Occupy protests' ironic legacy: more restrictions on protesters

Life was upended briefly in affluent San Marino last year when a hundred or so Occupy-style protesters staged a demonstration on the lawn of a resident Wells Fargo executive.

The police chief declared the city's 28-member force "overwhelmed." So city leaders passed an ordinance that required protesters to stay 75 feet from the curb of targeted residences. Then they tightened parade permit requirements and added a measure to allow police to move obstructing protesters off sidewalks.

By the time they were finished, the only place left in San Marino where protesters could demonstrate without a permit was the median of Huntington Drive, a 60-foot-wide grassy space that runs through the center of the city.

San Marino isn't alone. Across California and the nation, Occupy protests have prompted cities to tighten restrictions on protesters and behavior in public space in ways that opponents say threaten free speech and worsen conditions for homeless people.

Governments now regulate with new vigor where protesters may stand and walk and what they can carry. Protest permits are harder to get and penalties are steeper. Camping is banned from Los Angeles parks by a new, tougher ordinance. Philadelphia and Houston tightened restrictions on feeding people in public.

It's an ironic legacy for a movement conceived as a voice for the downtrodden.

When Occupy protests first fanned across the country last year, the movement enjoyed widespread popularity, and politicians responded with resolutions of support. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa even had ponchos delivered to Occupy Los Angeles when it rained.

But as demonstrations wore on and public sentiment shifted, cities got tougher with protesters.

As Occupy protests threatened to disrupt the May G-8 and NATO summits in Chicago, for example, lawmakers reduced park hours, installed more surveillance cameras, raised fees for protest permits and increased fines for violations. Large protest groups must now submit to a variety of conditions to get permission to demonstrate, including spelling out the dimensions of their placards and banners, and meeting insurance requirements.

About three weeks into Occupy Nashville's encampment in Legislative Plaza, Tennessee state authorities established a curfew, imposed new permit and insurance requirements, and promptly cleared the camp. In Sacramento, highly specific measures passed, making it illegal to wash dishes on the City Hall grounds and restricting use of tape and chalk.

In some cases, police "made up their own laws in the street," said Sarah Knuckey, a New York University Law Professor who worked with Occupy Wall Street.

After Occupy Wall Street was evicted from Zucotti Park, protesters were allowed to return only to face a long list of park rules that changed daily, Knuckey said. New York City police and park security refused entry to the park based on violations such as possessing food, musical instruments and yoga mats, Knuckey said.

In July, Los Angeles police arrested Occupy protesters drawing on the street with chalk during an Art Walk event on suspicion of vandalism — though the drawings were about as permanent as sand castles on a beach.

Free speech advocates say the trend is dismaying. "It reflects a hostility to protest," said Linda Lye, attorney for ACLU in Northern California. "What we've seen is a response not different from Bull Connor."

Mara Verheyden Hilliard, an attorney with the National Lawyer's Guild, said although city officials often deny any connection to Occupy in defending the new measures, she believes Occupy is their real target.

City officials defended the restrictions as legitimate attempts to protect public spaces, which they say were subjected to unprecedented new uses during the protests. Free speech, in Occupy's case, took the form of tent cities that required constant police attention and expensive cleanup. In Los Angeles, costs for police overtime and cleanup exceeded $4.7 million.

"The movement has a right to exercise speech, but the city has a right to regulate its public spaces," Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. William Carter said.

Homeless advocates say people living on the streets will suffer long after the last Occupy tent comes down.

"There are unhoused individuals that are the daily victims of these laws," said Neil Donovan, executive director for the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington.

Though bans on camping in public spaces have existed for decades in many cities, dozens of new ordinances have come with "lightning speed," Donovan said. Since November 2011, camping bans have been adopted in Washington, D.C.; Charlotte, N.C., and Denver, and the states of Tennessee and Idaho, among many others, according the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

In Los Angeles, camping in parks was already banned. City leaders made an exception for Occupy Los Angeles, which lasted eight weeks. Citing health and safety concerns, the city evicted the protesters and passed a new, amended ordinance that specifically banned tents and sleeping bags after parks closed.

Western Regional Advocacy Project, a homeless outreach organization, has surveyed more than 800 homeless people in nine major cities across the nation in the last two years and found that 45% of those surveyed had been cited for sleeping.

Cheryl Aichele, an early member of Occupy Los Angeles, said it was never the movement's intention to prompt stiffer laws. "If Occupy made those things tougher, it was only because there was a pre-existing push against these things," Aichele said.

