Today's headlines:
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Topline:
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to temporarily restore access to the three media organizations banned from covering White House events last week by President Donald Trump.
The ruling: Issued shortly after midnight, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly for the District of Columbia granted a 14-day temporary restraining order to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which had press credentials of their journalists covering the White House revoked on Saturday. In his ruling, Kelly ordered White House representatives to "immediately return, reinstate, and restore" their press credentials to reporters of the three news organizations.
The backstory: CNN, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) and Politico sued President Trump after he made good on his threat to bar them from covering official events. Trump told White House reporters on Friday that he was fed up after what he called two years of unfair and negative coverage. The news outlets accused Trump of violating not only their right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment, but also to due process under the Fifth.
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to temporarily restore access to the three media organizations banned from covering White House events last week by President Trump.
In a ruling issued shortly after midnight, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly for the District of Columbia granted a 14-day temporary restraining order to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which had press credentials of their journalists covering the White House revoked on Saturday.
Yet the news outlets said some of their journalists were denied entry to the White House early Thursday morning. They have asked the court for an immediate hearing.
"A Secret Service agent confiscated the hard pass of journalists from all three organizations," the request submitted to the court said. "And when Plaintiff [CNN Reporter] Betsy Klein, whose hard pass was confiscated on Saturday, September 19, requested to have her hard pass returned, her request was denied and she was refused access to the White House complex."
CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a joint lawsuit against Trump to challenge that decision on Monday, on the grounds that their constitutional rights had been violated. They sought a temporary restraining order on the ban that would allow them to report from the White House as the proceedings in the case continue.
In his ruling, Kelly ordered White House representatives to "immediately return, reinstate, and restore" their press credentials to reporters of the three news organizations.
Kelly, a Trump appointee, wrote that news outlets were "likely to succeed in showing that their hard passes were revoked without constitutionally adequate due process," and on the grounds that "'individuals must receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before the Government deprives them' of a constitutionally protected interest."
Trump told reporters on Friday that his decision to ban the three media outlets from the White House had not been sparked by any specific reporting but the accumulation of what he called "two years of unfair and negative coverage."
However, a court filing by the Department of Justice on Wednesday argued that the three news organizations were barred because their reporting jeopardized national security and spread falsehoods.
On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who was nominated by Trump in 2017, held an emergency hearing after the news outlets filed a lawsuit seeking to undo the ban.
In his introductory remarks, Kelly said it appeared the White House had violated the news outlets' constitutional right of due process — which was set out in previous court decisions — when it abruptly blocked the access of journalists who held permanent credentials to work in the building.
During the emergency hearing on Wednesday, Theodore J. Boutrous, a lawyer representing the three news outlets, said the White House ban was in violation of CNN, MS NOW and Politico's First Amendment rights and called it a form of retaliation for their coverage of the president, adding that it was "probably the clearest case in history" of viewpoint discrimination.
Justice Department lawyer Michael Velchik, on the other hand, argued that access to the White House was a "privilege," not a right. He also cited national security concerns as a reason for the continued ban. In its legal filings, the department had included White House letters to the three news organizations taking issue with stories on a variety of topics, including construction of a "top secret" bunker under the White House ballroom, talks with Iran and whether there were "very bad" vibes at the recent Republican convention in Dallas.
Boutrous pushed back on the claim, asserting that the first mention of national security came only days after the ban was imposed.
" I guess the light bulb went off and they all decided 'Start talking about national security,'" Boutrous said.
In his Thursday ruling, Kelly said "the court is skeptical — at least on this record — that Defendants' interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs' hard passes," in reference to White House press credentials.
In its court filing, in response to the lawsuit filed by the three media organizations, the Department of Justice included White House letters, dated Sept. 22, where it accuses the barred media outlets of "trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information." Judge Kelly argued that the defendants offered no evidence to explain how "any of the reporting they identified in their letters to Plaintiffs damaged national security." Adding that the reporters who authored the stories that the DOJ lawyers identified in their letters to the three media "did not even hold hard passes."
Kelly also wrote that "the record is bereft of any relevant 'formally articulated standards' in place before any of the conduct" for which the reporters had their credentials revoked. He dismissed the examples provided by White House in the letters to the three outlets as a standard "so vague it hardly does the trick."
