The Brief

In a sparse multi-purpose room, a handful of middle-aged Chinese American women have rolled out black yoga mats and are studying the moves of a qigong instructor gently giving instructions.

Inhale. Gather. Exhale. 

Qigong — a mind-body-spirit practice using simple, repetitive exercises — is being offered at a new center in Monterey Park with a grimly-specific mission: tending to survivors and community members after the deadliest shooting in L.A. County history took place in their city.

The Monterey Park Resiliency Center offers mindfulness and stress-relief activities like qi gong.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Stretch through your wrists, and relax. 

Less than a mile from where the women focus on breath work, a gunman entered the Star Dance Ballroom Studio on Jan. 21 and fired on a crowd of mostly older Asian Americans celebrating the start of Lunar New Year. Eleven people died and nine others were injured.

Up until the shooting, Monterey Park was best-known for being America’s first suburban Chinatown, with a population of 62,000 that is two-thirds Asian.

Now it’s on a long list of places reeling from mass gun violence — and part of a smaller but growing network of cities that are opening federally-funded “resiliency centers” to help with recovery.

Triage, then healing 

Mass shootings are not only increasingly commonplace in the U.S. — 550 so far this year — they've grown in lethality over the past decade. Shootings in which four or more people are killed have nearly doubled.

Typically after the deadliest incidents, a crisis response team from the FBI parachutes into a community to set up a family assistance center, drawing help from local nonprofits with community ties. That was particularly key in Monterey Park with its large immigrant population. The lead nonprofit on the ground was the Chinatown Service Center, which typically provides medical and behavioral health services, but found itself helping victims’ families with burial services.

“That's really important to be able to speak the language and to understand how communities respond culturally when events like this happen,” said Kristina Rose, who heads the Office for Victims of Crime in the Department of Justice.

More and more communities have been transitioning their family assistance centers into long-term operations. Over the last decade, the Department of Justice has met the demand by awarding millions of dollars in grants to about 20 communities that want to provide ongoing legal aid, victim's advocacy and mental health counseling to survivors.

Over the last two years, resiliency centers have opened in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. A few years earlier, a resiliency center opened in Las Vegas after the nation’s deadliest mass shooting.

An investigator works at the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, on Jan. 22, 2023.

(

Robyn Beck

/

AFP via Getty Images

)

When it became evident there was support for a resiliency center in Monterey Park, the Chinatown Service Center was a clear choice to operate the center, said Rose, whose office is currently working on the grant process with the nonprofit.

The MPK Hope Resiliency Center, as it is officially called, has been averaging about 80 visits a week since it fully opened in September. It’s a number that staff want to increase, given the hundreds of people they could be potentially serving along with partner organizations such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California and the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office.

Bringing mental health awareness

Notice how you feel, anything starting to open up. 

The qigong instructor, Dr. Sara Ptasnik is a physician at the Chinatown Service Center. She doesn’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese like her students, so the center’s case management coordinator, Janet Yu, interprets the best she can, toggling between both languages.

Offering in-language help is a priority at the Monterey Park center, but cultural competency extends beyond translating materials, according to its director Nina Loc.

“When it comes to the Asian population, it's more of the lack of awareness, lack of willingness to accept that there could be mental health issue within a family or within the culture,” said Loc who also serves as the behavioral health director at Chinatown Service Center.

The center's case management coordinator Janet Yu provides live interpreting as Dr. Sara Ptasnik teaches a qi gong class.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Loc said the inclination for many in the community is to not seek out counseling, which research bears out. A 2018 study by the federal Office of Minority Health found Asians were 60% less likely to have received mental health treatment than white people.

The Monterey Park center offers both individual and group therapy with the understanding that it’s not for everyone, especially an older, foreign-born generation.

That’s why there’s so much emphasis on offering stress-reduction activities such as yoga, Buddhist chanting, beading, cooking or journaling.

“We have heard a lot of individuals that don't feel comfortable going out,” Loc said. “These are signs that they're affected by [the shooting]. Hopefully coming through to the center, they could learn coping skills to be more comfortable with the new norm.”

And, Loc added, they may become more receptive to trying therapy in the future.

Open “essentially forever”

The Monterey Park resiliency center is temporarily being housed inside the Sierra Vista Community Center.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

For some survivors, it may take months, if not years, to recognize they need help.

That’s the experience of staff at the resiliency center in Las Vegas. In 2017, a gunman killed 58 people and injured hundreds at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Years later, two more people died from shooting-related injuries.

