girls up front that they are pimps. Many times, like in Barnes’s case, they form a friendship with the girl, telling her she’s beautiful, buying her things, and even meeting her family.
“When he first meets somebody, he’s not going to tell them he’s a pimp. He’s not going to even let them know he’s a pimp.” Barnes says they tell girls they love them and that they’re special. “He gets to know them on a very, very deep level, finds out what their fears are, finds out what their likes are. And he plays on all of that.”
 A young prostitute walking the street in South L.A. |
Barnes says once a girl is completely dependent on her pimp, he takes it all away. She says that once they have a hold on a girl’s mind, they coerce her into prostitution and manipulate her to depend on them for everything.
Barnes says the abuse she experienced was both physical and psychological and that many times, Greg would threaten to kill her or her mother if she ever contradicted his orders. He controlled every aspect of her life.
“Everything that we did, said, breathed was determined by him. If you broke the rule whatsoever, at all – if you did not do or think the way he wanted you to think, you would suffer for it,” remembers Barnes. “He would either do something to your parents, to me, he would do something to the house. He would always find that thing that destroyed you the most.”
Kay Buck, executive director of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking in L.A., says this type of control is the norm for human trafficking.
“So many people think that victims are handcuffed to a bed or locked somewhere, but the reality is that this modern day slavery is a lot more about threats and coercion. So what happens instead is that traffickers threaten victims with their lives,” says Buck. “They use these threats and tactics to control victims which have proven to be very effective. Victims are afraid for their lives and the lives of their loved ones back home.”
Barnes was not the only girl that Greg held using these kinds of tactics. During her first five years with Greg, Barnes was aware of more than 300 girls that were under his control.
Many pimps control several girls and operate within a trafficking ring. They will rent out houses or hotel rooms and stay there with the group of girls. After a while, they will pick up and move to another city. Greg’s trafficking ring, for example, spanned from Seattle all the way to Southern California.
“These traffickers, or pimps, move these girls around and the whole purpose of that is to isolate them, confuse them, and avoid detection and prosecution,” says Humprhis.
 Family pictures adorn Wendy Barnes’ current home, a sign of happier times after a painful past. |
California state law dictates that the punishment for the pimping and pandering of minors under the age of 16 is imprisonment for three to eight years. For pandering and pimping minors between the ages of 16 and 18, the imprisonment time is reduced to three to six years.
According to a report released by Shared Hope International, the punishment for pimps and “johns” (the purchasers of sexual services) is not adequate enough. The report, which assigned states grades for their efforts in fighting sex trafficking, gave California an F.
The section of the report that California did the worst in was “criminal provisions addressing demand.” LAPD Officer Humphris says that as a society we need to give a greater punishment to the people seeking the sex act.
“Those are the ones that are shopping around for kids. There’s a 12 year-old on the street. Someone is buying that, and there’s just not much in place, unfortunately, as far as the law goes, to have a big impact in enforcing,” says Humphris.
Humphris also believes that many “johns” do not know how young some of the girls on the streets are or that they’re being forced to do things against their will, under the control of a pimp. “I feel like if that was more widely known, someone with a conscience might try to police themselves a little,” says Humphris.
Advocates against human trafficking say awareness is a large issue with the general public. Lauterbach says that many people don’t stand up against trafficking simply because they are unaware of its existence all around them.
“What we advocate for so much is education, because the next steps are natural. If you see someone who is being victimized, you can do something about it. But if you don’t realize they’re being victimized, you’re not going to do anything about it,” says Lauterbach.
In recent years, the LAPD Vice Unit has become aware many girls in prostitution are sex trafficking victims. Lauterbach says that when she first started her documentary, she couldn’t find police who truly understood the victimization of these girls, but now is encouraged by the vice unit’s awareness and efforts to stop trafficking.
“We rode along with the central vice unit and they get that this is human trafficking, they get that these girls are coerced, and they work so hard to get girls out – they work so hard to be able to prosecute the pimp to get them off the street,” says Lauterbach.
