The reinstatement of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy by Sheriff Alex Villanueva who was accused of domestic violence and stalking is very disturbing and sends the wrong message to women, survivors and the community.

Sheriff Villanueva’s decision to reinstate Caren Carl Mandoyan says that bad personal behavior will be rewarded and condoned if you worked on the sheriff’s political campaign.  It also sends a conflicting message to the community about the Sheriff’s plans to “clean house” and rid the department of bad apples. To make matters worse, we are even more disappointed that Sheriff Villanueva would assign Deputy Mandoyan to South Los Angeles where women he is likely to come into contact with are disproportionately affected by domestic violence and intimate partner violence.

Several studies have found that the romantic partners of police officers suffer domestic abuse at rates significantly higher than the general population. It is especially problematic when domestic abusers are literally the people that battered and abused women in our communities are supposed to call for help.

The one profession where people who have been accused of domestic violence should never be employed is the profession where you are literally trained on how to stalk people without them knowing and given lethal weapons.

Sheriff Villanueva should believe survivors of domestic abuse and not reward their abusers.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appears to be shifting its position piece by piece on its previously held commitments to expanding what is already the largest jail system in the world.

The #JusticeLA campaign–which got off the ground about a year and a half ago and was born from the work of family members in Los Angeles County who had loved ones harmed and killed by the L.A. County jail system–has been struggling with the Board of Supervisors on their dissonant plan for almost a decade. Today saw a huge shift, as one of the parts of the plan to expand and build a new women’s jail in Lancaster–a 160-mile round trip from downtown L.A.–was halted by the Board.  In fact, the plans for the jail may end up being scrappedaltogether.

Below are two articles that covered last week’s #JusticeLA action–one from The Los Angeles Times and one from the Daily News. We’re also sharing with you the Facebook livestream of the press conference.

Onward.

Media Stories

Plan to create an L.A. County womens‘ jail in Lancaster faces serious opposition (The Los Angeles Times)

Proposed women’s jail in Lancaster losing support from LA County supervisors (The Daily News)

Facebook Live Video of Press Conference

Photo Gallery

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Dignity and Power Now looks forward to working with Sheriff-elect Alex Villanueva on behalf of incarcerated people, their families and the diverse communities that comprise Los Angeles County towards the goal of achieving transformative and healing justice including improving conditions in our jails, ending sheriff violence and stopping the jail construction.  

The incoming Sheriff has a responsibility to build trust between the Sheriff’s Department and the residents they serve. We hope that Sheriff-elect Villanueva not only solicits the community for input but actually uses their recommendations while prioritizing the issues that propelled him into office and making good on his campaign promise to reform the Sheriff’s Department.

We look forward to meeting with Sheriff-elect Villanueva in the coming weeks.

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Dignity and Power Now (DPN) is a Los Angeles based grassroots organization founded in 2012 that fights for the dignity and power of all incarcerated people, their families, and communities with a mission is to build a Black and Brown led abolitionist movement rooted in community power towards the goal of achieving transformative justice and healing justice for all incarcerated people, their families, and communities.