City boundaries were influenced by water and power
Cato Hernández
scours through tons of archives to understand how our region became the way it is today.
Published November 7, 2023 5:00 AM
People at a Los Angeles park with a view of the downtown skyline on Dec. 31, 2021.
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Chris Delmas
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
Just how exactly did we get to the L.A. city and county shape we have today, with 88 cities within L.A. County? We lay out the history. Not surprisingly, much of it began with water.
What does water have to do with it? Everything! In the early 1900s, water was running low. The city of L.A.’s population was growing fast, so they secured water rights to Owens River. The draw of water supply meant many communities sought to be annexed into L.A. city boundaries. When the St. Francis dam failed in 1928, however, other communities decided to become cities themselves.
Why would some place want to be a city? Chalk it up to power, local control and natural resources. Groups will tend to get involved when they want to direct decision making. But L.A. city has commanded a lot of respect in this area, and it’s often been why places have had to make a choice: to either form a city or get sucked up in annexation.
How does Lakewood factor in? When the city formed in 1954, it brought in a new way for communities to operate under cityhood. Instead of building their own services from scratch, they could contract with L.A county to provide them. That model has been successful for many other new cities.
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you live in Los Angeles. But do you live in the city of L.A.? An unincorporated area of L.A. County? Or do you actually live in another city entirely, such as Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Inglewood or Culver City?
There are 88 cities in the county, but not every patch of land under the L.A. County umbrella is a city. Some places have their own police forces. Some don’t. Some have their own fire departments. Some don’t.
Why are things like this? We've been looking into it, and it seems one of the answers is — drum roll — water.
The power of water
More than a hundred years ago, the city of L.A. was already one of the ‘it’ places for development and population growth. Sunshine, open land and a manufacturing boom ruled. Between 1890 and 1900 alone, the city of L.A. more than doubled in size to over 100,000. And it kept doubling in the decades after.
There were other cities around. The city of L.A. was the forerunner, of course, incorporated in 1850, and cities like Pasadena (1886), Santa Monica (1886) and Long Beach (1897) came after. By 1901, there were 12 cities in L.A. County.
But with more people in L.A. came the need for more water. The L.A. River was a reasonably viable water source for the city until about 1900, according to William Deverell, the director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. To truly become a metropolis, though, city leaders had to get planning.
What you should know
A city is a municipality that has the power to self-govern, meaning they have their own elected leaders, like a mayor and city council. It becomes an incorporated city once a majority of community voters approve it.
For neighborhoods that don’t have locally elected leaders, these areas are unincorporated and under the leadership of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
Find out what type of area you live in by putting your address into Mapping L.A.
Civil engineer William Mulholland (yep, that Mulholland), who led the municipal water bureau, was sent to evaluate new and bigger water sources, which is how he came up with the idea of an aqueduct running from Owens Valley in eastern California to Los Angeles.
To do that, L.A. had to secure the rights to the Owens River water, which was a choice that was both fought against and supported. This siphoning, which cost millions of dollars and took years to implement, drained Owens Valley of a vital resource and caused lasting economic and environmental problems.
Panoramic view of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in the Owens Valley near Alabama Hills on November 24, 1928.
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Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
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The aqueduct exists to this day.
“[It] basically sticks a straw into the Owens River up in the Owens Valley and draws that water 250 miles down to L.A. by gravity,” Deverell said.
But when the aqueduct opened in 1913, it ended not in L.A. but in San Fernando, a fair distance away.
So to get that water to L.A. in an easier way, two years later city leaders annexed most of the San Fernando Valley. This annexation put the aqueduct in incorporated L.A. city boundaries.
Annexation and incorporation
This meant if you lived in the city of L.A, you had access to this water. If you didn’t — well, that was unfortunate. No Owens water for you! And because of a legal provision, officials were not allowed to sell the newly available resource to places outside the city.
So, smaller incorporated cities and unincorporated areas nearby clamored to be annexed by L.A., who were, among many reasons, infatuated by the potential of abundant water access.
The city expanded to include the beach areas, like Venice in 1925, and other areas like Eagle Rock and Hyde Park in 1923. The rush to annex made it seem like the city of L.A. would eventually engulf the entire county.
See annexations in L.A. County
But that came to an end in 1928, when Mullholland’s St. Francis Dam burst, killing nearly 500 people. Annexations pretty much stalled.
“It raised the question in a number of people’s minds whether the city had engineering competence and capability to manage such a large project — in spite of the fact that they built the Owens River Aqueduct,” said Samuel Nelson, a general manager and chief engineer of LADWP, in the historical interview Water for Los Angeles.
People examine the damaged road and washed away railroad track, caused by excess water flowing down the Santa Clara River after the failure of the St. Francis Dam in 1928.
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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
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Surrounding cities, including Burbank, Pasadena and L.A., formed the Metropolitan Water District, which jointly funded the Colorado River aqueduct.
From then on, being absorbed by the city of L.A. was out of favor. Instead, areas looked instead to become incorporated cities.
Why become a city in the first place?
It wasn't easy. They had to secure support, which generally meant getting authorization from the county and winning a community vote. They also had to show that the city could stay afloat with taxes and budgets, and provide services like police and fire — a big undertaking.
But if places didn’t become cities, they’d stay under the management of L.A. County, governed by the five-member Board of Supervisors, which would mean a small group of elected leaders making decisions for a vast number of diverse areas stretching from the coast to the Eastside.
And that was problematic as many people didn’t want Big Brother to tell them what to do, according to Tom Sitton, retired curator at the L.A. County Museum of Natural History.
“Usually what you have is a group, an organization or just a group of people who… don’t want the county or anybody else having all of the answers for changing things,” he said.
The Lakewood plan
In 1954, when Lakewood incorporated as an independent municipality, it came up with a different plan, which would be a landmark change. Instead of creating vital services from scratch, it would contract them from county agencies. Since then, 41 other cities have followed that model, including Cerritos, Downey, and South El Monte.
A Lakewood plan city, for example, likely doesn’t have its own police department. Instead, it gets that service from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. The same goes for road maintenance and libraries — services contracted from the county.
The city of Lakewood’s website describes how the plan helped communities stop having to pick between resources and local control: It “began with the conviction that unincorporated communities didn’t have to choose between annexation by a big city or building a municipal infrastructure from scratch.”
And it keeps evolving. L.A. County’s newest city is Calabasas, incorporated in 1991. It also follows the Lakewood plan.