While the LAPD Vice Unit has grown in their efforts to respond to sex trafficking, the issue itself has expanded to affect a growing population of girls in recent years. Buck has seen CAST L.A.’s cases more than double in the past three years, and Humphris has seen the growth on the streets as well.
“I would say it’s probably gotten worse and it seems to me that the kids are even getting younger that are entering into prostitution,” says Humphris.
While the problem seems daunting, Barnes’s life is a testament to the possibility of freedom and a new life. After 12 years of slavery, police raided Greg’s home and sent Barnes to prison where she served two years. Finally on her own, she is experiencing the joy of simply living a normal life.
“People don’t realize how precious life is. Like just going out and laying out in the grass. How amazing is that? I can think back and Greg would not allow us,” said Barnes. “Just freedom to walk from here to there, without getting yelled at, without being asked why.”
If you walked into Barnes’ home today, you would never suspect she had a hard and painful past. Her visitors are greeted by smiles and family pictures decorate the walls of Southern California the home she shares with her daughter Latasha.
Barnes has worked at the same job for the past five years and enjoys every moment of what most call an ordinary life. However, her life is anything but ordinary. Her life is now a picture of hope, showing that it is possible to come out of slavery and enter into freedom.
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Reader: How do you start a retirement portfolio on a budget?
Dear Reader,
What a great question. As the New Year begins, many of us would like to firm up our financial position. The question becomes how to do that when the dollars aren’t making any sense. Starting a retirement portfolio is a bit more complicated than I can cover in one article.
I have a chapter about the topic in each of my books, Money Matters: The Get It Done in 1 Minute Workbook and 10 Things College Students Need to Know About Money. For right now, I’ll offer a brief overview of the process.
If you have an employer-sponsored plan:
• If you have a 401k or 403b at your job, take advantage of it. Many times, employers will offer “matching” to employees. That’s free money that they will contribute to your retirement fund in lieu of a pension plan. If you don’t contribute anything, they won’t “match” it. Talk with your Human Resource Office to find out 1) If your company offers a retirement plan 2) If your company “matches” 3) What the “match” is 4) How you can sign up immediately.
• When you start taking advantage of the employer-sponsored plan the money will come directly out of your check before you get it. That’s great because the money that you contribute to your retirement will not be assessed taxes. If it was going to go to Uncle Sam anyway, why not invest it for yourself?
• Your job will already have an investment firm that they work with and a set of funds you can invest in. You can usually speak with a representative from the company for free if you’re having trouble choosing.
• If you want to leave your job you can take your retirement money with you, but don’t take it out of the company it’s invested in. You want to have the funds “rolled over” from the old account to the new account so taxes won’t be levied. Once the funds are distributed (if they send you a check) then the government will swoop in to take its cut.
If you don’t have an employer-sponsored plan:
• If you don’t have access to an employee-sponsored retirement plan, then you’ll have to opt for a Traditional or Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA).
• The big difference between the accounts is when you pay taxes.
• You’ll have to find an investment firm that offers mutual funds and then open an account. Most firms will let you start an account with no money as long as you promise to deposit at least $50 per month via electronic transfer from your checking account.
• Start putting all the change in your pocket at the end of the day in a savings jar. The average American will end up with about $50 in change per month. Deposit that money in the bank each month and you have your deposit. If you only invested that $600 per year into a tax-deferred investment account you’d end up with around $163,241.14, assuming a conservative 8% yearly earnings over forty years. You put in $24,000 of spare nickels and pennies and you end up with more than $160k.
• An important thing to look into when choosing a firm to work with is how much money will be taken out to manage the fund. You want a no-load fund with low costs. 1% is average. Try for lower if you can.
• The money is always yours. You can deposit and/or withdraw it as you see fit. Keep in mind that there are limits for how much money you can deposit every year (limits depend on your age, if you have an employee-sponsored plan, and income) and there could be tax consequences for withdrawals.