Kelly also ruled out the urgency of the case as to deviate from due process.
"Nothing in the record suggests the need for such urgency here," adding that some of the news stories identified in the DOJ notices to the media "stretches back months or years."
"The sorts of stories Defendants identify in the letters to Plaintiffs are routine," he added.
Kelly's ruling came just hours after an emergency session by the federal court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday afternoon in a case that media organizations and experts say will further test the First Amendment protections under the Trump administration.
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Topline:
The Los Angeles Police Department is planning to deploy thousands of officers a day during the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and it estimates it will cost $732 million to do so.
How much are we talking: Added to the department’s typical staffing across the city, estimated personnel costs for the two-month period hosting the Games soar to more than $1.15 billion. That’s more than half of LAPD’s 2026-2027 budget.
Why it matters: A budget memo submitted to the Los Angeles City Council in May offers a rare glimpse into security plans for the Olympics, which are being overseen by the U.S. Secret Service. It also casts light on the immense cost of policing the Games as concerns grow about what Olympics expenses may fall on the city of Los Angeles.
Read on… for a breakdown on the estimated costs and who will pay.
The Los Angeles Police Department plans to deploy thousands of officers a day during the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and it estimates it will cost $732 million to do so.
Added to the department’s typical staffing across the city, estimated personnel costs for the two-month period hosting the Games soar to more than $1.15 billion. That’s more than half LAPD’s 2026-2027 budget.
Police Chief Jim McDonnell laid out the department’s staffing model — and its whopping price tag — in a budget memo submitted to the Los Angeles City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee in May. The document offers a rare glimpse into security plans for the Olympics, which are being overseen by the U.S. Secret Service.
It also casts light on the immense cost of policing the Games as concerns grow over what Olympics expenses may fall on the city of Los Angeles, which is the financial backstop for the Games.
At its peak, LAPD expects to deploy 6,703 officers a day across the city during the Olympics, according to the May budget memo outlining the department’s policing plans.
To do this, the department is planning to dedicate more than half its officers — 4,713 people — to the Olympics and Paralympics over a more than two month period in the summer of 2028.
But that won’t cover all the personnel LAPD says it needs. Accounting for days off, the department expects around two-thirds of its Olympics staff will need to come from outside law enforcement agencies.
The department’s estimated cost of housing, feeding and paying those officers from outside law enforcement agencies is $354 million, close to half of LAPD’s anticipated Olympics price tag. The state of California will negotiate contracts with those external agencies, according to a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month.
These plans for the city of L.A. are just one piece of police spending for the Games, which will span the region. Law enforcement officials are expecting that staffing the Olympics and Paralympics will require between 24,000 and 30,000 officers in total, LAPD Commander Mario Mota told a state Senate committee in June.
He said as many as 16,000 officers a day could be deployed across the entire Los Angeles region during the Summer Games.
Marci Rand, a spokesperson for the Secret Service, told LAist in an email that staffing estimates are still being determined, as are security perimeters around venues.
“The U.S. Secret Service is working closely with our law enforcement partners including the LAPD on developing a robust and thorough security plan for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Rand said in an email.
The single biggest expense in LAPD’s Olympics and Paralympics cost estimates is for overtime. In total, the department is anticipating a $375.4 million price tag for officer overtime alone.
The department estimates that it will pay its own force overtime for about a third of its Games deployment, and that all outside law enforcement being brought in will make overtime rates. According to the budget memo, “outside agencies do not provide regular-time staffing for an event of this scale; they backfill on overtime.”
LAPD estimates the officer overtime rate to be $131.94 an hour.
The department’s media team declined LAist’s request for an interview on its budget and staffing projections.
Olympics and Paralympics security plans rely on public funding. Both the Olympics organizing committee LA28 and the city of L.A. are counting on the federal government to cover the cost of deploying thousands of additional police for the Games.
Last year, Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" allocated $1 billion for Olympics security costs. But exactly how that money will be distributed has yet to be determined. There’s no guarantee that the money will cover all security expenses.
In the May budget memo, LAPD staff noted that it’s possible that federal funds will only cover LAPD overtime, not base salaries.
