For Immediate Release
July 14, 2025
Contact: 213.878.5625
PressLA@RefuseFascism.org
RefuseFascism.org
@RefuseFascism
Interviews availableWhat: Demand the Police Commission reverse unilateral and illegal decision to deny all First Amendment special permits for street protests
Who: RefuseFascism.org
When: July 15, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Where: Los Angeles Police Commission meeting, 100 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012*****
On July 6, Refuse Fascism applied for a First Amendment Special Event Permit for a planned event to be held on Thursday, July 17 at 5pm, “The Disappeared” – an artistic, human installation, a re-creation of the disappearance and torture of people, sent by the Trump fascist regime, to El Salvador’s CECOT concentration camp. This is a site-specific human installation, taking place in front of the Los Angeles Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, where immigrants have been abducted by ICE agents and where the National Guard and U.S. Marines have been permanently stationed.
In response to this permit application, the LAPD informed Refuse Fascism that a number of organizations, sponsoring different events, have also applied for First Amendment Special Event permits in Los Angeles in this next period and that the LA Police Commission will NOT be providing First Amendment Permits: not to Refuse Fascism, nor to other organizations. Refuse Fascism has applied for and been granted LA Police Commission First Amendment permits to hold dozens of rallies, marches, and stationary events over the past 10 years, and never once has a First Amendment permit application been denied. Many other organizations during this same period have had their First Amendment permit applications granted without their constitutional right to a First Amendment permit being violated, until now.LAPD’s stated reason for denying new First Amendment permit applications is that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) has decided not to provide LADOT services due to lack of personnel and funding.
The LAPD has provided personnel and resources, alongside the National Guard and Marines, when ICE and DHS carry out illegal and unconstitutional raids across Los Angeles, terrorizing and kidnapping immigrants, while suppressing people asserting their First Amendment right to protest (including targeting those who document these illegitimate activities by masked ICE and DHS agents).
Yet, the LAPD has declared due to lack of personnel, resources and funding no Special Event permits will be issued for First Amendment street protests and activities in Los Angeles! This is illegal, unconstitutional and tantamount to depriving citizens of LA the right to peaceful permitted protest. The City of LA cannot tolerate this specious and illegal rationale by the Police Commission to turn this city into a police state. This occupation of Los Angeles is having a devastating impact on the lives of the immigrant community, the economy of the city and the future of the country. Protest and dissent cannot be allowed to be crushed or curtailed by “budgetary” excuses. The people must be able to have their say.
This past week saw the massive show of force of U.S. military and ICE agents storm through MacArthur Park, with the Border Patrol Chief saying “I don’t work for Karen Bass… better get used to us now because this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want, in Los Angeles.”
RefuseFascism.org says, “This cannot stand. We demand protesters’ First Amendment rights be defended and protected. We demand LAPD and the City of Los Angeles Police Commission APPROVE the special event permits that have been applied for.”
RefuseFascism.org’s next public protest will be held this Thursday, July 17 from 5-7 pm at the Federal Courthouse at 300 N. Los Angeles Street. Protesters will dress in all white and enact the poses enforced on immigrant detainees at CECOT prison in El Salvador. https://www.instagram.com/p/DL-8i9LTOQl/