Not all the efforts have been successful: In Oakland, after repeated violent confrontations between police and Occupy Oakland, the city considered a protest ordinance that would have criminalized a long list of items, including sticks more than quarter of an inch thick. The measure never made it out of committee.

In Fresno County, police dismantled an Occupy camp by invoking seldom-used prohibitions on the distribution of literature and on gatherings without a permit. A federal judge found the codes unconstitutional.

But there are enough new restrictions to hobble the Occupy movement, said Todd Gitlin, a journalism professor at Columbia University and author of the book "Occupy Nation." Membership is declining and protests rarely make headlines now, Gitlin said.

When the San Marino City Council voted to confine protests to a city median in October, they made their arguments to an empty room. None of the groups who prompted the law could spare a member to speak against it.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

Read More..

Cheering U.N. Palestine Vote, New York Synagogue Tests Its Members

Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue with several thousand members on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is known for its charismatic rabbis, its energetic and highly musical worship, and its liberal stances on social causes.

But on Friday, when its rabbis and lay leaders sent out an e-mail enthusiastically supporting the vote by the United Nations to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember observer state, the statement was more than even some of its famously liberal congregants could stomach.

“The vote at the U.N. yesterday is a great moment for us as citizens of the world,” said the e-mail, which was sent to all congregants. “This is an opportunity to celebrate the process that allows a nation to come forward and ask for recognition.”

The statement, at a time when the United Nations’ vote was opposed by the governments of the United States and Israel, as well as by the leadership of many American Jewish organizations, reflected a divide among American Jews and a willingness to break a longstanding taboo by publicly disagreeing with Israel.

Clergy at several Jewish congregations have, in various ways, spoken out sympathetically about the United Nations’ vote.

At B’nai Jeshurun, reaction from congregants was swift. Some, like Allan Ripp, said he and his wife were appalled.

“We are just sort of in a state of shock,” he said. “It’s not as if we don’t support a two-state solution, but to say with such a warm embrace — it is like a high-five to the P.L.O., and that has left us numb.”

Other congregants, however, said it was a bold move that they welcomed.

“I thought it was great; I thought it was very courageous of them,” said Gil Kulick, a congregant. “I think as of late there has been a reluctance to speak out on this issue,” he added, “and that’s why I was really delighted that they chose to take a strong unequivocal stand.”

American Jews have long had a vigorous, and sometimes vitriolic, debate about the positions of the Israeli government and the peace process with the Palestinians. But the tendency has been to keep critical views within the fold, particularly when responding to high-profile actions like the vote supporting an upgrade in Palestinian status in the United Nations.

“In most cases, at most times we impose a kind of discipline upon ourselves — nobody imposes it on us — particularly on a matter that the Israeli government has asked for unanimous support from the Jewish community,” said Samuel Norich, the publisher of The Forward, a Jewish affairs weekly based in New York. “When they speak out, that is rare,” Mr. Norich said of mainstream congregations.

Gary Rosenblatt, the editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, the largest circulation Jewish newspaper in the country, said, “I think the sense of a need for a unified front in the American Jewish community is breaking down.”

In White Plains, a group of synagogues from different branches of Judaism — conservative, reform and reconstructionist — sent an e-mail to congregants after the United Nations’ vote expressing cautious optimism about Palestine’s new status, even as statements from the reform and conservative movements expressed disappointment.

“For their own reasons, most of the American Jewish organizations felt it was necessary to fall into line,” said Lester Bronstein, a rabbi at Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains and one of the signers of the letter. “I think what we said is indicative of what more and more rabbis believe, and more and more, but in trickles, are able to say it.”

 The rabbis at B’nai Jeshurun — J. Rolando Matalon, Marcelo R. Bronstein and Felicia L. Sol — did not respond to repeated requests this week for comment on why they had sent the e-mail, which was also signed by the president of the synagogue’s board of directors and its executive director. While its gist — that the vote could be a step toward a two-state solution and Middle East peace — was not surprising to congregants, its tone and its timing, so soon after the Gaza conflict, made it stand out, some said.

