Writing — Lexis-Olivier Ray

Lexis-Olivier Ray

Photo by Brian Feinzimer

OFFICIAL EMAILS SHOW THAT LAPD WORKED WITH A CONTROVERSIAL SOCIAL MEDIA SURVEILLANCE COMPANY DURING GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS

Hundreds of emails from last year show that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) worked with Dataminr, a controversial social media surveillance company, to monitor protesters’ and journalists’ social media accounts during the civil uprisings following the murder of George Floyd. The public records conflict with an earlier statement from the department claiming that they didn’t use the system during the Black Lives Matter lead protests.

FORMER MEMBERS OF JACKASS AND SUBLIME THROW A ‘DEMOLITION PARTY’ IN A VACANT HOME IN FILIPINOTOWN

It was a quiet Sunday evening in Historic Filipinotown, and everything was closed down, but near the corner of Rosemont Avenue and Temple Boulevard, if you listened closely, you could hear live music. Down the street, in a small craftsman house that was recently sold and set for demolition, a band formed by the bassist of Sublime called Spray Allen, played an impromptu show hosted by Jackass star Bam Margera.

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BEYOND MOLDY JAM: THE INSIDE STORY OF WHAT WENT WRONG AT SQIRL

Co-written with Samanta Helou Hernandez

Photo by Memo Torres (L.A. Taco)

THIS COP DID EVERYTHING RIGHT AT A PROTEST AND THEN HE FLASHED THE WHITE POWER SIGN

After commander Palka asked his officers to move back 20 feet to give protestors more room towards the end of Tuesday’s protest at the Mayor’s house, he had a moment of embrace with a protestor who was also a war veteran. The scene, photographed perfectly by L.A. Taco’s Director of Partnerships Memo Torres, was emblematic of the day. At the same time, adjacent to Palka and the war veteran, a protestor held up a sign that read, “Cops hugging and kneeling w/ protestors is a counterinsurgency tactic designed to quell and neutralize rebellion, do not fall for it.”

LOS ANGELES INSTALLED HUNDREDS OF HAND-WASHING STATIONS, SOME ARE DRYING UP

Several hundred hand-washing stations, which are recommended by public health officials as essential tools for preventing illness, have been distributed at homeless encampments across the city to help prevent COVID-19 from spreading to city’s unhoused population.

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TWO BROWN MEN WITH THE SAME NAME KILLED 8 DAYS APART THROWS A SPOTLIGHT ON THE PREVALENCE OF LATINOS KILLED BY L.A. POLICE

Law enforcement shootings in L.A. are so common that two people with the same exact name—Daniel Hernandez—were killed just days apart from one another in April

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‘END FOOD SUPPLY AND END ENCAMPMENT ON OUR STREET? JUST A THOUGHT.’ ~ HOLLYWOOD EMAILS CHART COORDINATION AGAINST HOMELESS

They’re being called “anti-homeless planters,” and I bet you’ve seen them. These are planters normally intended for a patio or home garden, but have become the latest tool used to displace the homeless in neighborhoods across Los Angeles.

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THE FASTEST ROAD RACE IN THE WORLD TAKES PLACE IN ONE OF THE MOST DESOLATE PARTS OF THE U.S.

I arrive in Ely, Nevada the morning after Friday the 13th, as the birds are cleaning scraps of roadkill off the freeway. I am in one of the most isolated parts of the country, more than 240 miles away from any major city. As it happens, I was in Ely exactly a year ago, unexpectedly, after my truck broke down on the way back home to Los Angeles from Idaho. This time, I’m here to experience the Silver State Classic Challenge.

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RESTORING THE SOUL OF THE GIN MILL, THE LAST REMNANT OF A GHOST TOWN DEEP IN A NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FOREST

Before it went viral through a Craigslist ad in 2013, the Gin Mill was a mostly-forgotten bar in a mostly-forgotten town. It’s one of the few structures still standing in Seneca, a ghost town three hours northeast of Sacramento, California.