There are many considerations when dealing with retirement accounts. If you have specific questions please contact a fee-only advisor. Find one near you at http://www.napfa.org/.
About Shay Olivarria
Shay Olivarria is a financial education speaker and the author of three books on personal finance. She has written articles for Bankrate.com, FoxBusiness.com and The Credit Union Times, among others. To find out more about her work, visit her at www.BiggerThanYourBlock.com
Students of La Tijera K-8 School celebrated the start of 2012 with a brand new educational complex.
More than two years after the demolition of the old building, the new school, located on the corner of La Cienega and Fairview Blvds., opened its doors on January 4th.
Since 2009, students were housed in portable classrooms while construction of the new facility took place.
There are currently 389 students enrolled, but it’s expected the number will increase in the new school year.
The modern-looking school has a new state-of-the-art library, an outdoor amphitheater and classrooms with high-end electronic teaching equipment.
Steve Donohue is the school’s principal. He has been overseeing the school and its student body during the past three years and throughout the construction phase of the new building.
The Inglewood Unified School District funded the project through a bond measure passed by Inglewood voters in 1998.
Pictures courtesy of the Inglewood Unified School District.
The intersection at 29th and Western, a popular corner for prostitutes. (Photos: Lisa Rau)
It’s a chilly Monday night in October, and instead of staying home and watching TV, Will Jones and Evie Smith drive around their neighborhood looking for “johns,” or men who pick up prostitutes.
They jot down license plate numbers of those they catch picking up women, compiling a list that is passed on to the local police. The couple has already shared more than 60 numbers, and has even posted a few on a community Twitter feed.
“We’re trying to make it very unfriendly to come here,” says Smith, who hopes exposing the johns will repel future prostitution activity.
On most nights, Jones and Smith’s neighborhood, just east of Western Avenue between 29th and 30th Street, is quiet. On other nights, residents can hear cars driving back and forth, making unnecessary u-turns and finally pulling over to park.
“At our house, we can hear the traffic pick up, and that’s when we know there are prostitutes on the corner,” says Jones, who has seen cars in a line down the block with men waiting for a chance to talk to the scantily clad women.
The street consists of mostly working families and retired seniors, many of whom start getting ready for bed by 10:30 p.m. But for Jones and his wife, their night is only beginning.
The crusading couple passes by six women, and calls it a slow night.
“It used to be every night,” Jones says. He points out that although prostitution has been curbed to a few nights a week in the past few months, it’s still an issue that affects him on a daily basis.
Often called the oldest profession in the world, prostitution is not new to South Los Angeles.
“It has been around as long as I’ve been in the City of Los Angeles, and that’s been since the 40s,” says City Councilman Bernard Parks, who served as LAPD chief of police between 1997 and 2002.
Popular prostitution spots have historically been restricted to Figueroa Street and parts of Western Avenue. However, due to increased law enforcement and newly introduced legal measures in those areas, activity has shifted north along Western Avenue and has spilled onto Jefferson Boulevard.
“It’s kind of like little fires all over the place. We’ll go trample out one fire, and another one will pop up somewhere else,” says Sgt. Brent McGuyre, who heads the LAPD Southwest station’s vice unit that focuses on prostitution in the area on Western between Adams and Vernon.
In April 2010, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office obtained a court injunction banning 35 convicted prostitutes and five pimps from walking anywhere on a 6.5-mile stretch on Figueroa Street between Vernon Avenue and El Segundo Boulevard.
Dubbed the Figueroa Corridor Project, the program was extended in early 2011 to include the Western Corridor, which encompasses McGuyre’s patrol area. A city attorney has been assigned specifically to prosecute all of LAPD Southwest’s prostitution-related arrests.
The result is a 65 percent decrease in prostitution-related crimes in that part of South LA, according to the City Attorney’s website.