B’nai Jeshurun, which is not affiliated with any of the major branches of Judaism, worships in an elaborate Moorish-style sanctuary on West 88th Street. The congregation has attracted national attention for its success at energizing a once-struggling synagogue. Some services attract overflow crowds; lectures and events are popular not only among members, but also among young single Jews seeking social connections. During services, congregants are encouraged to express themselves and often clap and even dance to the music, which is played by live musicians with not just a keyboard, but also often with congas, mandolin, flute, guitar or cello.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 4, 2012

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the congregation at one point.  It is B’nai Jeshurun, not B’nai Jeshrun,

Read More..

iOS users generate double the Web traffic of Android users

According to the latest numbers from Chitika Insights, iOS users generate more than twice the amount of Web traffic as Android users. The six-month study found that while the two operating systems were nearly tied when it came to smartphone Web traffic, Apple (AAPL) has a substantial lead with its iPad tablet. Despite Android’s commanding share of the overall mobile market, the Cupertino-based company’s platform totaled 67% of Web traffic measured in the past six months, compared to Android’s 35% share.

“Despite all the new Android and Apple devices that have been released over the past six months, little has changed in the overall Web traffic distribution between iOS and Android,” the research firm wrote. “iOS’s share has hovered around 65%, while Android largely has stayed around 35%, the OS hit a peak of 40% in late August thanks partially to strong Samsung Galaxy S III sales. Apple then regained some share with the release of the iPhone 5 in the September timeframe.”

To qualify for the study Chitika Insights analysed billions of ad impressions coming from iOS or Android devices from May 27th to November 27th.

Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

How Adriana Lima Got Her Body Back for the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Jennifer Graylock/JPI

With just eight weeks between the birth of daughter Sienna and the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, Adriana Lima wasted no time hitting the ring.

Taking three weeks off to recover from the delivery, Lima had the five remaining weeks to prepare — and she did, following an intense workout plan designed by her trainer of six years, Michael Olajide, Jr. of Aerospace NYC. According to the model’s fitness guru, Lima’s “working weight” varies depending on what project she’s working on but for the brand’s big event, “she wanted to be more defined and athletic.”

But before the bombshell could start Olajide’s cardio muscle aeroboxing endurance plan, “her doctor had [to give] her a clear pass to do everything we’d done together before,” he explains. ”Adriana’s metabolism had slowed down, and that’s what happens when you’re nesting, but we had to get her burning 24/7.”

He’s not kidding: “We were doing four to six hours every day, seven days a week,” Olajide shares.

Starting at 9 a.m., Lima’s twice-daily workouts included 20 to 30 minutes on an exercise bike, followed by 20 to 30 minutes of core work and a “quick-reflex” shadowboxing routine created by Olajide, a former middleweight boxing champion. Next, the mom-of two would don real boxing gloves and practice punching combinations to learn speed and power, followed by glute and leg sculpting exercises, and a rigorous jump-roping routine finished with stretching.

Sound exhausting? That’s just her morning workout. “She’d head home to be with the family and the babies and then, pow! She’d come back that night from 5 to 8 p.m.,” he marvels. “It was incredible to see that type of dedication and fortitude.”

Although Lima came under fire for her pre-show diet last year, Olajide ensures she’s responsible about her health.

“Adriana enjoys her food. She eats anything from chocolate mousse to steak and hamburgers,” he says. “But when it’s time to prepare for something, she has the discipline to prepare for it.”

This time around, that also meant working with a nutritionist to cut out salt and seasonings, and eating steamed dark greens and lean proteins. ”It was a roller coaster, but she’s a fighter. She just bit down on her mouthguard and got it done.”

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. EST on CBS.

– Catherine Kast

Read More..

Study: Drug coverage to vary under health law

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study says basic prescription drug coverage could vary dramatically from state to state under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

That's because states get to set benefits for private health plans that will be offered starting in 2014 through new insurance exchanges.

The study out Tuesday from the market analysis firm Avalere Health found that some states will require coverage of virtually all FDA-approved drugs, while others will only require coverage of about half of medications.

Consumers will still have access to essential medications, but some may not have as much choice.

Connecticut, Virginia and Arizona will be among the states with the most generous coverage, while California, Minnesota and North Carolina will be among states with the most limited.

___

Online:

Avalere Health: http://tinyurl.com/d3b3hfv

Read More..

Streetcar line called downtown's missing link

In a city that is often derided for its lack for public transportation, downtown L.A. is the one exception.

The city center has light-rail lines, a subway, a maze of bus routes and shuttles, links to commuter rail and even a tiny funicular that trudges up and down Bunker Hill.

But many residents and developers say that it can still be difficult to get around the far-flung city center without a car. So urban planners and downtown boosters have spent considerable time on what may have once been considered impossible: creating a truly car-optional neighborhood in the center of a region defined by its car culture.