So if you ever wondered why you might see LAPD, the Sheriff's Department and, say, Santa Monica PD as you drive around the county — well, now you know.
Sabrina T. Sanchez
engages with parents of young children to shape stories that are useful and meaningful to them.
Published June 11, 2026 5:01 AM
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Olivia Hughes
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LAist
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Topline:
In Los Angeles County alone, there are about 9,000 licensed early care and education providers. Among them, there is plenty to consider, such as cost, distance, curriculum, classroom size, hours, after-school care and more, leaving many families overwhelmed and confused by the choices. LAist created a guide that can help you navigate this system and choose a preschool for your child.
The guide can help you:
Find a preschool that's the best fit for your child and family's needs
Navigate the different types of preschool options
Get tips from early childhood experts
Find out where to get help paying for preschool
Learn about early intervention and special education services
Why did LAist create this guide? Many families have reached out to us with questions about preschools through our early childhood newsletter and at in-person events. In response, we hosted a virtual event, “Exploring preschool options in Los Angeles." We collected all the questions from the event and from families we've talked to and adapted them into this guide.
Read on ... for LAist's in-depth guide on all things preschool.
There's no one-size-fits-all approach for choosing a preschool because, let's face it, every family has different needs, and those needs will shape your choices.
In Los Angeles County alone, there are about 9,000 licensed early care and education providers. Among them, there is plenty to consider, such as cost, distance, curriculum, classroom size, hours, after-school care and more, leaving many families overwhelmed and confused by the choices.
On top of that, demand is high — and wait lists can be long — which adds more stress for families looking to lock down options quickly and early.
This guide is meant to help you figure out what your preschool options are for your 2- to 4-year-olds – and how to determine the best program for your family.
As you dive into this guide, remember to trust your gut! You're your child's first teacher and you ultimately know what's best for them.
What is preschool, anyway? How is it different from childcare, and how does it work?
Childcare is an umbrella term that covers all of the early care and education systems that serve infants, toddlers and preschool aged children, said Debra Colman, Director of Office for the Advancement of Early Care and Education at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
That includes daycare, nursery school, preschool, transitional kindergarten, family home providers and childcare centers.
LAist has a separate guide to help caregivers find child care for their kiddos, ages 3 and under. It breaks down the types of childcare, how to start your search, questions to ask as you look for a provider and financial assistance options.
Preschools are a subset of childcare that are more structured programs primarily serving children 3 to 4 years old. They typically provide a curriculum-based program — often incorporating play — on what the California Department of Education outlines as the domains of early learning:
Social and emotional development
Language and literacy
Math
Science
Physical development
Health
History–social science
Visual performing arts
All in all, both childcare and preschools serve dual purposes: caring for children while parents are working, attending school or looking for a job, and providing early learning opportunities.
Do all Californians have access to preschool?
Here's the good news: California has invested a lot of resources to help families access preschool, regardless of income, background, where they live or immigration status as part of Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK). That includes transitional kindergarten (TK), the California State Preschool Program and childcare subsidies for family childcare homes and childcare centers.
However, that doesn't mean there's guaranteed space for everybody who needs it. Despite the options, nearly half of young Californians do not receive childcare on a regular basis — 10 or more hours per week — according to a study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
While this guide is meant to help you understand the preschool landscape in L.A., there are systemic barriers that make it difficult for many families — especially communities of color from low-income backgrounds — to access affordable, reliable and high-quality childcare.
Where are preschools based?
They can be found in lots of different settings, including childcare centers, family childcare homes or elementary schools.
Is the quality of education different at a family childcare home?
Some families have misconceptions about the quality of preschool programs in family childcare homes compared to those in centers, according to Jessica Chang, founder of Upwards. Her company helps families find childcare and specifically partners with family childcare home providers.
"The legitimate difference is one's located in a residential setting and the other is located in a commercial space,” said Chang. “Many family childcare providers were started by teachers that used to work in preschools but might have found, ‘Hey, my preschool pay is not enough. I'm going to start my own small business.’”
“There's just been a very big misconception on quality, but I would really test that out, and I encourage families to actually go look at family childcare homes and also commercial spaces and really be the judge of that,” said Chang.
Public vs. private preschool — what's the difference?
An easy way to help make sense of the preschool system is to first split the options into two categories: public (free or low-cost) and private (tuition-based).
How to find a public preschool program:
Search here for a Head Start preschool near you or contact L.A. County’s Head Start Referral Agency to learn more: (877) 773-5543.
Your local school district can help you find which schools offer TK.
Hear it from an educator: Why she recommends public preschool
Early childhood educator Shannon Huston has worked at both public and private programs. She is currently the Director of Family & Child Care Provider Services at Pathways LA, a local R&R serving the Downtown and West Hollywood areas.
Based on her professional experience, Huston recommends state or federally funded preschool programs.
"For the subsidized childcare spots, we have requirements from the state that say we have to do classroom observations. We have to have a curriculum. We have to have a much lower child teacher ratio,” said Huston. “So, a private preschool, you're not going to have all those tools in place, but because we're state funded, we have to have a certain amount of quality.”
Private preschools are tuition-based, privately owned businesses. They typically run in a home or commercial building.
No matter what preschool you choose, experts say it’s worth considering your child’s social and emotional development in a childcare setting, as it plays a major role in school readiness and academic achievement and can even affect their well-being in adulthood.
Hear it from a parent: What does a preschool stand for?
“My opinion, it is also a deal breaker for me if a childcare teacher cannot articulate the program’s philosophy or approach for my child’s development,” said Jorge O. Ramirez, professor of early childhood education at Pacific Oaks College & Children’s School. “I did have this experience when I needed childcare and it was a red flag when the director could not tell me the center’s philosophy aside from providing childcare services.”
How to get help paying (step-by-step)
The bad news: Securing a spot can be challenging due to the limited number of slots available across the state, leaving thousands of families on long waitlists. The Child Care Resource Center, serving San Bernardino and Northern Los Angeles counties, has over 30,000 people on the waitlist (and growing), for subsidized childcare.
Keep in mind that the programs prioritize families with the lowest incomes.
In 2022, only one in nine of California’s children eligible for childcare actually received services, according to a report from the California Budget & Policy Center.