Tyler Winkler, a victim right’s attorney at the center, said the five-year anniversary of the shooting last year served as a prompt for some survivors.

“That brought in a lot of folks who were like, ‘Wow, I think maybe I'm ready to see what you guys have going on,'” Winkler said.

Winkler said survivors’ trauma can stay buried for years — until it doesn’t.

A man writes a note on a 'Vegas Strong' banner on the Las Vegas Strip, after a gunman in 2017 killed 60 people at a country music festival.

(

Drew Angerer

/

Getty Images North America

)

“They know lots of people were really affected by it but they don’t see it in themselves,” Winkler said. “Maybe they start noticing, ‘I’m snapping at my family more or I’m drinking more. I feel numb.'”

The center has worked with more than 10,000 people so far — survivors, first responders, their families — but estimates there are still many other people experiencing trauma who haven’t used their services. Winkler said that’s why the Vegas center is staying open for “essentially forever” — to be there for those people who need more time.

When the federal grant ended after four years, the Nevada state and Clark County government ponied up funding to keep the center open, and to extend services to other crime victims who were not part of the shooting, Winkler said.

Still, other centers have determined they've outlived their purpose and have wound down like the one in Newtown, Conn. Many of the child survivors of the 2014 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are now graduating high school, its executive director noted.

When the world doesn’t feel safe 

Kung fu master Benson Lee spars with an assistant during a self-defense course at the Monterey Park resiliency center.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

For the staff at the center in Monterey Park, staying open long-term is the goal.

The center is being run out of several rooms provided by the city at the Sierra Vista Community Center. But staff are hoping to lease a larger, permanent home to accommodate newcomers such as Maria Liang, the former owner of the Star Ballroom Dance Studio.

Liang, an avid dancer herself, wasn’t there the night of the shooting. But her brother was overseeing the Lunar New Year event at the studio, where he was injured, along with close friends and patrons she’d known for years.

“Some died and some were injured and now I decide that I close my business,” Liang said.

Liang visited the center this month to take a class for the first time. She followed the self-defense moves of kung fu instructor Benson Lee with ease. “It’s like dancing,” she explained.

Benson Lee, a kung fu master, teaches self-defense moves to Maria Liang, the former owner of the Star Dance Ballroom Studio at the Monterey Park Resiliency Center.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Liang, switching to Mandarin, said she tried the class because the world doesn’t feel safe and she wanted to learn better awareness and ways to protect herself.

She plans to return; another class has piqued her interest. Qigong, she said brightly, is good for your body.

A place of their own

Liang had been handed a calendar of activities the night before when she attended a private event for survivors held at the community center.

Hung in the lobby were blue paper hearts honoring the shooting victims. They had been displayed outside Monterey Park City Hall on signposts for months before being moved to their permanent home with the center.

The lobby of the Sierra Vista Community Center is hung with blue hearts honoring the victims of the Monterey Park shooting.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

The lobby of the Sierra Vista Community Center is hung with blue hearts honoring the victims of the Monterey Park shooting.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

As soft music tinkled in the background, some of the survivors took part in a painting activity. Then, a few spontaneously started to dance, Loc said.

“I'm getting goosebumps,” Loc said, recalling the night. “It was really, really touching.”

But, she added, “our work is not done yet.”

“Some can go back to dancing, some cannot,” she said. “We're not here to force anybody in any direction but you can provide them with tools.”

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Imagine MacArthur Park without a road running through the middle. That’s what most residents who live around the park say they want.

This is according to preliminary findings from the Reconnecting MacArthur Park project, an effort studying whether the busy roadway between Alvarado Street and Carondelet Street should be closed off permanently. Under this proposal, the park’s north and south sides would be rejoined to form one large green space.

The idea is to turn the major traffic corridor into usable park space in one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

Maria Ortiz, 59, who has lived near MacArthur Park for 30 years, welcomes closing off Wilshire, if it improves the area for families like hers. She is a grandmother to three granddaughters.

“Hopefully they can close it so there’s more space for kids to play, more surveillance and fewer homeless people,” Ortiz said. “Right now, the traffic is also bad, it gets really congested. People also don’t respect when the buses are coming.”

For her, the park is important because it’s the only one she has close by. But she added that changes should go beyond closing the road. 

She remembers a different MacArthur Park when she was raising her children, one that felt more welcoming for families.

“There were a lot more events at MacArthur Park before, there were contests, they would give gifts to kids,” she said. 

