Jack Ross
@m0thercity
Followers
3K
Following
3K
Media
54
Statuses
1K
Local journalist. Car free in LA. RTs ≠ endorsements.
Los Angeles, CA
Joined June 2017
To reporters writing this up: this was a unilateral, surprise attack by Zionists. Encampment residents were eating lentils and sitting around. Suddenly reports of men in plastic white masks at the gates. Then poles thrown. Shouts of GET DOWN. skunk spray. .
154
5K
20K
At ucla on Tuesday Im realizing I stayed calm because I *literally thought I was dreaming. We were surrounded by a mob in white plastic masks, as the Israeli baby shark children’s song played on a loop, and like, their hands were snatching at us through the boards.
59
2K
14K
Im ending my shift. More thoughts later. I was sprayed by Zionists along with everyone else tonight. Attempts to characterize this as if both sides started it will be completely false.
73
2K
10K
pro Palestine folks are taking their own people to hospitals because they say @UCLA PD won’t let EMS in. “Which means our camp has treated 100+ people so far for medical injuries including tear gas pepper spray head injuries from projectiles fireworks burns shock….
57
2K
6K
For hours they did this. Unbelievable. They had no help, as is widely reported. When it started I thought, well they just have to make it 20 minutes. lol. They were hacking, crying from mace. 20+ hospitalized. Four hours they fought. I mean. Do people understand? What ucla did?. .
11
716
4K
NEW: The L.A. landlord association is teaching its members self defense against tenants, tenant groups, "transients" and the other hazards of life in the private housing business. It's called AVERT, and I attended. And took pictures.
102
643
3K
People all around me were hacking and crying from gas. A firework - a massive firework - flew over our heads and exploded. Im talking dodger stadium sized firework. BOOM.
4
344
3K
How they risked their students lives? For four fucking hours? Do you know how long four hours is? Do you know how long four hours is when you’re watching, on every news channel on the fucking planet, your own students being beaten with sticks, maced and slashed at w/ knives?.
8
468
3K
Also, the protesters were not fighting back. They had a policy to not engage. That went on for a very long while. Heated clashing really began in earnest about an hour in. Until then, it was Zionists trying to crash barricades and protesters holding the line, not responding.
15
350
3K
That’s how it started. We were all quickly drenched in chemical spray - smelled like skunk. But there were multiple kinds of sprays! Some had eyes burning. Some were coughing. I smelled like skunk. Kept getting hit with mysterious liquid droplets.
8
322
3K
Im all over the place. Key detail. When it started, protesters were handing out ear plugs because the Zionists had been blasting strange sounds into the camp all evening - I believe when the attack arrived it was a baby crying - yesterday they played oct 7 videos on a loop.
22
279
2K
Clashing is too sides of a word. I saw protestors trying to hold the line. I left when it was getting a little more heated. I don’t know what happened next. I will be astonished to see any reporting calling this mutual I really will.
6
174
2K
Watch this video I took. I thought I was dreaming! This is pure dream shit. What im saying is I have this dream so often when I saw it in real life I reacted like I do in dreams: on some level, my brain said, “Oh, that one is playing again.”
23
341
2K
It was like dreams I’ve had - especially when we were behind the boards and their hands kept snatching through the cracks at us, spraying us with gas and grabbing the boards and trying to rip them away. Fireworks going off behind us and poles and bottles flying overhead.
3
127
2K
Then, life is crazy, because I also saw a social miracle. Mike Davis wrote that he never stopped talking about the sixties because he saw a lot of horrors but a lot of social miracles. I always wondered if I would see one. I did! It was the students holding back the mob….
2
171
2K
Ive had that dream before! I know im describing normal trauma response stuff but idk i mean this literally. I got really scared later when I realized i was awake.
1
89
2K
one more thing: I thought about telling them I was Jewish, but I didn’t dare.
23
121
2K
Somehow there is still no security here at ucla where about 60 Zionists are pepper spraying protesters and throwing poles and setting off gasses and fireworks at the encampment where students are holding the line.
15
332
875
“Not a single EMS from outside our camp or network has been able respond actively being blocked”.
5
115
784
This is a fuxking disaster at ucla Zionists just set off fire work at the encampment.
31
195
754
…and irritants that have temporarily blinded people sometimes repeatedly”.
2
71
656
Instructors told students that when you evict someone, you're taking the last thing they have, which is their house. And they're ready for you. So you need to be ready for them.
10
52
500
Co-instructor Hans Sievert, a 6'5'' paramedic "passionate about bleeding control" stands between a poster of Howard Jarvis and a poster celebrating a 1948 anti-rent control campaign
5
49
402
The class was for property managers and landlords, so there were some interesting reflections by property managers about how they have to work on the "front lines" by being the ones to post eviction notices. "We have to deliver the hate mail," one woman told me.