“Because resources are so limited, we recommend they work with their Resource and Referral agency to get their names on all waitlists for programs that would meet their family needs to give themselves the most opportunity to find a space,” said Donna Sneeringer, president of Child Care Resource Center.
Sneeringer said, “It doesn't hurt to get on the lists early, but it is more about timing of enrollment and available funding.”
Dependent Care FSA, a pre-tax benefit account to help pay for eligible childcare including daycare, nursery school, preschool and before and after school care. There’s a calculator to help you figure out how much you can save
Bonuses, one-time or monthly, to cover childcare costs
Reimbursements for childcare expenses
On-site care that your employer provides
Talk to your human resources department or review your benefits package to find out what childcare benefits may be offered.
Early childhood educators that LAist spoke with
Cristina Alvarado - Executive Director, Child Care Alliance Los Angeles
Debra Colman - Director of Office for the Advancement of Early Care and Education (OAECE), Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Fernando Perez-Cornejo, UPK Liaison, Mexican American Opportunity Foundation
Jessica Chang - Founder, Upwards
Dr. Karina Agredano, Ed.D - Disabilities consultant, LA County Office of Education Head Start and Early Learning Division
Shannon Huston - Director of Family & Child Care Provider Services, Pathways LA
Victoria Wang - Researcher and Policy Advisor, Learning Policy Institute
How to find a preschool
Start the search as soon as possible – even for preschool.
“Especially in Los Angeles, there are a lot of wait lists that can go from six months to two years,” said Chang. “My advice for every single parent is start early, even if you don't know the sex of your baby, even if it might be only 8 weeks.”
Below are a few services that can help you with your search.
Resource and referral agencies
California funds resource and referral agencies, known as R&Rs, to help families find childcare programs, including preschool options.
R&Rs can be utilized by all families regardless of income; however, they’re geared toward helping families from low-income backgrounds find subsidized childcare.
When families contact an R&R, they assess needs and suggest options that match your family’s priorities. For example, if you prefer a preschool near your job that’s a flexible, full-day schedule, they can help with referrals.
L.A. County has multiple agencies that serve different regions.
Child Care Resource Center (Antelope Valley, San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley)
Children’s Home Society of California (Greater Long Beach area)
Connections for Children (West L.A, Santa Monica, Culver City, Torrance, Lomita and the beach cities)
Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (East LA, Monterey Park, Montebello, Paramount, Bell, South Gate, Huntington Park, and surrounding areas)
Options for Learning (San Gabriel Valley, including Pasadena, Monrovia, Alhambra and Baldwin Park)
Pathways LA (Metro LA, West Hollywood, Mid-Wilshire, Koreatown, Northeast LA)
Pomona Unified School District Child Development (Greater Pomona area, East San Gabriel valley)
Once you choose a school, they can also help you fill out the application process.
Find your local agency here or call 1-800-KIDS-793.
Online resources
Child Care Choices: A website to help families navigate the vast childcare and education landscape in Los Angeles County.
My Child Care Plan: Do you want to create a plan that fits your family’s needs? This statewide tool offers free, personalized support to help families narrow their options.
Enter your ZIP code, your child’s age, schedule needs — such as full-time, drop-in or after-school care — language preferences and whether your child has special needs. The tool matches families with licensed programs based on their selections.
Winnie, a search system to help families find childcare, including preschools. Each program will be accompanied by a description, photos, tuition fees, licensing status, availability, and more
Upwards, a company that helps families find childcare. Their specialty is working with family childcare providers.
Word-of-mouth
Talk to friends, colleagues, and trusted parent groups about their preschool recommendations.
Tips for choosing a preschool that’s the best fit for your child
And here are some additional considerations to keep in mind based on your tour and observations:
Based on what you’ve observed, will your child feel safe and cared for here?
What setting will your child learn best in?
How are adults communicating with children at this preschool?
How do teachers communicate with parents on a regular basis about their child’s development and overall growth?
How far is the program from your home? What will transportation look like?
With many preschool options available, Cristina Alvarado of the Child Care Alliance strongly urges parents to research multiple programs and choose one that best suits their child and family’s holistic needs instead of making a decision based solely on income or affordability.
Once you’ve figured out your top choices, these tools can help you look into providers’ history:
Transparency Website, under the California Dept. Of Social Services, has a database where you can search for the licensing status of child care facilities as well as citations, inspections, complaints, and reports. Child care facilities are categorized by types of early childhood settings including Child Care Center Preschool, Family Child Care Homes (small and large) and Single Licensed Child Care Centers.
TrustLine, a registry of in-home child care providers and license–exempt child care providers (nannies and babysitters) who’ve cleared California’s background check.
Early intervention and special education services
Your child’s preschool should be able to provide resources for early intervention and special education services.
There are other resources if you need additional support, like California’s regional centers.
With 21 centers statewide, they support people with developmental disabilities, including young children. Find your local center here.
Families should try not to get discouraged when seeking developmental support for their child, said Dr. Karina Agredano, a disabilities consultant with the L.A. County Office of Education Head Start and Early Learning Division. She said there may be some challenges along the way, but stresses that families are not alone.
Agredano also recommended resources such as:
Help Me Grow LA: A program of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health that connects families with a wide range of services to support their child’s developmental journey, including referrals to regional centers or local education agencies.
211 LA: A hotline for Angelenos looking for special education's services, early intervention, childcare and parenting support, and other resources.
Family Resource Centers: These centers help families learn about early intervention and navigate the Early Start system. They partner with regional centers and education agencies.
“As we always say in early childhood, you're the first teacher for your child. You're also the first advocate for your child,” said Agredano. “So continue to keep moving forward.”
Tell us: What else would you like to know about preschools?
In May, the American Hotel and Lodging Association said that up to 70% of L.A. hotels reported bookings below expectations ahead of the World Cup.
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Robert Gauthier
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Getty Images
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Topline:
FIFA promised an economic boom for host cities during the World Cup, but now that the tournament is here in L.A., many hotel rooms are sitting empty.
Why are bookings low? The American Hotel and Lodging Association laid out a few possible reasons, including high fuel prices and “broader geopolitical concerns” that make international fans more reluctant to travel to the United States. The report said domestic travelers are forecasted to outpace international travelers.
What are hotels seeing now? Jackie Filla, CEO of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles said that bookings aren’t just lower than expected for the World Cup — they’re behind usual summer numbers too. That might be because mega-events can deter traditional hotel customers from visiting the city.