That potentially could leave the city to pay for more than $300 million in regular staffing costs for LAPD officers assigned to work the Olympics and Paralympics.
California is similarly relying on federal dollars to cover the cost of officers from other agencies who will temporarily come to L.A. If it doesn’t, the Office of Emergency Services estimates that contracting costs could be more than $1 billion, according to a fiscal analysis included in the bill tasking California with executing Olympic law enforcement contracts.
It’s not clear what authorities expect the total security price tag for the 2028 Games will be, but recent Olympics suggest expenses could exceed $1 billion.
A French auditing body found that security costs for the 2024 Paris Olympics were €2 billion euros, Reuters reported last year. Those auditors criticized organizers for not anticipating the high price of security.
“The sums spent are not in themselves excessive given the political choice to stage the Games in the heart of Europe’s densest city, but it is abnormal not to anticipate the cost of such an event,” Pierre Moscovici, the head of that auditing body, told reporters, as reported by Reuters.
Paul Krekorian, the former L.A. City Council President who now leads the city's major events office, told LAist in an email that Los Angeles is learning from recent host cities including Paris when it comes to security plans.
Krekorian said in a statement provided by the mayor’s office that those experiences demonstrate “a need to increase public safety coordination and staffing to manage increased tourism, transportation demands, and regional security needs.”
As local officials await details on staffing plans and security perimeters, the Los Angeles City Council is already facing the limits of federal support.
LAPD wants the city to finance 300 new vehicles to temporarily expand the Police Department's fleet during the summer of 2028 — a request it does not expect to be reimbursed by the federal government.
The council’s budget and finance committee kicked that decision down the road, after multiple members expressed skepticism about the possible $30 million expense. But the City Council has already approved spending $13 million on another LAPD request to procure 107 non-patrol vehicles.
Topline:
Justin Bieber joined several members of his band for an impromptu performance at MacArthur Park on Tuesday.
Why now: On Tuesday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman pointed to Bieber’s performance as a sign of progress at the park. Bieber performing an impromptu set at the park is “a testament to the progress we are achieving to take back the park from drug dealers and enliven it for families,” Hochman wrote on X. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s office, however, pointed to a longer history of work at the park in response to Bieber’s visit. “We’re excited to see Justin Bieber enjoying MacArthur Park, just as countless other Angelenos do every day, experiencing what nearly four years of sustained investment and community partnership have made possible,” said Naomi Roochnik, a spokesperson for Hernandez.
The backstory: A source close to Bieber told E! News that he visited the park to distribute gift cards and other resources to unhoused people. A spokesperson for the singer could not be immediately reached for comment.
MacArthur Park got an unexpected guest Tuesday: Justin Bieber, who joined several members of his band for an impromptu performance.
Social media videos show Bieber, 32, sitting on the grass, playing percussion and singing as people gather around. He performed several songs to a handful of people, including his 2025 hit “Yukon,” according to videos from the impromptu performance.
A source close to Bieber told E! News that he visited the park to distribute gift cards and other resources to unhoused people. A spokesperson for the singer could not be immediately reached for comment.
Bieber, who headlined Coachella earlier this year, played a stripped-down performance with his band. Some people in social media video walked by the set, while others recorded the set.
His surprise appearance adds a different kind of attention typically focused on MacArthur Park. In the last several months city officials, law enforcement and community groups have taken different approaches to addressing conditions at the park and activating the space.
For Brenda Aguilera, director of the Community Transformation Collective, the reaction to Bieber’s visit is part of a larger conversation about the changes at the park.
Her organization has been working with a neighborhood volunteer group of about 60 MacArthur Park-area residents since March. The group includes parents, caregivers and vendors who meet regularly to identify neighborhood priorities and work with city agencies and community organizations.
Residents involved with the group have reported greater awareness of available services and said they feel safer in the park, Aguilera said. But she added that the people who live in and around the park should be at the center of any assessment of how conditions are changing.
“They’re not in the park. They don’t live in those neighborhoods, so they have to speak to the local community members to hear about their perspectives,” Aguilera said, referring to elected officials.
On Tuesday, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli pointed to Bieber’s performance as a sign of progress at the park.
