July News from Indivisible Altadena - Pasadena
Summer greetings to all!
Upcoming In-District Meetings
The CA legislature summer recess is now officially here - a great time for constituents to make their voices heard and let their legislators know what they care about. Now is the time to meet your representatives while they are back in their districts before they head back to Sacramento in August! Indivisible groups across the state are busy scheduling and preparing for meetings with their State Senators and Assemblymembers to discuss legislative priorities.
IAP members have been following a few bills very closely and will be meeting with State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez and Assemblymember John Harabedian in July to advocate for the following legislation:
- AB 2564 (Ward): Surveillance Pricing.
This bill would prohibit retailers from using consumers’ personal data to set individualized prices; a practice known as surveillance pricing.
- AB 2483 (Elhawary): Wildland firefighters: Formerly Incarcerated Firefighter Certification and Employment Program.
This bill would create a pathway for people who completed firefighting training while incarcerated to receive official certification, helping them access employment after release.
You can help by emailing our representative Senator Pérez and urging her to VOTE YES on AB 2564 and AB 2483.
- SB 1367 (Cervantes): Planning and zoning: detention facilities.
This bill would prohibit cities and counties from approving new detention facilities or converting existing buildings for that purpose.
- SB 813 (McNerney): California Artificial Intelligence Standards and Safety Commission: artificial intelligence safety standards.
This bill would establish a statewide commission to develop safety standards for artificial intelligence.
Help by contacting our representative Assemblymember Harabedian and urge him to VOTE YES on SB 1367 and SB 813.
Statewide Resources for Supporting Detention Center Legislation
When legislators return to Sacramento, they will be voting on hundreds of bills that make it to floor votes and it’s crucial that they have heard from their constituents that we want to end the human rights abuses taking place at Detention centers in California. Currently there is a package of immigration-related legislation moving through the legislature. The package includes bills that penalize companies that are profiting from running detention centers or contracting with immigration enforcement for those purposes. They would also prevent state resources from being used to build new detention centers or convert warehouses into for-profit detention centers. Another bill would close loopholes so that advocates and journalists have access to emergency call recordings from detention centers. New legislation, if passed, will divert funds generated by taxing for-profit detention centers to set-up legal defence funds for detained persons and their families.
The Indivisible CA Detention Center Working Group has prepared leave-behinds for six bills that are currently moving through the legislature, including Indivisible CA: State Strong Priority bills AB 1633 (Haney) and AB 1801 (Lee). These leave-behinds can be used by any Indivisible group meeting with their State Legislators this summer recess. To use this resource, simply make a copy from the link below and select which bills you want to add to your visit. Add your group logo to the header and take these to “leave behind” at your In-District meetings.
Link to Packet: Summer Recess Detention Center Legislation Leave-Behinds
Flock Safety
There has been growing action across California to cancel contracts with Flock Safety, a company that manufactures automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras.
Advocates have raised concerns that data from these systems can be accessed by law enforcement agencies across jurisdictions, including federal agencies such as ICE, raising privacy and civil liberties concerns for immigrants, protesters, and women seeking reproductive care.
In Pasadena, DeFlock is calling on the City to cancel its contract and instead invest in community-based safety initiatives.
What You Can Do
- Sign the petition to the City Council here.
- Contact pasadenaprivacy@proton.me or fill out the volunteer signup form.
- Attend the Public Safety Committee Hearing on August, 19th at 5pm at the Pasadena City Hall
- Learn more at https://pasadenaprivacy.org/
(Libby Rainey / LAist)
November Elections - Hands Off Our Votes!
Although the Supreme Court recently rejected a Republican effort to restrict the counting of certain mail-in ballots, recent developments by the Trump administration have raised serious concerns about access to voting as well as the integrity of the Midterm elections (efforts to restrict voter registration, impose stricter ID requirements, intimidation tactics, etc).
Indivisible is helping build a nationwide coalition to protect voting rights and ensure fair access to the ballot.
(Photo from Indivisible Website)
Adelanto Summer Visitations
We encourage community members to participate in visitation programs, which provide a vital emotional lifeline for those in detention. Visits help reduce isolation and remind individuals that they are not forgotten.
Visits must be scheduled, are time-limited, and may be subject to capacity constraints.
If you are interested in becoming a visitor, please reach out by responding to this email. We will coordinate a visitation effort later in the summer. Stay tuned!
Weekly Protests
As always, please consider joining the weekly protests at 11 a.m. every Saturday at Fair Oaks and Colorado in Old Town Pasadena, organized by San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible. Every voice, every sign, every honk counts!
(Paul Takizawa / Pasadena Now)