Why it matters: Kurt Petersen, a co-president of the union Unite Here Local 11, told LAist that mega-events usually create a surge of employment. This time around, he said workers are seeing fewer employment opportunities, especially in downtown L.A. hotels.
Read on...for more on what hotels are seeing for the World Cup.
The World Cup kicks off tomorrow but you wouldn’t know it from hotel bookings.
“There is quite a lot of hotel availability throughout the region,” said Jackie Filla, CEO of the Hotel Association of Los Angeles. “Visitor rates are not meeting expectations currently.”
Filla said that when major events come to L.A., organizers and hotels estimate demand for rooms, and hotels commit to having enough rooms to meet that demand through a room block agreement.
L.A. hotels made such an agreement with FIFA around eight years ago, Filla told LAist, but a lot of those rooms are now sitting empty.
Where did the demand go?
In May, the American Hotel and Lodging Association said that up to 70% of L.A. hotels reported bookings below expectations ahead of the World Cup — a trend happening across the board in World Cup host cities.
The report laid out a few possible reasons, including high fuel prices and “broader geopolitical concerns” that make international fans more reluctant to travel to the United States. The report said domestic travelers are forecasted to outpace international travelers.
Filla added that right now, bookings aren’t just lower than expected for the World Cup — they’re behind usual summer numbers too. That might be because mega-events can deter traditional hotel customers from visiting the city.
“There are business conferences and leisure travelers that are not associated with the event that [visiting L.A.] is going to feel unappealing to,” she said.
Not all hotels are feeling the pain, though.
Javier Cano, the Area General Manager for Marriott International in L. A., said that they are “having just about what [they] thought they would” in terms of bookings.
Does this change the promised boost to the economy?
FIFA has consistently billed the World Cup as an economic boon to host cities.
According to Stafford Nichols, an economist at research and consulting firm Beacon Economics, sports events usually do boost economic activity.
But the spike from the World Cup might not be much bigger than other sports events in L.A.
Still, the effects of low hotel bookings could reverberate across the economy. Part of the predicted income number comes from “direct spending” on things like hotel rooms, which Nichols said accounts for 40–50% of tourist spending in L.A.
Some of the projection also comes from “spillovers,” like increased income for a hotel’s business partners (for example, their preferred laundromat).
With hotels underbooked, both of these effects might be dampened.
How will hospitality workers be affected?
Kurt Petersen, a co-president of the union Unite Here Local 11, told LAist that mega-events usually create a surge of employment.
This time around, he said workers are seeing fewer employment opportunities, especially in downtown L.A. hotels.
“The hope was that FIFA would bring work to all our members. That has not come to pass yet,” Petersen told LAist.
He said having fewer shifts during the World Cup means that workers may need to make “tough choices.”
“It’s difficult to live in Los Angeles [...] having less work means making harder choices about how to make your dollar go further,” he said.
What about other lodging options, like Airbnbs?
Isabelle Goldberg, a communications manager for Airbnb, wrote in a statement to LAist that “the FIFA World Cup is set to be the biggest hosting event in Airbnb’s history.”
As of April, the most popular L.A. rental locations were Central Hollywood, North Hawthorne, and West Hollywood.
Bookings in Inglewood, near SoFi stadium, are also on-pace with expectations, according to James T. Butts, mayor of Inglewood.
Butts said that Inglewood’s “vigorous” short-term rental population is a “benefit accrued to residents from Inglewood becoming a sports destination city.”
But others point to implications of strong short-term rental bookings for the traditional hospitality sector.
Filla said, “when you flood the market with new Airbnbs, who [...] don’t have insurance requirements, regulatory requirements, a staff of people who live in Los Angeles that they need to support, that’s concerning for us.”
She said that hotels are still hoping for a last-minute bookings boost.
“I think folks are waiting to see who’s going to play in some of these matches, and that will dictate potential new bookings.”
Los Angeles is hosting eight tournament games, including a quarter-final match on July 10.
Keep up with LAist.
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Cheech Marin speaks during an interview at the opening of the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum in Riverside on June 16, 2022.
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Brian Feinzimer
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For LAist
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Topline:
A new art exhibition at The Cheech declares: 'Chicano art is American art,' and reunites the actor, comedian and advocate of Chicano art with Los Angeles graffiti artist Chaz Bojórquez — known as the 'Godfather of West Coast graffiti.'
Why it matters: That the “We the People” opening comes on the heels of the first anniversary of the start of federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, when the “Americanness” of Latino immigrants and even U.S. citizens is still being questioned, is something that Marin and curator Benito Huerta are acutely aware of.
“We the People: Chicano Art in the U.S.A. is a declarative statement,” Huerta writes in his curator’s statement, “that ‘we,’ Chicanos, are part of ‘the people’ of these United States of America.”
Read on ... for more about the Chicano art featured in the exhibition and how to see it.
Los Angeles graffiti artist Chaz Bojórquez is now widely known as “the Godfather of West Coast graffiti”, and has had his work featured in museums like LACMA, MOCA and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, but was met with rejection when he was first trying to get his work shown in museums.
He’d studied at the influential Chouinard Art Institute in L.A., and with calligraphy master Yun Chung Chiang, but “ I was trying to get into galleries, and they refused to show my work,” Bojórquez told LAist. The explanation, as recently as the late 1990s, Bojórquez said, was that graffiti “belong[ed] in the streets."
There was also a question of whether Bojórquez’s work — a blend of calligraphy and street writing adopted by L.A. gang culture — should even be considered Chicano.
Bojórquez says that when he approached Sister Karen Boccalero of Self Help Graphics, the famed East L.A. art and cultural center for Latino and Chicano artists that had been around since the early 1970s, about showing his work, Boccalero told him, “ I can't show this because it's anti-Chicano. Chicanism is family, border issues, migration, farm workers, all that. Why [would] I want to show this ‘bad boy’ stuff and undermine what we're doing?”
A change in fortune
'Chino Latino' by Chaz Bojórquez, 2000. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 in.
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Courtesy of The Chicano Collection
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For actor and comedian Cheech Marin — a prominent collector and advocate for Chicano art — the definition of Chicano is less narrow: “ It keeps evolving all the time.”
Marin began collecting Chicano art in the 1980s, and around the year 2000, he called up Bojórquez, ultimately buying a piece of his called “Chino Latino,” featuring a black and white dragon holding letters reading “Los locos de Cali” in its claws.