She joined her neighbors to participate in a public forum to explore the proposal.

The Central City Neighborhood Partners surveyed more than 1,500 people from August to December and asked them to weigh in on five possible options:

• Remove Wilshire entirely through the park and expand green space
  
• Remove Wilshire entirely and keep the short block between Park View Street and Carondelet Street open to cars
  
• Close Wilshire to all cars and turn it into a public space
  
• Close Wilshire only on weekends
  
• Allow only buses through Wilshire Boulevard

More than six in 10 survey respondents supported removing Wilshire and reconnecting the park. Keeping things as they are drew the least support.

The project now moves into the next phase, where the five concepts will go through an environmental review. The city and project partners will also develop design concepts and estimate costs to build.

At this juncture, there is no available funding for any construction.

“What we’ve been able to hear from the community was really that everyone wants to see a change in MacArthur Park,” said Diana Alfaro, associate executive director of Central City Neighborhood Partners. 

“Everyone in this community is excited or wants to be able to see new amenities,” she said, including better lighting and park infrastructure. 

In a February interview, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said the neighborhood doesn’t have enough parks or green space, adding that MacArthur Park alone isn’t enough for a densely populated neighborhood like Westlake.

“And that’s why I’ve been moving with my team and pushing for reconnecting MacArthur Park and closing down Wilshire Boulevard in that area to begin to create more spaces, more pedestrianized spaces, more opportunities for green space,” she said. 

At the same time, the city is moving forward with a separate plan to install fencing around MacArthur Park. The plan would add a wrought-iron fence around both halves of the park.  

Officials say the fence will allow the park to close at night and give them time to clean the space overnight. Their goal is to address safety and quality-of-life concerns.

That fencing project is not part of the reconnection study, but Alfaro said it will affect it. According to a report of the survey findings, any redesign of the park will have to factor in where the fence goes, and whether parts of it would need to be removed or rebuilt if the park is eventually reconnected.

City officials have not decided which option, if any, will move forward.

“At the end of the day, there are a lot of changes coming to MacArthur Park,” Alfaro said, “and I think it testifies why there needs to be some more attention around reconnecting or really just adding more green space for the community.”

Alex Lacayo, 35, supports closing Wilshire if it helps improve conditions at the park.

The lifelong Westlake resident often feels the park is “dirty and filthy” when he passes through. 

“If there’s a way to make the park a better place for more people to come, then I feel like it’s a good project,” Lacayo said. “We get a lot of tourists, so improving the park I think will improve the image of Los Angeles.” 

Because of ongoing concerns around homelessness and drug activity, Lacayo often avoids walking through the park. But if conditions improve, he said that could change and he would visit more often.

Alfaro believes the fencing plan and the reconnection project are both responses to those same concerns.

“The purpose of it is to ensure that the park is being well kept and maintained,” she said of the fence.

“I think all of it kind of adds to the same reason why we are doing this project to begin with,” Alfaro added. “Which is to ensure that the park itself is a park that families could use, youth can use, seniors can use.”

Sublime frontman Jakob Nowell recently studied the artifacts of the Grammy Museum's newest exhibit Sublime: Straight From Long Beach.

He wasn't even a year old when his father — the band's founder Bradley Nowell — died from a heroin overdose in 1996.

"It's been a really interesting process getting to know someone posthumously through their work and something that's so emotionally entangled in all of my machinery," Nowell said. " There's just DNA splattered all over everything in this exhibit."

The exhibit opened this week at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles. It features photos of the band, along with instruments used by the original members, song lyrics, promotional materials and other items.

This summer, Sublime's third, self-titled album celebrates its 30th anniversary. It spawned hits like, "What I Got," and "Santeria" and sold more than nine million copies, redefining Alternative radio with a blend of punk rock, reggae, ska and hip-hop.

Jakob Nowell stepped into his father's role in the band in 2023, a move he said has reconnected him to his family.

"Sometimes our work lives and our careers break us down and rip us apart from the people who matter most," Nowell said. "Getting to be a part of my father's work and my uncle's work, it really has brought together a lot of people in my life that are the most important."

Although the Grammy Museum is celebrating Sublime's past, Nowell and the band are also looking toward the future. The band is releasing a new album Until the Sun Explodes on June 12, and the title track is out now.

It's Nowell's tribute to his late father with lyrics like, "I only hope that you know I owe you my life."

"It's something I've been trying to say for 30 years," he said. "It only came out correctly now. It feels really special to get to share it with people out there. They've been sharing with me their stories my entire life."