Bieber performing an impromptu set at the park is “a testament to the progress we are achieving to take back the park from drug dealers and enliven it for families,” Hochman wrote on X.
Essayli wrote: “Bieber in MacArthur Park. That’s progress. Amazing what can happen when criminals and drug dealers are removed from public spaces.”
Over the summer, the Los Angeles Police Department and federal agents carried out a multi-phase operation targeting drug activity in and around the park, including a June operation that resulted in 13 arrests. Hochman also held a picnic at the park over Labor Day weekend after saying he would return with his family if he believed it was safe enough.
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s office, however, pointed to a longer history of work at the park in response to Bieber’s visit.
“We’re excited to see Justin Bieber enjoying MacArthur Park, just as countless other Angelenos do every day, experiencing what nearly four years of sustained investment and community partnership have made possible,” said Naomi Roochnik, a spokesperson for Hernandez.
The councilmember has invested more than $27 million in the park, including Peace Ambassadors, round-the-clock clean teams, overdose response, street medicine, youth programming, arts and culture and infrastructure improvements, according to Hernandez’s office.
“MacArthur Park’s progress belongs to the residents, workers, promotoras, outreach teams, and community organizations who do this critical, lifesaving work every single day,” Roochnik said.
Community Transformation Collective’s promotoras are among those working directly with residents, Aguilera said, helping connect them with services and providing what she described as “warm handoffs” to organizations that can offer support.
For Aguilera, that community perspective matters when officials assess what is happening at the park.
“It’s not up to us or these elected officials that are in these government bodies to just speak on behalf of our communities,” she said. “They could speak about their efforts, but they can’t speak about the entire perspective. It’s really those that live there that could share that perspective.”
The post You better Beliebe it. Justin Bieber played a set at MacArthur Park appeared first on LA Local.
Topline:
Michael Angel Alvarez, a former city contractor, made headlines earlier this year, when he was arrested while working as a peace ambassador for the nonprofit Healing Urban Barrios in MacArthur Park. LAist spoke with him after his recent release from custody.
Justice or politics? After being arrested in May, Alvarez says he believes prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A. brought their case for political reasons — not for public safety.
A spokesperson from the office did not comment on claims that the case was politically motivated, but said they are considering options to appeal the judge’s decision to dismiss the case.
“Alvarez is a convicted murderer and a documented member of the 18th Street gang,” a spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement. “He has no legitimate role serving as a ‘peace ambassador’ in a public park or receiving taxpayer-funded compensation.”
What’s next: A separate case on the same charges, filed by the L.A. County District Attorney’s office in Superior Court before federal prosecutors filed their case, has a preliminary hearing set for Oct. 27. A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office did not comment on whether they intend to continue pursuing the case after the federal case was dismissed.
Now that the federal case against him has been dismissed, Alvarez told LAist he hopes to continue working as a community violence intervention worker.
Read on . . . for more about why the case against Alvarez was dismissed.
Michael Angel Alvarez made headlines earlier this year when he was arrested while working as a peace ambassador for the nonprofit Healing Urban Barrios in MacArthur Park. Federal prosecutors alleged Alvarez was “leading a violent street gang, while claiming to be a gang interventionist for the City.”
But they didn’t charge him for violent or gang-related crimes.
He spent three months in custody under a different charge: illegally possessing body armor. He pleaded not guilty, and a trial date was set.
Alvarez was released from custody this month, nearly a week after a federal judge dismissed his case on Sept. 9, ruling that a juvenile court finding that Alvarez killed a man while a minor could not be counted as a violent felony conviction that would make owning body armor illegal.
Alvarez spoke with LAist after his recent release, saying he believes the case against him was politically motivated and shows a lack of understanding about what it takes to intervene with gang members to reduce violence in communities. He acknowledged gang affiliation, but said he was not a gang leader and had not committed any crimes since being released from prison in 2024.
Federal prosecutors told LAist in a statement they are looking into options to appeal a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the recent indictment against Alvarez. No one from the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A. has responded to LAist’s requests for comment about Alvarez’s assertion that the case was politically motivated.