Voters in downtown Los Angeles this week approved key financing for a $125-million streetcar project that might finally put this theory to the test. The streetcar would run mainly along Broadway, and Hill and Figueroa streets, three of downtown's main arteries, connecting various neighbors, including the old banking district, South Park, Civic Center and the fashion district.

Developers — and some residents — see the streetcar as a missing transportation link.

"If you're in New York, or San Francisco or Portland, you forget about your car. You walk, you take public transportation, and you get a much richer experience," said Scott Denham, vice president at Evoq Properties, a downtown developer. "The whole concept of being in L.A. and not having to drive to have a whole Saturday or Sunday to experience downtown… It's really not that far off in reality."

The streetcar is one of two major transportation infrastructure projects planned for downtown. The other is the so-called regional connector, a $1.3-billion, Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway line that would run beneath 2nd Street, linking trains from Pasadena and East L.A. with the Blue Line from Long Beach and Expo Line from Culver City.

Both projects have won support from city officials and business leaders, but there remains skepticism about whether downtown can truly break away from its reliance on the automobile.

Some note that downtown still lacks many of the chain stores and specialty shops found at regional malls. Others question why transit officials should spend so much on improving downtown mass transit when services are so much worse elsewhere in the region.

Jim Moore, professor of civil and environmental engineering at USC, noted that only 2% to 4% of the total jobs in Los Angeles County are based downtown. Instead of building more rail downtown, he said, planners would be better off using the resources to revamp bus service across the region.

"No number of streetcars or connectors is going to cause jobs to re-centralize," Moore said. "The economic forces pulling us in the other direction are just too strong."

The projects also face opposition from some property owners. Two major property owners have sued Metro over the effect of building the connector line, and some landlords have complained over the election process used for the streetcar, which only gave votes to residents but will tax property owners exclusively.

The streetcar ballot measure won with more than 70% of the vote in a special vote-by-mail election by downtown residents. Its passage Monday creates a special tax assessment district to raise up to $85 million. The tax will not be levied on property owners unless the project receives matching funds from the federal government and completes an environmental review. If all goes well, the streetcar could start running by 2015.

The streetcar is seen as a centerpiece of the city's efforts to revive the once-bustling Broadway corridor, which includes revitalizing the street's historic movie palaces and converting some of its old office buildings into housing. The streetcar, backers argue, would reestablish Broadway as a transportation spine connecting various parts of downtown, as it did when Los Angeles had an extensive streetcar system decades ago.

Downtown's recent revitalization has occurred in pockets, with distinct neighborhoods forming within a five-mile area stretching from Chinatown and the 10 Freeway to the Los Angeles River and 110 Freeway. Getting from a Little Tokyo sushi restaurant to Staples Center, or from a French eatery in the warehouse district to Disney Hall would be a half-hour walk.

It's a problem that Gerry Ruiz deals with many days: There's no quick way for him to get from his apartment complex on Cesar Chavez Avenue at the northern edge of downtown Los Angeles to the gym on Flower Street where he works as a personal trainer.

"My walk is 30 minutes or my drive is 30 minutes, when you've got to deal with the hassle of finding parking," Ruiz said of his 1.2- mile commute. "And you think about it, all over downtown, there's places to eat popping up, places to go, but everything is spread out."

Meredith Molino, a fashion student who recently moved from Philadelphia into a Spring Street apartment, said she still hasn't seen some pockets of downtown, like Little Tokyo, because she does not have a car. Like Ruiz, she expressed strong support for the streetcar.

Besides moving downtown residents around, experts said, the streetcar would benefit commuters and tourists. The streetcar would serve as a "last-leg" transit option for bus and train riders who come downtown from other parts of the region, said Paul Habibi, a professor at the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate who is an advisor on the project.

The regional connector subway would streamline the light-rail system, Metro officials said, eliminating transfers for many riders by linking the Gold Line with trains at the Metro Center Station on 7th Street. The connector, scheduled for completion in 2019, would also intersect with several spots along the proposed route for the streetcar.

The connector is expected to bring about 90,000 new rail riders each day, officials say, while streetcar proponents project 10,000 riders daily.

Diego Cardoso, the project's executive director, said the connector and the streetcar will further heighten a shift away from the car that is already occurring among downtown Los Angeles residents. The area now has about 50,000 residents, but that number is expected to grow as a host of new residential developments is completed. The mass transit system is actually becoming part of the lure of downtown, Cardoso said, and one of the things that makes it a distinctive place to live.

Still, there remains much debate about how much the new transit options will change Los Angeles' car culture.

