LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass today met with Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky and civic, faith and safety leaders from the Pico-Robertson neighborhood about ways to work together with urgency to proactively prevent acts of antisemitism and violence.
“The violence that happened in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood yesterday was abhorrent, and blocking access to a place of worship is absolutely unacceptable,” said Mayor Bass. “This violence was designed to stoke fear, it was designed to divide, but hear me loud and clear – it will fail. In less than 24 hours of yesterday’s incident, we’ve worked to convene faith leaders, community groups and law enforcement to have constructive conversations working on ensuring this does not happen again. Los Angeles will not stand or tolerate violence.”
Mayor Bass announced the following actions during today’s meetings:
The City will be working to immediately convene leaders of houses of worship and cultural centers to discuss how to protect sacred spaces – sharing ideas, practices and strategies to keep congregants safe.
LAPD will enhance their partnership with Jewish public safety organizations to continually review evolving tactics and threats to the community and take proactive action to prevent these instances from happening in the first place.
The City will work with state representatives like Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel to secure funding to protect houses of worship in Los Angeles.
Councilmember Yaroslavsky will be introducing an urgent motion to work to secure additional funding and the City Attorney will evaluate ideas proposed by the group that convened today.
The Mayor issued this statement following the violence yesterday.