2
35
341
Fun detail: in that poster of Howard Jarvis, he is slathering plaster onto a cracking dam marked "Prop 13." The dam holds back a flood labeled "runaway government spending." Each crack in the dam is labeled with a different court case
4
26
303
"Strike the face with an open palm," students learned. "Push your fingers into the eyes. Consider scratching and biting."
4
36
261
SCOOP* LA Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance going unused. Tenants can't find lawyers and say the city closes cases w/o investigation. LAHD official says dept has no "strong" or "proven" cases, harassment often a "misunderstanding". What went wrong? .
7
98
266
SCOOP: New Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez wants to dismantle the no-vending zone on Hollywood Boulevard. Vendors are suing the city over its eight no-vending zones, which they argue were established to protect business interests, not public health.🧵
2
47
255
New: Hillside Villa tenants thought they won their fight in May when L.A. city council voted to try to buy their building. They're facing eviction in February as protections expire and the city has neither appraised nor bid for their property.
1
108
246
NEW for @inthesetimesmag - encampment sweeps in LA are reportedly destroying naloxone at astonishing rates. In the midst of a historic opioid overdose crisis. One nonprofit is so fed up they have started nailing narcan to trees.
12
113
228
Im in the solidarity encampment at ucla. Zionist counter protesters have a clearly well-funded operation outside the camp with a stage, screen bordering on Jumbotron. LAPD is reportedly on its way.
15
40
229
Busy days for me: I have a new story up about how Los Angeles throws away the winter gear of unhoused people in encampment sweeps:
10
77
194
Zionists now storming the encampment and open fighting breaking out .Someone is blowing a whistle .They just threw a huge firework into the camp and it exploded feet from the protesters .This is so fucking dangerous and there is still no one here.
5
86
181
NEW: The Los Angeles Housing Department has been kicked out of its main office by its landlord -- a no-fault eviction, employees say. To @LATenantsUnion organizers, @LAHD___ is so bad at stopping tenant displacement that it can't stop its own.
7
101
188
A series of facts for ya: @ucla/law enforcement have detained more journalists who *documented* the April 30 assaults — @FilmThePoliceLA and @ACatWithNews — than the assaulters themselves. After getting sprung from jail, the journalists went to work finding the real attackers….
2
74
177
New: Sam Trinh, a marketing executive from the I.E., and Eduardo Jarquin, a janitor from Oaxaca, shared a landlord but lived in different worlds. By fighting alleged tenant harassment with the @LATenantsUnion, they become "homies" for life:
2
55
166
The storms this week will kill. 14 died from cold exposure last year. Read @disc0nap on the county's inadequate winter shelter program, which offers just 500 motel vouchers for 50,000 people
1
80
155
If you want to read more about tenant harassment (by landlords) in LA, check out my article on the city failing to enforce its Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance. The 352% stat in AVERT piece is from here.
2
22
134
I’m at a press conference at the Los Angeles Housing Department where tenants are calling for the resignation of General Manager Ann Sewill. They say the department “has wasted months doing nothing” after the city asked it to start the process of buying building….
1
27
126
The Israeli children’s song soldiers play in TikTok’s of torturing Palestinians is playing on a loop.
6
68
126
A little anecdote on an echo park lake article we released now two weeks ago. I used the word sweep in the article and then @capitalandmain put it in the headline, drawing a correction request from @MitchOFarrell. We stand by our use of the word.
5
37
118
Wrote about UCLA! Article has info on an upcoming faculty trip to Israel that includes "A drive to Ramallah, West Bank [PENDING Security Situation]” and a visit to "the Israeli towns near the border with Gaza [PENDING Security Situation]," per itinerary.
6
45
116
Info here on idf tactics used by counter-protestors: skunk spray + blasting an Israeli children’s song and the sound of a crying baby into the camp .Also more detail on injured protesters, including a student who will need surgery because of complex facial and skull fractures.
@m0thercity and I recount and report on our experience of watching an organized masked mob attack people at UCLA’s Palestine solidarity encampment. It was not a clash. It was targeted violence by people calling protesters slurs while swinging metal poles.
2
56
109
THREAD: Why tenant groups accuse LA councilmember Gil Cedillo of undermining the city's only tenant harassment law. Cedillo was recorded at the LA Fed. of Labor trying to gerrymander renters out of power w Kevin de Leon and Nury Martinez.
3
47
106
My article on Hillside Villa Tenants @hillside_villa has won a 1st place California Journalism award for land-use reporting! For this piece, I accompanied tenants to confront councilmember Gil Cedillo at his office door. Wild day.
8
20
91
And when some of the fruits of their investigation aired on CNN, UCLA would not confirm to CNN if the school is investigating the attack.
0
24
91
Hearing that encampment residents very badly pepper sprayed were treated - and immediately rejoined the blockade.