Allison Yoh, an associate director of transportation studies at UCLA, said that even if the streetcar and central connector prove popular, they are probably not going to be enough to coax many people from using their cars. She said to achieve that, the city would need to take more radical steps such as freeway tolls and expensive parking fees to discourage people from using their cars as often.

"The solution is not necessarily more transit services and more options," Yoh said. "You really do need to tamper down the appeal of driving, and you can do that through congestion pricing."

sam.allen@latimes.com

Read More..

U.S. Warns Syria Against Using Chemical Weapons

Narciso Contreras/Associated Press

 A kitchen in a home in Aleppo, Syria showed signs of heavy fighting Sunday.

WASHINGTON — President Obama warned Syria on Monday not to use chemical weapons against its own people, vowing to hold accountable anyone who did, even as American intelligence officials picked up signs that such arms might be deployed in the fighting there.

The White House said it had an “increased concern” that the government of President Bashar al-Assad was preparing to use such weapons, effectively confirming earlier reports of activity at chemical weapons sites. The administration said it would take action if they were used, suggesting even the possibility of military force.

“Today I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The world is watching,” Mr. Obama said in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington. “The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.”

Neither the president nor his aides would specify how it would hold Syrians accountable, but the White House confirmed that contingency plans had been drawn for direct action. The president’s statement amplified similar warnings issued by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier in the day in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, which represents the interests of the United States in Damascus now that the American Embassy there has been closed.

“This is a red line for the United States,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I am not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people. But suffice it to say, we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur.”

The sharpening language came as NATO was preparing to buttress its member Turkey against a potential attack from Syria. A plan expected to be endorsed by the alliance’s foreign ministers during two-days of meetings that begin Tuesday in Brussels calls for deploying American, German and Dutch Patriot missile-defense batteries under the operational control of the NATO military command, Western officials said Monday.

Such a move would be the most direct action in the Syrian conflict by the alliance, which has remained cautious about intervention there. But for months, Turkey has expressed concerns about the potential of missile attacks from Syria as relations between the two countries have worsened, and last month Ankara asked for Patriot batteries.

As the United States and its allies tried to forestall the conflict from escalating, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said the government “would not use chemical weapons, if it had them, against its own people under any circumstances.” The statement was reported on Syrian state television and on the Lebanese channel LBC.

Mr. Obama has called for Mr. Assad to step down but has shied away from taking direct action sought by Syrian rebels. With the election over, advisers are considering a more robust response, including possibly providing arms to the rebels and recognizing the opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

But Mr. Obama avoided any mention of such actions in his speech. “We will work to support the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people, engaging with the opposition, providing them with the humanitarian aid and working for a transition to a Syria that’s free of the Assad regime,” he said.

Jay Carney, the president’s press secretary, hinted at possible military action in response to any use of chemical weapons but declined to specify options. “We think it is important to prepare for all scenarios,” he said. “Contingency planning is the responsible thing to do.”

Mrs. Clinton flew from Prague to Brussels for the NATO meeting. A senior NATO official said the alliance would declare its support for Turkey’s request for help and welcome the intention of three allied nations to deploy Patriot missile batteries there. It would then be up to the United States, Germany and the Netherlands to decide how many batteries to deploy and for how long.

Surveys are being conducted of 10 potential sites, mainly in southeastern Turkey, but a senior American official traveling with Mrs. Clinton said it would probably take several weeks to deploy the batteries. Once deployed, they would be under the operational control of NATO’s top military commander, Adm. James. G. Stavridis.

The pending move has prompted speculation that it might be an indirect way of extending protection to forces opposing Mr. Assad in northern Syria by targeting Syrian warplanes operating there. But NATO and American officials were adamant that was not the purpose.

“There is no safe haven,” the American official with Mrs. Clinton said. “There is no de facto cross-border aspect to this.”

Instead, officials said the idea was to discourage Syria from threatening Turkey for supporting Syrian insurgents — and to discourage Turkey from feeling pressured to intervene to head off attacks against it. The Turkish military issued a statement Monday calling the deployment “a measure entirely aimed at defense.”

Peter Baker reported from Washington, and Michael R. Gordon from Brussels.

Read More..

News Corp shutting down iPad newspaper ‘The Daily’ on December 15th

News Corp’s iPad newspaper “The Daily” is officially dead. Launched in February 2011, The Daily was a “ bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation,” but like so many pioneering ideas, it “could not find a large enough audience quickly enough” to keep the publication going, according to Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman of News Corporation and Chairman and CEO of Fox Group. The Daily will officially cease publishing on December 15th and will see Jesse Angelo, its Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor of The New York Post move into the role of Publisher for the latter. The Daily was supposed to signal a new era of app-based interactive newspapers, but alas, in a world of Flipboard, Instapaper and social media, finding a new channel to distribute and aggregate news has proven to be challenging, even for corporations with plenty of resources.

Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Jon Bon Jovi Had 'No Idea' About His Daughter's Drug Trouble

By Dahvi Shira

12/03/2012 at 07:20 PM EST

Jon Bon Jovi and daughter Stephanie

Dave M. Benett/Getty

Jon Bon Jovi isn't just livin' on a prayer following the apparent heroin overdose that hospitalized his daughter Stephanie Rose Bongiovi last month.

Speaking out about the issue with his daughter, the legendary rocker, 50, says he's "confident" Bongiovi, 19, will be okay, telling the Associated Press, "You surround them with the best help and love and move on, and that's where we're at with it."

Although the musician and his family are getting past the Nov. 14 incident that occurred in Bongiovi's Hamilton College dorm room in Clinton, N.Y., the musician is still surprised it happened.

"I'm shocked as much as the next parent with this situation and had no idea," Bon Jovi explains. "Steph is a great kid. Great GPA. Cool school … everything about it is idyllic. She was doing great, then a sudden and steep decline."

Reflecting back, Bon Jovi says when he first became a father he wasn't sure how best to raise a little girl, but he and his wife provided a loving, stable home for their daughter.

"I didn't have any sisters," he says. "We bring home this girl the first day. Now what? Where's the manual? There was no manual. So you bring her up the best you can, you surround her with hugs and kisses and know that she may eventually fall down," he says. "I appreciate the outpouring of kindness in light of what happened in my household … No one knows the future. It is what it is."

Read More..

Treating them as victims, not criminals

Two years ago, Los Angeles County probation officer Michelle Guymon was asked to help child abuse experts study human trafficking.

She imagined a globe-trotting break from 23 years in the trenches managing law-breaking teens. "I figured I'd be traveling the world," she said.

But Guymon never left home. The human trafficking victims she studied were local girls forced into sex — not much different from the hundreds she'd encountered in juvenile hall, locked up and punished for working the streets.

"That was an 'aha' moment for me," she recalled.

Guymon had spent years in the county's probation camps "working with young girls who had come into the system as a result of a prostitution-related offense. But I never really saw those girls as being sexually exploited."

"I had more of a judgment thing: 'You need to quit that. This is not a good thing to be doing.' I thought I was a good therapist, but I missed it," she said.

"I didn't make the correlation with the girls I had been working with: These are the girls being sexually exploited. This is not just some bad choice they made."

That was then. Now Guymon is serving on a county task force charged with translating that insight into policy.

Its goal? Finding ways to keep young girls out of prostitution, and young prostitutes out of the criminal justice system. Treating them, finally, not as criminals but victims.

::

The task force, proposed last week by Supervisor Mike Antonovich, is a product of three forces:

Proposition 35's landslide approval last month toughens penalties for those convicted of forcing minors into sex work and makes it harder to prosecute teenage prostitutes. At the same time, local law enforcement and child abuse agencies have been joining forces with international anti-human trafficking groups.

And officials recently learned that more than half of juveniles arrested in Los Angeles County on prostitution-related charges have been under the care and supervision of the Department of Children and Family Services, the county's child welfare arm.

"There's a huge link to foster care," Guymon told me. "These are the kids that run away, find themselves on the street with nowhere to sleep or eat, and no one to take care of them."

Many have already been abused and taken from their families. Some are living in group homes where they feel unloved or ignored. "Pimps know that and prey on that," Guymon said. "We've had girls 11 and 12 years old, who get sucked in by 'I'll never do what your father did. I'll take care of you. I love you.' "

LAPD Lt. Andre Dawson said many of the pimps are gang members, who follow up the sweet talk with beatings or threats. "They tell her she's pretty, she can be the next video model.... By the time she realizes she's being manipulated, it's hard for her to get out."

Dawson has spent the last two years working with the FBI's sex trafficking project, Innocence Lost. He doesn't talk about "arresting" young prostitutes anymore, but about "rescuing" children and helping them "recover."

But the practical challenges of that approach are bigger than a vocabulary shift, especially when it comes to young people in the foster care system.

What do you do with a 14-year-old who propositions a vice cop?

Lock her up like a criminal and at least you know she's safe for a while. Return her to a foster home and she'll probably be back on the streets with her pimp before long.

Read More..