Pinning crimes on higher-level prostitution criminals, however, proves to be difficult, says McGuyre, pointing to more prostitutes and pimps using cell phones and the internet to arrange meetings.
When caught, pimps are nearly impossible to convict because their cases require testimony from the prostitutes, who are often either too afraid or unwilling to come forward. Successfully prosecuted cases occur mostly when prostitute witnesses are younger.
“That’s the nature of the beast, unfortunately,” says Sonja Dawson, deputy city attorney and neighborhood prosecutor.
Although the City Attorney files most prostitution cases, budget cuts have made it difficult to keep up, says Mary Molidor, safe neighborhoods deputy for the City Attorney. Staff has been reduced from five to two people handling all the cases in South Los Angeles.
Sharee Gordon, deputy city attorney and neighborhood prosecutor, estimates filing more than 200 prostition-related cases between the two prosecutors since July 2011. She cites the perception of prostitution as a victimless crime as posing another challenge when prosecuting cases.
“They think it’s too low level. They think it’s two consenting adults,” Gordon says.
Jones couldn’t disagree more.
“If you think it’s a victimless crime, just think if you had prostitutes outside of your house every night. Prostitutes servicing johns outside your window,” Jones says. “The fact that you have to walk outside and see condoms on the streets, who wants that? Nobody.”
The road to action
Jones first began noticing the prostitution two years ago during his morning run.
“I would have to wake up on Saturday morning to drive to Venice Beach and see ladies — half naked women — standing on the corner. Then I started noticing condoms on the ground,” Jones recalls.
One night, Jones was up late finishing work, when he glanced outside his window and was shocked to see a woman performing oral sex in front of his house. Jones immediately called the police to report the incident, but was told by an officer to move out of the area if he didn’t want to deal with the prostitution.
“I was just so irate… that I started contacting everyone that I could find an email for: police, city council, media,” Jones says.
Prompted by her husband’s frustration, Smith also began reaching out to city leaders.
After getting no response, the couple began a Twitter account, @29thAndWestern, in April 2011 documenting the activity in their neighborhood with the hopes that their posts would go viral on the internet.
But what began as a way to vent soon became a campaign to raise awareness and alert the police.
“Twitter gave us a voice when no one was listening to us. We document in real time what is happening. It is out there for everyone to see. That makes it harder for the police or City Council to ignore the problem,” says Smith, who Tweets almost everyday.
The couple also began posting submissions from their less tech-savvy neighbors and directing their tweets towards non-profit organizations, their City Council representative Bernard Parks and their local LAPD police station.
Jones says most of their complaints fell largely on deaf ears until Parks, who represents Council District 8, organized a neighborhood meeting on June 22, 2011 inviting community members and representatives from the LAPD and City Attorney’s office.
Residents were able to voice their concerns over a lackadaisical response from the police department and quality of life issues, such as children seeing prostitution activity on their way to school, condoms strewn on front lawns, and evening noise.
“All of that is new to us, and it’s very ugly to look at and see in our community, says Sylvia Williams, who has lived in South LA all her life. “I’ve watched the neighborhood change and drastically go down.”
Williams’ mother and sister live on Western and Florence Avenue.
“From that meeting, we kind of got a blueprint of what the community saw and what they thought was important,” says Parks’ chief of staff Bernard Parks Jr.
However, Jones and Smith came away from the meeting disappointed.
“What really frustrated us at the meeting initially was that they had [said]… they’re not going to be able to get rid of prostitution… and how hard of a problem [it is] to combat,” Jones says. “In some ways, it sounds disingenuous because we know they’re not going to get rid of prostitution forever, but we’re just looking to get rid prostitution out of our block.”
“By the time anything happens, it’ll probably be 6 months later. I mean this is our daily life. It just doesn’t seem like a priority,” Smith complains.
Parks understands their frustration, but warns the community of having unrealistic hopes.