Explaining the meaning beyond the translation, Bojórquez says, “ We are the crazy ones from California. Not crazy in our head, but crazy about life and crazy about art.”
'A Miracle of the Masses' by Benjamin Muñoz, 2023. Acrylic on carved panel with relief printmaking collage. Gift of Jorge A. Lopez, MD and Samantha Lopez
for The Cheech Center Collection of the Riverside Art Museum.
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Courtesy of the artist
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The overarching message of “We the People” — a new exhibition of over 120 works from 61 artists — and of The Cheech, Marin says, is that “Chicano art is American art.”
“ We demand to be spoken of in the same paragraph as every other American, established art.” Having an official inclusion in the Riverside Art Museum — “that stamp of approval” — goes a long way toward achieving that full recognition.
A new relevance
'Hello America,' 2025 by Vincent Valdez. Intaglio gravure with embossed titling, hand-colored in pencil.
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Courtesy of the artist and Cheech Marin
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That the “We the People” opening comes on the heels of the first anniversary of the start of federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, when the “Americanness” of Latino immigrants and even U.S. citizens is still being questioned, is something that Marin and curator Benito Huerta are acutely aware of.
“We the People: Chicano Art in the U.S.A. is a declarative statement,” Huerta writes in his curator’s statement, “that ‘we,’ Chicanos, are part of ‘the people’ of these United States of America.”
“We’ve been here [...] since Mexico, through shifting borders and histories, and now within these United States. Yet, we are still challenged as to where our home resides. Our home is here.”
Those current challenges are reflected in many of the works in the exhibition, including Lalo Alcaraz’s “Summer of ICE (Abandoned Paleta Cart)” from 2026, as well as Joe Peña’s “Rosie’s Tamales” from 2019.
At the same time, the influence of Chicano culture and L.A-style graffiti continues to spread around the world.
“This art that we do has given me the opportunity to travel all over the world,” Bojórquez says. “I’ve been to over 45 countries, and I'm sure Cheech has been to more. And they embrace us.”
How to see it
“We the People” is open now at The Cheech at the Riverside Art Museum through May 23, 2027. The museum is open every day but Tuesday. Admission is free on Sundays during the summer and during the Riverside Arts Walk (first Thursday of each month).
By Agya K. Aning, Alain Stephens and Jared Bennett
Updated June 10, 2026 5:14 PM
Published June 10, 2026 4:19 PM
At least 278 of the city’s unhoused residents have been shot and killed since 2015, an investigation by LAist and The LA Local has found.
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Annelise Capossela
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For The LA Local
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Topline:
An investigation by LAist and The LA Local found that at least 278 of the city’s unhoused residents have been shot and killed since 2015, according to an analysis of data from the Los Angeles Police Department. Once rare, gunfire is now the primary means by which killers take the lives of unhoused people in the city.
An undercount: However, our analysis of records from the L.A. County Medical Examiner shows that’s an undercount. We found an additional two dozen fatal shootings from 2024 and 2025 that do not appear to be included in LAPD data. Medical examiner records are not exhaustive either — the office estimates that about 20% of deaths among the county’s unhoused population aren’t reported to their department.
The motives: Court records and people who spoke with LAist and The LA Local attributed these shootings to gangs and the dangers of the underground drug economy. Other sources and legal proceedings point to a rise of “predators,” “outsiders” or “vigilantes” — people who kill because they view unhoused people as easy targets and less than human.
“As the numbers of people who are homeless rise, the number of vigilante activities have risen with it,” said Andy Bales, who ran the Union Rescue Mission shelter on Skid Row for nearly 20 years.
This story is a collaboration between the LAist and The LA Local. Agya K. Aning and Alain Stephens are freelance reporters.
On a clear winter night in 2019, Gerardo Gaona drove a white Ford Expedition to a homeless encampment in Pico-Union, stepped out, entered a tent and fired six rounds from his 9mm handgun.
Hector Valey, 24, was hit twice. Court records say he managed to make it out of the tent, dying nearby soon after midnight Feb. 23. Jorge Perez was struck in his right shoulder — his life likely spared only because the Smith & Wesson aimed at him ran out of bullets. Gaona got back into the SUV and sped off.
Two weeks earlier, on Feb. 9, police had responded to a shooting at the same encampment that left one person wounded. The same Expedition was spotted at the scene, and bullet casings were eventually linked back to Gaona’s pistol.
Gaona, now 30, was convicted of first-degree murder and premeditated attempted murder in 2022. He was sentenced to a minimum of 82 years in prison. The court described him as “a borderline serial killer who hunted homeless people in his neighborhood.”
He's not the first person in Los Angeles to target the city's most vulnerable. Unhoused people living here have been strangled, stabbed, set on fire and bludgeoned with baseball bats — often in plain view.
An investigation by LAist and The LA Local found that at least 278 of the city’s unhoused residents have been shot and killed since 2015, according to an analysis of data from the Los Angeles Police Department. Once rare, gunfire is now the primary means by which killers take the lives of unhoused people in the city.
About the data
We began this investigation by looking at publicly available crime data from the LAPD. This data showed us the date, location, and the gender and age of shooting victims. Department data also show the status of crime investigations, which allowed us to calculate how often arrests were made. Given the unusually high arrest rates in 2024 and 2025, we wanted to know if the department was leaving out fatal shootings that hadn’t been solved.
We compared LAPD data with death records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and removed the duplicates. There were two dozen fatal shootings from 2024 and 2025 that were not reflected in LAPD data. (Neither agency has totally comprehensive data, and some differences are to be expected.)
It’s unclear if these gaps in the data resulted from a change in the LAPD’s data collection methods. Previously, the department used the Uniform Crime Reporting Standards (UCR). In 2024, it began transitioning to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the system preferred by the FBI. The LAPD did not return a request for comment.
However, our analysis of records from the L.A. County Medical Examiner shows that’s an undercount. We found an additional two dozen fatal shootings from 2024 and 2025 that do not appear to be included in LAPD data. Medical examiner records are not exhaustive either — the office estimates that about 20% of deaths among the county’s unhoused population aren’t reported to their department.
In 2014, the earliest year analyzed in this investigation, there were no killings of this kind. In 2022, there were 60. This surge reflected a national peak in gun violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, which experts have attributed to fewer social supports, rising gun sales, and an increase in joblessness, mental illness, and substance abuse. Following a decline, LAPD data show that fatal shootings of unhoused people stayed nearly the same between 2024 and 2025, even as overall homicides in the city last year fell by 19%.
