Letter to LA City Attorney Office

One of our neighbors e-mailed this to Frank Mateljan, Carmen Trutanich’s Communications Deputy. We are reprinting it with full permission by the author.

February 12, 2010

Frank Mateljan
Communications Deputy
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich
800 City Hall East
200 N Main Street
Los Angeles
California  90012
213-978-8100

Dear Mr. Mateljan,

I’m speaking on behalf of the residents surrounding the Robertson Car Wash (2460 South Robertson Blvd, Los Angeles, 90034, 310-559-8044), which, since late October 2009 has been targeted by United Steelworkers trying to force it to sign a contract or, failing that, close it. The union and carwash owner tell different stories of conditions there. One or the other — or both — are lying, in whole or in part. That’s not our concern.

What is: For the past 3-1/2 months, many days each week including Saturdays and Sundays, for three to six hours a day from as early as 9 am to as late as 4:30 pm, pickets have been screaming at the top of their lungs, disturbing people in homes and apartments on 4 blocks north, south, east and west of the car wash. Some of us have children. Some work at home. All of us have had our private lives disrupted and ruined by the ceaseless, angry screams of picketers invading our homes, from which we can’t escape. It has affected our nerves, our mental and physical health, our children and our ability to work and think.

This violates the Constitutional right of all U.S. citizens to peace in the privacy of one’s home. Big or small, the home is the last refuge from the world’s strife. Protecting that refuge is the highest duty of government, which is why there are state and municipal laws against disturbing the peace.

For the past 3-1/2 months, picketers have violated three Municipal Code laws (Chapter 11, Article 5, Section 115.02 (f) 2;  Chapter 4, Article 1, Section 41.57;  and Chapter 11, Article 6, Section 116.01) and State Penal Code Section 415-2, all against disturbing the peace. To date, despite dozens of calls from residents to LAPD summoning squad cars, despite countless pleas with officers when they arrive, despite a heated town hall meeting attended by residents and LAPD Senior Lead Officer Mario Gonzales, LAPD Labor Relations Sergeant Warren Winston, Neighborhood Prosecutor Susan Strick and 10th District City Council Field Deputy Liz Carlin, not a single citation has been written.

At best, after 3 months of inaction, Sergeant Winston got pickets to stop using bullhorns and microphones plugged into amplifiers. But to make up for it, pickets have screamed louder, using megaphones and funnels. And, arrogantly, their rep said, if car wash business picks up, they’ll use microphones and amplifiers again.

With or without amplifiers, the angry screams of picketers is a continuing, intolerable invasion of privacy to residents in homes and apartments on 4 blocks north, south, east and west of the car wash.

32 of us ask Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich to end LAPD inaction by directing LAPD to enforce state and local disturbing the peace laws, specifically — in the current absence of amplifiers — California Penal Code 415-2 and L.A. Municipal Code Chapter 11, Article 6, Section 116.01, which makes it illegal to “cause to be made or continued, any loud, unnecessary, and unusual noise which disturbs the peace or quiet of any neighborhood or which causes discomfort or annoyance to any reasonable person of normal sensitiveness residing in the area.”

Sincerely,
R. K.

***This blog supports peaceful picketing and free speech. NO SHOUTING! NO Disturbing the Peace! Lower the Volume, PLEASE!!!***