Before the federal prosecutors filed their case against Alvarez, the L.A. County District Attorney’s office filed a separate case against him on May 20 in Los Angeles Superior Court also based on possessing body armor. A preliminary hearing in that case is set for Oct. 27. He pleaded not guilty. A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office did not comment on whether they intend to continue pursuing the case now that the federal case has been dismissed.
Alvarez was a minor when he was found guilty of a gang-related murder in 2002. At 15 years old he was charged and tried as an adult. He was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting and killing a man in Pico-Union. He was sentenced to 50 years to life. But after a change in state law increased the age at which minors could be sentenced as adults to 16, Alvarez’s case was sent back to juvenile court and he was released in 2024. At that point, he had served about 24 years.
On Sept. 9, U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang found that same law that led to Alvarez’s release also bars the court from considering him to have been convicted of the killing, because juvenile court determinations are not criminal convictions. Without a violent felony conviction, Alvarez is not prevented from owning body armor by state or federal law. She dismissed the federal prosecutors’ case against him.
In an interview with LAist last week after his release, Alvarez said he thinks federal prosecutors wanted to score political points by targeting community violence intervention work, not because he posed any risk to public safety.
“ I almost got killed as a result of trying to change the community for the best,” said Alvarez, who showed photos to LAist of what he described as stab wounds in his abdomen and arms that were taken in February 2025. He said that assault took place while he was working in MacArthur Park. “ And for whatever reason you had the individuals who are part of the Republican Party who went after me because of the Democrats, the people that I worked for.”
Alvarez’s former employer, Healing Urban Barrios, has not responded to LAist’s requests for comment since the case was dismissed. Christina Navarro, the nonprofit’s founder and executive director, said in a statement to LAist back in May of this year that Alvarez was innocent until proven guilty and that the organization was continuing its work despite the allegations against him.
“We are not stepping back,” Navarro wrote in the statement. “We are doubling down.”
Healing Urban Barrios was contracted to work at the park by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America’s L.A. chapter. Her office says community violence intervention workers have been effective for decades in interrupting cycles of violence in ways traditional law enforcement cannot.
Naomi Roochnik, a spokesperson for Hernandez, told LAist in May they were not aware of allegations against Alvarez before his arrest and that peace ambassadors are employed and supervised by community-based organizations.
Alvarez was removed from the peace ambassador program earlier that same month, she said.
“We will always take misconduct seriously and hold our partners to high standards, but we will not allow an individual case, or efforts to politicize it, to undermine proven community-based public safety work,” Roochnik said Friday in an emailed statement.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who heads the office that brought the case, has been critical of the city’s gang intervention program.
“The hardworking tax payers of Los Angeles deserve better than to see their money shelled out to a convicted gang murderer,” Essayli wrote on social media on May 29, the day his office announced the charge against Alvarez.
Essayli was appointed by the Trump administration to lead the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A. and was previously a Republican member of the California State Assembly, where he represented part of Riverside County.
Spokespersons for the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A. have continued to speak out against Alvarez since the body armor case was dismissed. In statements sent to LAist via email by spokespeople Ciaran McEvoy and Shawn Lewis, the department called Alvarez ”a convicted murderer and a documented member of the 18th Street gang” who was indicted by grand jury on the body armor charges.
“These facts are not in dispute. It is unfortunate that he now benefits from a California law that effectively allows him to erase his murder conviction, something his victim cannot do.”
Adding: “He has no legitimate role serving as a ‘peace ambassador’ in a public park or receiving taxpayer-funded compensation.”
The department said they are currently considering their options to appeal what they called “a narrow technical legal issue.”
Most people can legally own and wear body armor in the United States — it’s typically worn as a vest, either made of durable fibers like Kevlar or with steel or ceramic inserts designed to stop bullets. It becomes illegal to own or possess body armor under federal and state law if a person has been convicted of a violent felony.
But U.S. District Judge Hwang agreed with Alvarez that he did not have a violent felony conviction on his record.
Alvarez admits he shot and killed 22-year-old Mauricio Miguel Masis on Aug. 17, 2000.
He told LAist he was 15 and in a gang when he and a 13-year-old friend, who was not gang-affiliated, were approached by what he described as three older gang members. Masis was one of the men, he said.
“ They're already in their mid-20s and tried to kill both of us,” Alvarez said. He told LAist he shot Masis, but claims it was to defend his friend and himself.