“When you’re talking to people, you hate to say you have to lower their expectations, but if a problem has been there for 60 years, there’s little expectation that it’s going to go away over night,” Parks counters.
Since the meeting, Parks’ office has pushed for daily police patrols along Western Avenue and secured street lighting upgrades. Tree trimming is set to begin early this year.
However, in emails obtained by Intersections South LA, Smith stated that although a few streetlights have been changed to LED lamps, street visibility has only slightly increased. Prostitutes continue to loiter in dark areas, such as alleyways. She wants to see signs put up in the area.
“We can look into it. Have to think about the cost and who will be paying. Our budget is limited,” wrote Cathy Davis, north area field deputy for Parks, in an email.
Smith sees these kinds of responses as unproductive, and wants more leadership from Parks.
“It’s like everything you think of, let’s do this let’s do that. There’s no support and it feels like you’re fighting the prostitutes, the johns and your city council. It’s just crazy,” says Smith, who has also suggested bringing in non-profits and building speed bumps.
Parks’ office is working on planning a follow-up neighborhood meeting to address concerns.
“The meetings only set a course and rechecks to see if we’re going on the right path,” says Parks, who sees his role as more of a facilitator between city resources and his constituents.
“If the community is looking for us to replace them, and that we then take those resources in their place and make them function to solve their problem, I think they and we have missed the boat,” adds Parks.
A night to remember
For their 11th anniversary, Jones and Smith left South LA to get away from the prostitution that had been plaguing their neighborhood. But new surroundings couldn’t erase the facts.
“We still talked about it then, [during] our romantic getaway,” Smith says. “It’s kind of depressing, I guess.”
If it seems like one lone couple is leading the charge in the neighborhood, it’s because they are. Over the course of this investigation, few people were willing to speak about the issue, and many deferred to Jones and Smith.
Richard Parks, head of the West Adams Neighborhood Association, which includes the 29th and Western neighborhood, refused to comment besides acknowledging prostitution as an issue his group is working on.
A November 2011 meeting agenda showed “Prostitution – Western Ave & Hobart Blvd between Adams & Jefferson Blvds” as the second item for discussion.
Repeated requests to speak with families who live on the block have also been rebuffed.
“We feel really alone sometimes. It is a lot. It’s almost like a third job. If we go out to dinner, we’re talking about it,” says Smith, who has tried to rally support among her neighbors by making meeting flyers and encouraging them to contact the police and other city officials.
“The last time I called my dad, he asked, ‘How’s the ‘ho’ patrol going?’” Smith says. “That’s how he greeted me on the phone, and that’s a little depressing in a way.”
Jones agreed. He plans to start a new business soon and would rather not be known as the person “that talks about sex trafficking all the time.”
During the day, the corner of 29th and Western is quiet.
“Everybody’s afraid of retribution. People don’t want to stick their head out and get hurt, Jones says. “We’re afraid as well of the possibility of violence. We’ve seen girls get beaten up by pimps.”
Will remembers a young woman, who looked about 13 or 14 years old, screaming for help in the middle of the night in June of 2010 as a pimp beat her right in front of the couple’s house.
As Jones dialed 9-1-1, Smith raced out the door yelling for the pimp to stop.
Only one other neighbor came out.
“Evie! Evie! It’s her choice. Let it go,” said her neighbor, caring more about Smith’s safety than the source of the commotion.
The police arrived five minutes later, after the man had forced the young woman into his car.
“It just makes me so angry… you’ll get the whole community out there to see a [car] wreck. Some girl is getting beat to an inch of her life, and nobody comes out of their house,” says an emotional Smith, as she wipes away tears.
It was the first time Smith ever filed a police report, and an incident that she’ll never forget.
LAPD joins the effort
After the neighborhood meeting, LAPD stepped up their efforts along Western Avenue. They encouraged patrols to randomly drive through the afflicted area and conduct more stings to catch prostitutes and johns.
