Sidewalk With BID Patrol

Image from Steve Seyler's September 8, 2014 report to the Joint Security Committee of the Hollywood BIDs
Image from Steve Seyler’s September 8, 2014 report to the Joint Security Committee of the Hollywood BIDs
Our faithful readers will have been delving eagerly into Steve Seyler’s reports to the Joint Security Committee as we’ve made them available. The image to the right is typical of the weirdly voyeuristic self-serving propaganda that fills these documents.

Seyler is, of course, speaking to his bosses, so he has to make sure they understand what they’re getting for their money. And what are they getting?

They’re getting BID patrols running around first thing in the morning waking up homeless people:2014.09.08.seyler.report.to.JSC.unredacted.sidewalk.without.BID.patrol.prose A federal court has enjoined the city of Los Angeles (and, by extension we assume, its quasi-private quasi-police adjuncts, the BID patrols) from enforcing Los Angeles Municipal Code §41.18(d) between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. So the BID sends its security patrols out to wake everyone up the minute that it’s legal for them to do so (we assume they wait till it’s legal). They don’t wait for complaints, they don’t wait for sleepers to bother anyone, they just wake them up and send them on their way. We suppose they have the legal right to do this, but what are they trying to accomplish?

Well, it’s complicated. For instance, we’ve personally observed whole gangs of people absolutely flouting LAMC §41.18(d) on Cosmo Street near Selma every Sunday year after year after year.

People on Cosmo Street sitting on the sidewalk in flagrant violation of Los Angeles Municipal Code §41.18(d) and not being arrested by the BID patrol
People on Cosmo Street sitting on the sidewalk on in flagrant violation of LAMC §41.18(d) and not being arrested by the BID patrol
The BID patrol is never there. No one gets threatened with arrest. No hands are placed on weapons. So what would sidewalks look like with the BID patrol? Still full of people sitting on them, but rich clean light-skinned people rather than poor dirty dark-skinned people. That’s what the BID is getting from Steve Seyler and his BID patrols, so we assume that’s what they’re paying for.

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