At 30, Nowell is two years older now than when his father died at 28, but he has an outlook on their relationship that belongs to someone much older and wiser.

"The permanence of death is an illusion," Nowell said. "It's only temporary and [there's] no more evidence than everything around us here and all of the love and good times.

"It happens at the shows we play," he added. "It's evident to me every single day."

The exhibit is scheduled to run through Sept. 7.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle a lawsuit filed by 13 women who say correctional officers injured them during a mass use-of-force incident at the Central California Women’s Facility in 2024.

The plaintiffs say they suffered seizures, respiratory distress and long-term vision problems after officers used batons, physical force and chemical agents on them.

“I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were on fire … I thought I was going to die,” plaintiff Wisdom Muhammad said in a recent interview at her home in Los Angeles.

The women received settlements ranging from $200,000 to $50,000 each, based on the severity of their injuries, according to their attorney Robert Chalfant.

“Sexual abuse of inmates, excessive force, cruel and unusual punishment, retaliation, those things need to stop,” Chalfant said. “And the only way those things stop is through lawsuits and forcing the payment of large amounts of money so that people take notice of what’s happening.”

In an email, CDCR spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said the agency has reviewed the incident and has taken corrective action.

More than 41 staff members were found to have violated policy, making it one of the largest disciplinary actions issued against CDCR staff in a single incident, according to CDCR. Punishment ranged from transfers to termination, CDCR said, but the department has not yet responded to a public records request for disciplinary documents related to the incident.

Incarcerated people stand together in a yard at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, Madera County.

(

Lea Suzuki

/

The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

)

The Aug. 2, 2024, incident began when officers removed more than 150 women from their cells and locked them in the dining hall while staff conducted a large-scale search of their cells. As temperatures in the Chowchilla facility climbed to more than 100 degrees and time wore on, the women began to ask for water, food and medication.

Prison officials have said that the incarcerated population “became disruptive.” Officers used physical force, batons and chemical agents to “stop the incident,” according to a review from the Office of the Inspector General.

The complaint claims the women were complying with the officers’ orders and that the force was excessive and unnecessary. It also alleges that some women were denied or delayed medical care after being injured, leaving them with lasting physical and psychological harm.

A total of 109 incarcerated persons were medically evaluated, CDCR said, and three were transported to an outside medical facility for a short time. In the wake of the incident, CDCR also said it made mental health staff and resources available to those affected.

Staff were also retrained after the incident on how to respond to alarms and on the appropriate use of force, according to CDCR.

The women involved in the suit have a broader claim about this incident as well, that it was retaliation for sexual assault complaints that they had filed against correctional staff.

The women’s prison in Chowchilla has been plagued by reports of sexual assault for years. In one high-profile case, at least 22 women accused correctional officer Gregory Rodriguez of sexual abuse dating back to 2014. The state ultimately paid millions of dollars to settle those claims. Rodriguez was criminally charged and sentenced to 224 years in prison.

Last year, an audit by the Office of Inspector General found that at least 279 women had sued the department, accusing at least 83 prison employees of sexual misconduct. The audit describes “a wave” of lawsuits filed by currently and formerly incarcerated people alleging staff sexual assault, harassment and misconduct. In response to the lawsuits, the department approved 402 investigations.

The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating allegations of sexual abuse and staff misconduct at California women’s prisons.

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into staff sexual abuse allegations at two women’s prisons in Chowchilla and Chino, following a series of lawsuits and similar abuses at federal facilities like FCI Dublin, which was closed due to widespread misconduct.

(

J. David Ake

/

Getty Images

)

In the settlement reached this past week, CDCR did not agree to any policy changes or other non-monetary terms, and did not admit to wrongdoing.

“The Department’s focus remains on the safety, security, and well-being of both the incarcerated population and staff,” Xjimenez said.

Another class action lawsuit tied to the Aug. 2 incident is still pending. That case, known as Hooper v. State of California, raises similar claims that medical care was delayed or denied and that the use of force was excessive and retaliatory. It is set to go to mediation in May, according to court filings.

CDCR said it could not comment on pending litigation.

Chalfant said that many of his clients were scared to come forward. The incarcerated woman told him that correctional officers continued to reference the lawsuit and retaliate against them by writing them up for minor infractions and searching their belongings up to the day of the settlement.

“If individuals’ rights are violated in state prisons, lawyers are going to take those cases,” Chalfant said. “[These women] don’t lose their constitutional rights when [they] go into a prison facility.”