LAPD Southwest also began following and regularly retweeting information posted on @29thAndWestern.
“The fact that LAPD Southwest is actually using [Twitter] to communicate with the community is very cool. It’s progressive,” Jones says.
These initiatives were a direct result of community participation, says McGuyre.
“We were able to get a lot more resources than we could for other areas where we don’t have that support,” McGuyre says. “It’s not that we wouldn’t have given our 100 percent effort, it’s just that it helps.”
LAPD Vice Division handles most prostitution-related crimes, but the unit also regulates gaming, bookmaking, alcohol licenses and pornography. As a result, Vice must split its time among crimes that need their full attention.
At LAPD Southwest, the Vice Division has eight people, and struggles to keep up with changing crime patterns.
“We could obviously use more officers. That’s always an ongoing battle,” says Sean Anderson, a senior lead officer with LAPD Southwest. It’s “not always easy, especially now with the budget and economy.”
Parks says law enforcement should focus more on how it allocates resources rather than how many resources it has. He suggests adjusting work schedules to 8-hour shifts spread out among more days. LAPD officers currently work 10-hour shifts on four days or 12-hour shifts on three days.
“They have more police officers than they had at any time in their history. I don’t understand how their answer to anything could be we’re shorthanded,” Parks says.
LAPD grew by 679 officers from 2005 to 2010, bringing the total up to nearly 10,000. When measured per capita, however, Los Angeles trails behind major cities such as New York.
While the New York Police Department has about one police officer for every 240 people, LAPD has about one officer for every 380 people.
Due to tight budgets, LAPD has also cut back on overtime hours, resulting in less time for officers to patrol, process criminals, write reports, and clock out on time.
“Before… if there were 20 prostitutes out there, we could keep arresting them,” McGuyre says. “But now I know about 4 hours before [the end of a] shift, I got to shut it down.”
Prostitutes, however, can work at any hour of the day, and when the policing ends, residents are left with little tools besides a phone call to the LAPD to stop the activity.
“A lot of [police] don’t care, because they see it everyday. If you see a person doing the same thing, [it’s like] ok we’ll arrest them. We’ll take them and lock them up. They’ll get out, and then they’re out doing the same thing,” Williams says.
Police officers cite difficult requirements that need to be met before making an arrest as a primary challenge. For prostitution, officers must prove that a person is loitering for prostitution or has taken action to engage in prostitution.
“In my head, I may know she’s a prostitute, but I can’t just pull up and [arrest her], I have to establish that fact,” Anderson said.
Prostitution is a misdemeanor crime, which means those who get arrested face relatively mild punishments, such as fines and jail time. However, California’s shifting of state prisoners to county jails is forcing police to release inmates charged with minor crimes earlier than normal to prevent overcrowding.
Jones and Smith can hear traffic increase at the intersection of 29th and Western at night, when the johns slow down to talk to prostitutes.
Prostitutes and johns end up being some of the first let out. Many are held in jail for as little as one night and then released with probation.
McGuyre has even heard of a woman who was serving six separate probations for prostitution at the same time.
“I doubt that 98 percent of these girls once we arrest them are going to stop prostituting. I just am hoping they move somewhere else to be honest with you,” McGuyre says.
From January to October of 2011, Southwest Vice made 245 prostitution arrests, a 54 percent increase from last year.
“Unfortunately, like a lot of the crimes we deal with, we can’t solely arrest our way out of the problem. That’s where we try to get some other help, especially from the community,” McGuyre says.
A lone couple fights back
After witnessing a pimp severely beat a young woman in front of her house, Smith had a change of heart. Instead of approaching prostitution strictly as a penal issue, she looked for social alternatives.
“What woman really wants to be out there? What is her life story that she ended up standing on a corner?” Smith asks.
A careful search yielded few reputable programs in Los Angeles, so she approached the Mary Magdalene Project, a nonprofit based in Van Nuys that provides support services to prostitutes.