The oldest shooting victim found in the medical examiner’s records was a 69-year-old man who, in 2024, was shot six times in an alley near the intersection of Interstates 105 and 110. The youngest was shot seven times, mostly in the back, during a drive-by in Florence-Graham that same year. He was 15 years old. Neither victim appears in LAPD data.
The LAPD didn’t return a request for comment about the gaps in its shooting data.
“This data underscores why Mayor Bass is so zealous about bringing people inside from the street and encampments,” reads a statement from Mayor Karen Bass’ Office. “When people are left on the street — which was the de facto City policy before Mayor Bass was elected — they are exponentially more likely to encounter violence.”
Drug overdoses, coronary heart disease, and traffic accidents remain overwhelmingly the most common causes of death among L.A.’s unhoused population. But fatal shootings have become a persistent danger facing the “unsheltered” portion of this population — the nearly 27,000 men, women and children who sleep on sidewalks, in tents or cars, under bridges, and other places not meant for permanent human habitation. It’s the biggest population of its kind found anywhere in America.
As the numbers of people who are homeless rise, the number of vigilante activities have risen with it.
— Andy Bales, former CEO of the Union Rescue Mission shelter
Unhoused people are both the perpetrators and victims of homicide. But LAPD homicide data shows they are far more likely to be the victims of violence: From 2015 through 2025, unsheltered people accounted for 16% of all murder victims in the city, despite making up less than 1% of Angelenos.
“Homeless people face, arguably, the highest victimization levels of virtually anyone in society,” said Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
Among homicides in 2025 with unhoused shooting victims, the LAPD made arrests in all 16 cases, according to our analysis of department data. This is a dramatic change from 2023 — before the department changed its data collection methods — when the LAPD cleared just 48% of such cases by arrest for unhoused victims, and 74% for housed victims.
The LAPD did not return a request for comment about this significant change in arrest rate.
Court records and people who spoke with LAist and The LA Local attributed these shootings to gangs and the dangers of the underground drug economy. Other sources and legal proceedings point to a rise of “predators,” “outsiders,” or “vigilantes” — people who kill because they view unhoused people as easy targets and less than human.
There are “people who actually go out and target the homeless as some kind of badge of honor,” Levin said.
“As the numbers of people who are homeless rise, the number of vigilante activities have risen with it,” said Andy Bales, who ran the Union Rescue Mission shelter on Skid Row for nearly 20 years.
Throughout most of the country, a person’s housing status isn’t collected upon their death, which means that national data on the shootings of unhoused people is currently unavailable. However, advocates say this kind of violence is on the rise around the U.S. And with a growing share of Americans losing shelter, more people are at risk.
Predators and self-styled vigilantes
For decades, individual news stories have revealed the violence facing unhoused Angelenos. A UPI story from 1986 begins:
LOS ANGELES – Thousands of homeless street people are being urged to spend their nights in Skid Row missions or 'huddle together for safety' against a killer who has shot four men as they slept in lots and alleys.
The shooter, dubbed The Skid Row Slayer, would kill a total of 10 unhoused men before dying by suicide nine days after the story was published.
Years later, two elderly women took out life insurance policies worth millions of dollars on two unhoused men — before killing them in staged hit-and-runs in 1999 and 2005.
“They went out of their way to target men who had nothing,” said Bobby Grace, a deputy district attorney who prosecuted their case.
The perpetrators of the so-called Black Widow Murders were sentenced to life without parole.
Gaona went on his shooting spree in 2019, according to court documents, “without any apparent provocation or reason other than ridding his community of its most vulnerable members.”
More recently, the LAPD arrested two people in May 2022 for allegedly shooting and killing a 69-year-old unhoused double amputee while he slept in his wheelchair outside of a McDonald’s in Gramercy Park. A jury found one of them not guilty at trial in 2023. The second person, Rubi Anguiano-Salazar, shot a 67-year-old unhoused woman, who survived, at a bus stop in the same neighborhood four days later. In 2025, Salazar was sentenced to 42 years to life in prison for one count of first-degree murder with a gun and one count of willful, deliberate, and premeditated attempted murder.
Over a span of 72 hours in November 2023, Jerrid Joseph Powell allegedly prowled the nighttime streets of Los Angeles, sneaking up on unhoused men and shooting them. One man was asleep on a couch. Another was pushing a shopping cart. The third was resting on the sidewalk. They all died. During that period, Powell allegedly killed another man in L.A. County who was not unhoused. Beverly Hills police arrested Powell a few days later in connection with that shooting after his car was identified from surveillance footage.
Powell has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder. Criminal proceedings have been suspended while his case works its way through hearings to establish if he is mentally competent to stand trial, according to the district attorney’s office.
For lack of a better term, I’ll just call them ‘outsiders’ that are victimizing the homeless and seeing them as less human.
— Jeff Wenninger, security consultant and former LAPD lieutenant
Last August, authorities say Vincent Wolf approached an RV parked outside his apartment building in Sylmar and shot and killed Travis Harker, 29. Wolf has pleaded not guilty to murder and is awaiting trial. Police said Wolf, 23, had vented frustration on social media earlier that month about homelessness and “corrupt politicians” failing to address the issue.
Benyamin Sadeh, an LAPD detective who investigated Harker’s killing, said he worked on a different fatal shooting in 2023 that seemed motivated by a similar sort of resentment.
“The victim wasn’t homeless, but he appeared to be,” Sadeh told LAist and The LA Local.
Sadeh said he’s not surprised LAPD data shows shootings of unhoused victims have remained consistent as homicides in the general population decrease.
“It’s a big problem for us,” Sadeh said. “A lot of people focus on the impact [of gun violence] to our communities, but it's also affecting people that are experiencing homelessness.”
Gisselle Espinoza is an LAPD commander and the department’s homeless coordinator. She disagrees.
“I don't have anything to suggest that there's a trend or a pattern with people pulling weapons on [unhoused people],” she said.
Numerous people living outdoors who spoke with LAist and The LA Local described having guns pulled on them as a regular occurrence.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s office doesn’t track the housing status of victims or people accused of crimes, an office spokesperson said in an email. “Our more than 800 prosecutors remain deeply committed to seeking justice and supporting every victim impacted by crime,” the statement added.