1
19
80
“Sparked immediate backlash over the perception that…” . No one has ever presented evidence that Nika Soon-Shiong somehow got the la times to endorse kenneth Mejia. Since when can you report on a perception? Are we allowed to do that? I didn’t know we were allowed to do that.
6
11
77
NEW for @LAPublicPress. I analyzed @lacontroller data on landlords paying tenants to leave rent-stabilized apartments. The buyouts concentrate in buildings with huge numbers of tenant complaints, emergency complaints (floods, fires), city investigations 🧵
2
42
82
Zionists now finally ripping up the barricade. This is very bad .The blockade moves forward.
3
23
73
NEW: I went inside city hall with the @hillside_villa tenants on May 4 when they surprised Gil Cedillo at his office. TOMORROW the council votes on whether to begin the acquisition process. Here's a behind the scenes look at their campaign
2
36
79
Myself and other media have backed away as this is now getting really rough.
6
20
73
I have my first story in the @newrepublic - LA mayoral candidate Karen Bass is caught between law and order opponents and leftists who won’t let her expand the lapd while maintaining her progressive reputation.
9
22
70
We’re literally watching hand to hand combat at times .This is getting worse .Bottle being thrown.
1
26
68
NEW: Lupe Breard was set to be evicted from a home that once harbored the last family displaced to build dodger stadium. Then a judge vacated the eviction. That's rare in LA County, which has an estimated 50 attorneys specializing in eviction defense.
2
21
67
Hearing from @joeyneverjoe that security ran when they showed up. Zionists are pointing a laser at the crowd.
0
24
69
The encampment protesters are moving up boards and building a new line.
1
10
65
This story abt sweeps trashing narcan focused on a brutal sweep in @CD6LosAngeles. Yesterday, LAPD cleared the encampment w/ private contractors, destroying more Narcan, organizers say. They’re suspicious it’s retaliation for the story…
NEW for @inthesetimesmag - encampment sweeps in LA are reportedly destroying naloxone at astonishing rates. In the midst of a historic opioid overdose crisis. One nonprofit is so fed up they have started nailing narcan to trees.
5
37
70
There’s now a Zionist shouting “it’s time to surrender”.Stillllllll no presence from @ucla in any meaningful capacity.
3
14
65
New story: LAUSD wants to switch to Student Centered Funding, in which schools get funded BY their students, not for them. Each student has a price. Schools must compete for students to get their funding. Anti-charter ppl **very** worried. 🧵.
5
25
63
Tenant activists say CA law -- which allows landlords to charge market rate when a rent-stabilized (RSO) tenant leaves -- has created a tenant relocation INDUSTRY in which corporations are financially incentivized to acquire RSO housing and harass tenants out of their units.
0
17
60
LA desperately needs Knock and LA TACO. So proud to have written for both. We need to come together to save these publications.
1
11
64
New story: As actress and opera singer Janice Lynde returned to her West Hollywood apartment after back-to-back lung surgeries, construction in her building was shaking her rent controlled unit so vigorously that her crystal shattered inside her cupboards.
The company now owns at least 34 buildings in Los Angeles through shell companies, and most are concentrated on the city’s Westside.
1
18
62
I won some @LAPressClub awards yesterday! My @LAPublicPress story on tenant relocators won first place in online, investigative government reporting:
4
12
64
Inbox: K3 Tenants Association @K3Tenants has asked landlord K3 Holdings to immediately resolve a black mold issue at 750 Mariposa Avenue.
1
13
59
NEW: Simultaneous interpretation originates with the Nuremberg Trials. A team of researchers in Geneva is studying its effects on the human brain. In LA, it's the cornerstone of a booming tenant power movement.
1
18
54
Zionists now pushing hard against encampment blockade and there is a gas visibly being sprayed.
1
24
53
New story from me on @capitalandmain: Why are tech executives, real estate associations and rightwing donors pouring money into an education recall?.
11
28
50
NEW with @Janette__V: how street vendors must contend with the traumas of attack and theft alongside relentless criminalization to do their jobs. Story comes as @CAgovernor weighs SB 972, which would redesign the Retail Food Code to better permit vendors.
1
19
46
With Bobbi Murray I've written a story about the @K3Tenants model and how they are organizing across a landlord's portfolio to combat housing monopolization.
2
22
48
THERE IS STILL NO SECURITY TRYING TO SEPARATE THE ZIONISTS FROM THE PROTESTERS AND THEYRE SETTING OFF FIRE WORKS AND TRYING TO FIGHT PEOPLE WITH STICKS! @UCLA.
3
24
50
I just asked campus security if they have an plans to intervene as Zionists continue to prowl in front of this encampment and threaten to fight students. They said there’s a security booth I “being set up” and I should talk to them. They’re standing off to the side here
1
15
42
New from @cerisecastle in @capitalandmain: Los Angeles Sheriff’s Second-In-Command Has Alleged Gang Tattoo.
2
11
42