According to emails obtained by Intersections, MMP needed a community partner that would provide a venue for their group to meet once a week and support from judges, public defenders and city attorneys to create a prostitute diversion program that offers job training, education and other support services.
However, the city of Los Angeles has its own prostitute diversion program, which made it difficult to garner the support necessary to bring MMP to South LA, Smith says.
The City Attorney’s office sends qualified prostitutes to MMP, but it often depends on circumstances, such as where the prostitute is from and MMP program resources, Gordon says.
In the city’s prostitute diversion program, johns attend an eight-hour class, where speakers talk about the legal and health consequences of prostitution. Prostitutes are offered a five-week program that includes drug rehabilitation, job training and other social services.
Only first-time johns and prostitutes are allowed to participate in the City’s program. Those who finish are able to avoid incarceration. Multiple offenders face minimum jail times ranging from 45 to 90 days, which are often reduced because of jail overcrowding.
As a result, many prostitutes choose to serve their short sentences instead of completing the rigorous program. Those that do choose to enroll, often drop out or are caught prostituting again later. Repeat john offenders, however, are rare.
“A lot of times, [prostitutes] are too entrenched. Five weeks is not enough. It’s kind of like they go through the motions to get rid of the case, but it’s not really a life change,” says Gordon, who has seen girls as young as 13 years old selling their body.
Jennifer Jackson, a former prostitute in South LA and Oakland, says the desire to stop prostituting has to come from within.
“I wanted all along for my life to be in order. I wanted to be better. I wanted my kids, and I had to realize even without my kids, what about me? What about my life? What do I want for me?” Jackson says.
MMP declined to comment on the matter specifically, but Donna Sarrulo, outreach coordinator for MMP, says her organization has no plans to expand to Los Angeles in the near future.
Although Smith failed to bring MMP to South LA, she continues to follow up with city officials and police to check on their progress.
“I didn’t choose this. This came into my area. This chose us. If I was picking a cause — I don’t know — it might be save the animals or something, but not this,” Smith says.
A silver lining
After making a few rounds in their car, Jones and Smith drive home, breathing a sigh of relief. They had seen multiple women working the corners along Western Avenue, but the traffic on their street was quiet.
Jones started off, “Sometimes it seems so oppressing in our lives, but the encouraging thing is…”
“Tonight,” Smith interrupts. “This is a huge success.”
“We haven’t even called [the police]… for some reason, it’s working. A combination of all these different efforts is making progress,” says Jones, referring to the Twitter community and increased LAPD presence.
Although the couple has seen less prostitution in their neighborhood, they aren’t letting go of the fight anytime soon. In addition to their day jobs, they expect to continue tweeting, contacting media and putting pressure on city officials.
“Our worst fear is the police stop coming, and then it just goes back to a whole clown car of prostitutes parking in front of our house,” says Jones, recounting previous incidents.
If that happens, the couple is considering moving out of the neighborhood.
“There’s got to be a breaking point,” Jones says.
Until then, they hope their efforts will encourage others to get more involved and help build a better community.
“Maybe this is a pipe dream, but I am optimistic that the neighborhood is going to go back to the way it was,” Smith says. “I’m hoping we’ll be able to get our lives back.”
Will Jones and Evie Smith are not the couple’s real names. They have been changed to protect their identity.
For the past four months, journalist and USC student Melissa Leu visited the monthly meetings of the neighborhood council Voices of 90037. During her time, she found out a lot about how hyper-local politics operate in underserved communities. Voices of 90037 represent the a strip just north of Watts. It sits between the 110 and Flower Street, south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to 62nd Street.
Leu captures the challenges and inspiration of the Voices of 90037 through a series profiling members of the council.
Voices of 90037 Neighborhood Council Chair Iona Diggs has served on the council since its inception 8 years ago. Although she’s retired now, Diggs stays active in her community through volunteer work with the LAPD and neighborhood council duties.
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