Most suspected shooters are housed
Jeff Wenninger spent 33 years in law enforcement, much of it with the LAPD, and he sees things differently from Espinoza. His résumé includes a stint in the department’s Rampart Division, which encompasses MacArthur Park, a hub of homelessness in L.A. He estimates that half of the attacks on unhoused people he saw there were of the predatory sort — but that applies only to instances where the assailant was caught, allowing their identity to be known.
“For lack of a better term, I’ll just call them ‘outsiders’ that are victimizing the homeless and seeing them as less human,” said Wenninger, who now provides expert witness testimonies and security consulting.
His estimate tracks with LAPD data, which includes the housing status of suspected criminals. An analysis of department records by LAist and The LA Local shows that in the killings of unhoused people, 83% of suspected shooters from 2015 through 2025 were housed.
“That's pretty concerning. I think law enforcement would want to say otherwise, that it's homeless on homeless,” Wenninger said.
Between 2015 and 2025, the number of unsheltered people in Los Angeles increased from roughly 18,000 to nearly 27,000, a rise of about 52%. The city is the epicenter of America’s homelessness crisis: It encompasses roughly 10% of the nation’s entire unsheltered homeless population, even though only about 1% of people in the country live here.
Local, county, state and federal levels have poured billions of dollars into addressing homelessness in the L.A. area, but progress has been minimal. Homeless advocates acknowledge that the persistence of this crisis has led to compassion fatigue, resignation, resentment, and dehumanization among some Angelenos. This loss of patience has at times expressed itself as protests, angry local council meetings and anti-homeless Facebook groups.
Jeremy Rosenprinz is a member of the volunteer-led homeless outreach group Ktown For All, and he’s familiar with such negative sentiments. “The problem is that when you live your life in public, there is nowhere for you to go. And so we're seeing people at their absolute worst,” he said.
Jeremy Rosenprinz, a member of Ktown For All, stands outside of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Koreatown on Jan. 10. The all-volunteer group meets most Saturdays to deliver supplies to unhoused people in the neighborhood
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Agya K. Aning
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LAist and The LA Local
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Academic research shows that some people believe their unhoused neighbors deserve to suffer, and a 2024 study in Los Angeles County provides a glimpse into their struggles: 32% of homeless respondents said they experienced discrimination daily in the past month, while 16% said they had experienced violence. To be clear, these kinds of indignities can come from other unhoused people. They also come from housed individuals who’ve slashed tents and thrown their possessions into dumpsters.
“Being unhoused — it's like exile, basically,” Rosenprinz said. “When people are marginalized and demonized in the media and by our government, then it sets off a certain type of person who thinks that, 'Oh, like, maybe I'm even doing a community service to do violence against these people,'” he said.
“I think there's entire portions of the population who do not see the unhoused or people living in poverty as human beings,” said Soma Snakeoil, the co-founder and executive director of The Sidewalk Project, a street-based harm reduction organization.
Snakeoil co-founded the group in 2017. It’s led by and lends aid to unhoused, drug-using, sexual assault survivor, and sex worker populations. The Sidewalk Project operates a drop-in center on the southern edge of Skid Row, where there’s always someone standing watch behind a heavy rolling gate. With its cozy couches and multi-colored murals, the interior resembles an easygoing hostel. It serves as a haven for cisgender and trans women, offering them meals, hygiene kits, self-defense classes and a place to simply rest.
The Sidewalk Project helped Reilly, who was previously unhoused and preferred not to give her first name, get housing in 2021. They brought her on as an employee the year before that, and as the group’s community ambassador her roles include harm-reduction outreach, wound care, and violence interruption.
Reilly said she left an abusive household in the 1980s and made her way as a sex worker, living out of various hotels. She’s been attacked numerous times, she said, including a drive-by pellet gun shooting to her ankle that required 106 stitches. From the 15 intermittent years Reilly spent unhoused, she said she’s known several dozen unhoused people who’ve been shot and killed.
“If they have this need or desire to kill people, then this is the place to come,” Reilly said. “Because we're expendable.”
Reilly, who was formerly unhoused, stands before a mural at The Sidewalk Project, a drop-in shelter for unhoused cisgender and trans women in Skid Row on Jan. 9. The organization brought her on as its community ambassador and helped her get housing.
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Agya K. Aning
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LAist and The LA Local
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Gang threats in encampments
The Union Rescue Mission is a shelter that operates a faith-based recovery program in Skid Row. Men and women receive aid there in various forms, including detox, therapy, parenting classes, vocational training, and help finding housing.
Andy Bales watched the population of Skid Row rise dramatically during his 20-year tenure, which ended in 2023. Over the years, he said he witnessed countless acts of violence, including being within earshot of a fatal shooting. He said he also saw gangs set people’s tents on fire for crossing them or failing to pay debts.
“Skid Row is the worst man-made disaster in the US,” Bales said.
A great deal of being unhoused revolves around simply staying safe, so those living outside often band together to look after one another. However, homeless encampments can be ripe for violence and exploitation, including being used as cover for drug-dealing operations.
Detective Sadeh said “a lot” of the violence he’s seen was related to the drug trade, including gangs who wanted unhoused drug users to buy from them exclusively.
Eunisses Hernandez, a City Council member representing parts of Los Angeles with large unhoused populations, said she’s aware of violence in and around encampments.
“I have certain encampments where there's regular [gang] shootings,” Hernandez said.
Identifying the exact degree of gang involvement in these crimes is difficult. In 2020, the LAPD withdrew from CalGang, a statewide database used to track gang affiliations, after an internal audit found that officers were falsifying records. Other law enforcement agencies in the state are still prohibited from using records generated by the LAPD, which made up about a quarter of the data.
Court records show that assumed rival gang affiliations can be a significant factor in violence against unhoused people.
On a late night in early 2018, two members of the Avenues gang were out looking for rivals and eventually made their way to a homeless encampment in Montecito Heights. They entered a tent where they found Daniel Duarte and Douglas Garido. The intruders asked the two men where they were from, meaning, What gang do you belong to? Duarte said he was from Pasadena, and Garido said he had no affiliations. Suddenly, one of the men shot Duarte, 31, in the back of the head. He died at the scene, while Garido, 34, was shot twice and survived. According to court records, neither of them belonged to any gang.
