Wednesday, September 2, 2020

California Today: Another Police Shooting Draws an Outcry

Wednesday: Sheriff’s deputies shot and killed a Black man in South Los Angeles.
A memorial on Tuesday in Los Angeles, at the location where Dijon Kizzee was shot and killed the previous day by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies.Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Good morning.

On Monday, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials said deputies tried to stop a Black man who was riding a bike in South Los Angeles. They said he was stopped for a code violation related to the bike, but wouldn’t elaborate on what the alleged violation was.

The man, Dijon Kizzee, 29, fled. Deputies chased him, eventually catching up. Sheriff’s officials said Mr. Kizzee punched one of the officers in the face and dropped a bundle that they said contained a handgun.

When Mr. Kizzee dropped the bundle and “made a motion” toward the gun, officials said, the deputies opened fire. Mr. Kizzee died.

[Read the full story about the shooting.]

Soon, demonstrators gathered to protest. Family members grieved and demanded answers.

According to The Los Angeles Times, his family planned to conduct an independent autopsy.

The shooting comes amid a continuing outcry across the country about racist police violence and took place not far from where Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies shot Andres Guardado, an 18-year-old Latino man, five times in the back in July.

But while many California leaders have expressed support for the demonstrations and have vowed reforms, many stalled in the Legislature, including one high-profile proposal that would have, among other things, stripped badges from officers who break the law.

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A tumultuous legislative session ends

An almost empty Assembly gallery during session in Sacramento on Monday.Hector Amezcua/Associated Press

California lawmakers skidded to the chaotic close of a legislative session in which sweeping policy debates often took a back seat to more immediate crises wrought by the pandemic.

That included a last-minute law intended to stave off a wave of evictions that tenant advocates have warned would be likely if protections were allowed to expire as planned on Tuesday.

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Landlord groups fought hard against requiring landlords to forgive unpaid rent, and no such provisions made it into the deal.

In a statement, Debra Carlton, executive vice president of the California Apartment Association, said the deal was a fine stopgap, but that renters would need federal help paying accumulated rent.

“Otherwise,” she said, “housing providers will go out of business.”

Some community organizations worried that the deal would still leave many renters, particularly in the hard-hit Central Valley, vulnerable to being kicked out of their homes.

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Starting as early as this week, for instance, tenants can be evicted for lease violations other than nonpayment related to the coronavirus pandemic.

While landlords said that was necessary to be able to remove tenants who are endangering their property or bothering neighbors, tenant advocates said that many high-risk renters won’t have the resources to legally challenge their landlords if they use a lease violation as a pretext for evicting them for not paying.

“We expected California’s elected representatives, who’ve had nearly 6 months to devise a Covid-19 housing policy to safeguard the people they took an oath to serve, to represent the interests of the people — not property,” said a statement from the nonprofit Faith in the Valley. “We are disheartened.”

In any case, lawmakers and other tenant advocates said the hard-won compromise was the only way to avert disaster.

“California is stepping up to protect those most at-risk,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “But it’s just a bridge to a more permanent solution.”

[Read about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved to halt evictions.]

Late into the night, other debates over how to manage coronavirus risks played out in real time, as the governor might say.

As Politico reported, tensions rose when Republican state senators — who had been barred because a member of their caucus tested positive for the coronavirus — complained about having to vote remotely.

A Democratic Assembly member, Buffy Wicks, was forced to bring her newborn baby to the floor after her request to vote by proxy was denied by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, whose office said that she wasn’t considered higher risk of getting sick. Ms. Wicks gave birth in July.

It was a jarring contrast that ricocheted around social media. The same night, as The Los Angeles Times reported, lawmakers voted to expand job protections for people who take the state’s paid family leave. Mr. Newsom has said he’ll sign that bill into law.

And on Tuesday night, Mr. Rendon issued an apology.

Here’s what else to know:

  • Lawmaking in Sacramento was upended this year. So was lobbying. [The Wall Street Journal]
  • Lawmakers ran out of time to pass a bill that would have allowed for the zoning of duplexes on single-family lots — a move that would have ended single-family zoning across much of the state. Proponents of the idea have said it would make a major dent in the housing crisis. [The Los Angeles Times]
  • A lot of other bills got passed: a ban on flavored tobacco, a bill that would allow inmate firefighters to more easily continue that work after they’re no longer incarcerated, one that would expand mental health care, one that would establish a reparations committee. Others did not. These are helpful lists. [CapRadio | CalMatters]

An update on reopening

As under previous reopening plans, counties can lift restrictions more slowly than allowed by the state — they just can’t move more quickly.

[Read more about the state’s new color-coded, tiered reopening plan.]

Which means that many local officials are still figuring out when various types of businesses will actually be able to reopen. It’s already causing some consternation.

  • In San Francisco, one of nine counties that started on the state’s second-most restrictive tier, officials announced a plan for reopening that would still require salons and other businesses that can reopen indoors under the state guidelines to stay outside. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
  • Los Angeles County is in the most restrictive tier, which also would allow salons, barber shops and malls to reopen, but local officials said that those businesses would also have to continue to operate outside for the time being. [CBS LA]
  • In San Diego County, which was also in the second-most restrictive tier, many businesses will be allowed to reopen indoors at limited capacity. Some gym owners and others said it wasn’t enough to make it worth it. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
  • Coachella Valley leaders said they were frustrated about the new system. [The Desert Sun]

[Track coronavirus cases in each California county.]

Here’s what else to read

Toxic air conditions settled in on California's Central Valley because of a heat wave and massive wildfires in the northern part of the state.Brian L. Frank for The New York Times
  • California and other Western states have been warned to brace for another record-breaking heat wave this weekend. [NBC News]
  • A volunteer firefighter from Texas died on Monday in a vehicle crash while battling the August Complex Fire in the Mendocino National Forest. She was described by the fire chief of Cresson, Texas, as a “classy lady.” [The Press Democrat]
  • Is it possible to open an anti-gentrification restaurant? Here are some things to try. [Eater]
  • “Tower, American 1997 — we just passed a guy in a jet pack.” Two commercial pilots heading into Los Angeles International Airport spotted a man with, well, a jet pack, prompting an investigation. [The New York Times]

(For context, there were once water-powered jet packs in Newport Harbor — but in 2017, the city banned them, according to The Daily Pilot.)

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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