By John Rogers, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/aclu-sues-lasd-for-harass_n_106...

LOS ANGELES -- The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on Thursday, claiming the law enforcement agency is harassing news photographers and other people who take pictures in public places.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, charges that sheriff's deputies have harassed several photographers over the past two years. It states deputies have stopped people, frisked them and in some cases threatened to arrest them for taking photos near subways, courthouses and other public places.
It names as defendants Los Angeles County, the Sheriff's Department and several individual sheriff's deputies.
The action was brought on behalf of three photographers, one of them a reporter for the Long Beach Post news site who said authorities indicated they became suspicious when they saw him taking photos near a courthouse.
Another of the plaintiffs said sheriff's deputies asked whether he planned to sell his photos to the terrorist group al-Qaida.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said public safety requires that deputies question people who might be engaging in suspicious activity, but that it's important they do it respectfully.
"Obviously we have to ask questions. There are security issues that are always at large," Whitmore said. He added that doesn't mean his department believes the lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, has merit.
"Lawsuits only tell one side of the story," he said. "We look forward to telling the whole story."
The Long Beach Post photographer, Greggory Moore, said he was on a public sidewalk taking photos of passing cars for a story on Distracted Driving Awareness Month when eight deputies surrounded him. He said he was frisked and asked what he was doing.
Moore said authorities told him later that his taking photos across the street from a courthouse signaled a possible terrorist threat, which was why he was stopped and searched.
Photographer Shawn Nee said he was on his way home when he exited a subway station in Hollywood and decided to stop to photograph the new turnstiles there. He said a sheriff's deputy asked him if he was "in cahoots with al-Qaida" before searching him. He said the deputy also threatened to arrest him when he wouldn't identify himself or say what the photos were for.
Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, said such instances of photographers being stopped, questioned and searched is becoming more common, not only in Los Angeles but across the country. He added that security shouldn't be routinely used as a "pretext" to stifle free expression rights.
"Photography is not a crime. It's protected First Amendment expression," said Peter Bibring, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. "Sheriff's deputies violate the Constitution's core protections when they detain and search people who are doing nothing wrong. To single them out for such treatment while they're pursuing a constitutionally protected activity is doubly wrong."
The lawsuit asks that the court declare the actions of the Sheriff's Department unconstitutional. It also seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Los Angelenos may be the most auto-obsessed people on the planet (see Carmaggedon), but most of the time we turn a blind eye toward the people who actually clean our cars—and their routinely terrible working conditions.

The 10,000 car wash workers working at more than 500 car washes in Los Angeles are routinely excluded from the labor protections most Angelenos enjoy. Car wash workers, or carwasheros, are paid less than minimum wage-- in some cases they earn only tips instead of real wages. They’re often expected to handle toxic chemicals without wearing masks and gloves. They usually don’t get the work breaks that the In-N-Out employees across the street take for granted.
And when they raise their voices against these substandard conditions, they’re often subjected to harassment and retaliation by management. Sometimes their work hours are cut or they’re fired to intimidate the remaining car wash staff.
But today, about 30 car wash workers announced a union contract with Bonus Car Wash in Santa Monica. The CLEAN Carwash campaign, which helped organize the workers and coordinate the contract, says that the terms of the contract aren’t extravagant: car wash owners are simply agreeing to abide by state labor law regarding working conditions, like work breaks and when workers can clock in. It also provides a procedure for hearing workers' grievances. And it requires any future owners to abide by the contract, so the improved working conditions will remain even if the car wash changes ownership.
“It was a two-year struggle,” said Eduardo Tapia, a longtime employee of Bonus Car Wash. “We have 10 more minutes of break. We have our water to drink. If they say show up at work at 10:30, I start work at 10:30.”
The ACLU of Southern California has supported the CLEAN Carwash campaign’s efforts since its inception in 2008. We’ve helped organize the car wash workers, aided the contract negotiation process, and rallied our full membership for support.
This small union gives Los Angeles the distinction of being home to the first unionized car wash in the country. But it won’t be the last.