A year later, Bradley Hanaway was sleeping under bleachers in North Hollywood when three members of MS-13 approached him, asking to see his tattoos. Mistaking one for the symbol of a rival clique, court records state, one member shot Hanaway almost instantly, killing him. He was 34 years old.
Guns on the street
California’s gun laws, long considered the country’s strongest, require proof of residency to legally own a firearm — a difficult task for anyone living on the streets of L.A. Further, federal law prohibits gun possession for anyone convicted of a felony or involuntarily committed to an institution for a mental disorder or severe substance use. During the city’s 2025 point-in-time count — an annual tally of unsheltered people — 26% reported having a serious mental disorder, while 30% said they had a substance abuse disorder.
Still, there are plenty of ways to obtain a firearm illegally, such as stealing, bringing them in from states with less restrictive gun laws, and straw purchasing, which involves buying a gun on someone else’s behalf.
“Everybody has a gun, mostly people who are not supposed to have guns,” Detective Sadeh said. “They’re out there, they are easily obtained, and they change hands very quickly.”
From 2015 through 2025, the LAPD seized more than 80,000 illegal firearms, according to its annual crime report. Last year, it recovered 8,650, over a thousand more than in 2024. The department has reportedly recovered guns from encampments, among other locations.
Sadeh said that ghost guns — untraceable firearms manufactured at home, assembled from kits or some combination of both — are also prevalent in the city. Last year, the LAPD recovered 876 of them, down from a peak of 1,921 in 2021.
LAist and The LA Local spoke to an unhoused woman living in Koreatown, who said that gun ownership among people on the streets was common in her neighborhood.
“On this street alone, on the average, there's four or five guns, right here from that block to that block,” said the 57-year-old woman, who said she was an Army veteran and former police officer. She said there were gunshots almost every night, mostly coming from gang activity.
“Between Alvarado [Street] and Vermont [Avenue], what, there’s four active gangs right here? Well, five if you include LAPD,” she said.
The veteran, who wasn’t comfortable giving her name, already knows her way around firearms.
“Even though we're not supposed to [have guns],” she said, “I'm considering one, ya know?”
Zackery "Turdle" Melton was shot and killed in Venice in April 2025.
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Courtesy Melton's family
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The LA Local
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Solving the murders
On April 2, 2025, Zackery Melton, 28, was shot and killed in Venice while defending a friend from her abuser in Westminster Dog Park. Melton, known to most as “Turdle,” was unhoused and beloved by the wider Venice community.
Melton’s heroism apparently made quite the impression: His father, Mark Melton, said detectives told him they were going to solve his son’s case because he was “one of us.”
Detectives spent more than five weeks tracking down Melton’s killer. LAPD arrested Tyrone Jones, 46, on May 9, 2025. Just over a year later, at the end of a 16-day jury trial, Jones was convicted of first-degree murder and seven other charges. His probation and sentencing hearing is June 18.
Given that about half of the fatal shootings in our data went unsolved, the response to Melton’s death appears to be an exceptional one.
Coming soon: Melton’s story in Part 2
Unhoused Angelenos say getting justice in general, much less for serious crimes, is difficult. Their personal anecdotes about interacting with the LAPD often include being ignored, not believed, disrespected or treated like a criminal.
Current LAPD detectives and Wenninger, the former lieutenant, said that unhoused people’s reluctance to come forward can make it difficult to solve their murders. They also pointed to staying in touch with unhoused people throughout the legal process, which can take months or years, as another complication. These factors may partially explain why the department’s clearance rate of fatal shootings of unhoused people can be substantially lower than that of housed victims — but only partially.
Wenninger said that officers would sometimes treat unhoused people as a nuisance, wishing not to interact with them because of their lack of cleanliness. Some also didn’t see the point in helping unhoused people.
“The department answer is that ‘every life matters,’” he said. “But in reality there's a finite amount of resources, and determinations have to be made on where those resources are going to be spent.”
Learn more about data collection
Dr. Odey C. Okpu, the Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner, said his office was the first to notice a pattern of three unhoused shooting victims killed in quick succession in November 2023.
“We alerted law enforcement and said, ‘I know you guys don't share these cases because they all happen in various jurisdictions,’” Okpu said. “But this pattern is peculiar, that it’s unhoused folks in their tents, just sleeping, apparently.”
Beverly Hills Police arrested Jerrid Joseph Powell the following month. He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder, and his case is ongoing.
In this case, the attention paid to the victims’ housing status helped identify the alleged shooter. However, not all law enforcement agencies, medical examiners, and coroners record the housing status of the dead. This leaves a patchwork of death records collection across the country. Advocates say anti-homeless violence is on the rise nationally, but the lack of data obscures its true extent.
The LAPD is perhaps the only major municipal police force that tracks the housing status of all suspected criminals and victims. The department also makes this data available publicly, but our investigation has raised questions about its reliability.
In 2024, the LAPD began using the National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, the FBI’s preferred method of crime data collection. Our analysis of department data shows a 100% arrest rate of those who shot and killed unhoused people in 2024 and 2025. In 2023, the department made arrests in fewer than half of such cases.
The LAPD did not return a request for comment about this significant change in arrest rate.
Donald Whitehead, the leader of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said his organization has raised the issue of data collection with the federal government on multiple occasions.
“We have limited resources, and so we do our absolute best, but we could certainly benefit from the Justice Department taking a harder look at these issues,” he said.
When investigating homicides with unhoused victims, Wenninger said officers would sometimes say “no human involved.” The infamous phrase came to light during the Rodney King saga of the early ‘90s, when transcripts of chatter between LAPD officers revealed that they used the shorthand “N.H.I.” to refer to crimes with both Black victims and perpetrators. It’s been used for crimes involving sex workers as well.
Espinoza, the LAPD homeless coordinator, said she had never heard of that phrase. “And if somebody ever did say that, then they would be held accountable.”
She said the department takes all crime victims seriously.
“We provide the best service, whether the person lives in an affluent area, or whether it's someone that lives in Skid Row,” Espinoza said.
Wenninger also remembers LAPD officers questioning why they should care about delivering justice for unhoused victims if their families don’t care.
Karen Webb, Melton’s mother, has heard such comments many times. “And every time, it stabbed me in the heart,” she said. “Like, he was 28. What was I supposed to do?”
After his death, she reached out to the press and took to social media, commenting under numerous and sparse local news stories about her boy.
“I had to change that narrative,” Webb said, “because though he was homeless, he was so much more than just that.”