Convicted as an adult in 2002, he could have spent his entire life in prison after being found guilty.
“ I was 17 years old when I was walking Supermax,” he told LAist, “level four maximum security prison.”
In 2018, Senate Bill 1391 passed in the California legislature, to only allow minors 16 years and older to be considered for adult court.
The new law gave Alvarez a way out of prison, allowing his case to be resentenced in 2024.
By then he’d served about 24 years. Because of his age at the time of the killing, under the change in the law his case was sent back to juvenile court where his adult conviction was set aside and he was declared a ward of the court — or under its supervision and control.
Alvarez was released from prison and put on probation for two years.
The following year he was also sentenced to two years of probation for a separate felony offense in November 2023 that was considered non-violent — possessing a weapon while in custody.
Alvarez acknowledged having the weapon while he was in prison, and told LAist that most people had hidden weapons there, often as a deterrent from being attacked.
“Of course I had a weapon,” he said. “You would have one too if you were there. You're trying to do everything in your power to survive.”
In early 2025, Alvarez began working for Healing Urban Barrios as a peace ambassador.
“ They wanted individuals who had the respect, I suppose, of the streets [and] in prison,” he told LAist.
Alvarez said gang members are more willing to talk with someone from their own background than with police officers or city officials, and he said he was able to speak to them to avoid violence and other safety issues around MacArthur Park.
“There's hundreds — if not thousands — of gang members who flow through that area due to the fact that a lot of them are addicts now,“ Alvarez said.
He told LAist he believed the peace ambassadors in the area had made a difference in reducing the number of people using drugs, fighting and lighting fires in the park since he started working there in 2025.
“ There used to be a lot of fights,” he said. “ We're able to talk to the guys right there and be like, ‘Look, work something out with each other.’"
Alvarez showed LAist photos of people he said he had given CPR while on the job to prevent them from dying of drug overdoses and a woman he said he identified to authorities as a missing person and helped get to safety.
Federal agents arrested Alvarez in May, after LAPD officers found two body armor plates in his car during a traffic stop earlier that month.
Alvarez told law enforcement officers after his arrest that the plates were for an art project, court documents show, and his lawyer argued in court that Alvarez did not have a vest to wear the armor in.
Prosecutors argued in court documents that he could have used the armor plates without a vest, and that he may have had a vest for the plates elsewhere.
Alvarez told LAist he was planning to use his laser engravers to write poetry on the plates and his cousin was going to paint them with graffiti to get the attention of the youth he served.
“With youth, especially youth that are in gangs, you gotta show them some different type of art,” he said. “ It would've hit them hard, you know?”
The U.S. Attorney’s office charged Alvarez with possessing body armor. But they made additional allegations against him apart from the charges, which they have not proven in court.
For instance, prosecutors claimed in court documents that Alvarez was “leading a violent street gang, while claiming to be a gang interventionist for the City,” and that they were investigating him for additional crimes that would carry “great sentencing exposure.”
Prosecutors alleged in court documents that members of the 18th Street gang described him as a leader of the gang in recorded jailhouse phone calls. Alvarez claimed the way the prosecutors described the conversations wasn’t accurate. He told LAist he was never a gang leader and, instead, was using the respect he had with the 18th Street gang to prevent further violence.
No one from the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A. responded to LAist’s questions about whether they intend to pursue other charges.
LAist asked Alvarez to clarify whether he was an active member during our interview last week.
“ When you're a gang member, for the most part, you're always a gang member, you know?” He said, “There's two types of ‘actives.’ There's active where you're actively involved in the violence and all that stuff, but there's also being active when you're actively involved in your community, and that's what I've been doing.”
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Alvarez said he hopes to continue working in gang violence reduction programs now that the federal case against him has been dismissed.
“I know that what we did was good,” he said, recalling how parents of children he had worked with around MacArthur Park reached out to thank him while he was in federal custody as his recent case was ongoing.
“It'd be nice to have the support all the way around and not have, especially, people who are pushing politics,” Alvarez told LAist.
Councilmember Hernandez’ office and Healing Urban Barrios have not responded to questions about whether they would consider allowing Alvarez to return to his position as a peace ambassador.
