Goldberg Protests Length of Strike-related Jail Stay

Los Angeles Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg made a point of being arrested nearly two weeks ago to demonstrate solidarity with the city’s striking janitors. She did not expect, however, to spend quite so much time in jail.

Loudly displeased with her incarceration--which lasted about eight hours--Goldberg wants Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and County Sheriff Lee Baca to appear before city lawmakers to answer questions about the councilwoman’s stint in the slammer.

“You are not allowed, either by neglect or intent, to make the process punitive,” said Goldberg, who was taken into custody for allegedly failing to disperse, a misdemeanor. “From my point of view, [the incarceration] was either intentionally punitive and, therefore, illegal, or it was incompetence beyond what one might normally expect.”

Goldberg was arrested April 14 along with state Assembly members Gloria Romero, Gil Cedillo and Scott Wildman; two rabbis; a priest; and several top union leaders. Goldberg and the others, who had been participating in a boisterous march with about 1,500 striking janitors through Bel-Air, sat down in the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Gayley Avenue and refused to leave.

They were carted off by LAPD officers, who took them to the department’s West Los Angeles Traffic Division to be fingerprinted, photographed and “asked a battery of confidential medical questions in front of others,” Goldberg said.

Sources said that the police offered to release Goldberg and the other elected officials at station, but they declined, saying that they wanted to stay with the rest of the group.

As a result, they were handcuffed, placed on a bus and transported to the county’s Twin Towers jail facility in downtown Los Angeles.

“The process of fingerprinting, photographing and questioning was repeated,” said Goldberg, adding that she was left in handcuffs for at least two hours. “We spent more than four hours at each facility before being released.”

Although the council approved Goldberg’s request to receive a report from Parks and Baca, some City Hall insiders privately wondered why the councilwoman was complaining. Officials noted that while Goldberg could be charged with failure to disperse, it appears unlikely that the city attorney’s office will file charges.

“The facts are these individuals intentionally broke the law in order to get arrested and draw attention to their labor dispute,” one official said. “If they don’t like the consequences of their acts, too bad.”

In fact, eight hours is considered a short trip through the county jail system, where hundreds of inmates must wait hours each day while deputies process their paperwork.

“We think it is unfortunate that it takes so long to get through the system,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Garry Leonard, a department spokesman. “The system is strained by the volume of people.”

LAPD officials said that since there was no jail at the West Los Angeles facility, the department decided to transfer the arrestees to the Sheriff’s Department.

“There was nothing nefarious about our actions; in fact it was quite the contrary,” said Cmdr. David Kalish, a spokesman for the LAPD. “It was simply a logistics issue.”

Goldberg said she wants to ensure that any glitches in the process are worked out before the Democratic National Convention is held at Staples Center in August, when numerous protests are planned.

“With the convention coming up, there are likely to be other cooperative arrests,” Goldberg said, referring to acts of civil disobedience in which participants expect to end up in custody. “We don’t want resources being tied up or both the LAPD and the Sheriff’s Department duplicating efforts.”