Los Angeles Times - 26.08.2019

CALIFORNIA

MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

B

One recent weekday in
southeast San Diego,
in a barbershop tucked
behind an auto repair
business, Jumbo
Chanthamart, 26,
recounted being
thrown out of class in
high school during a
unit on the Vietnam War.
There was nothing said of the
2.7 million tons of U.S. explosives
that were dropped on Laotian soil
between 1965 and 1973, much of
which remains in the ground and
still kills or injures about 300 people
every year.
The curriculum had nothing
about how U.S. forces withdrawing
from Southeast Asia left millions of
Laotians at the mercy of brutal
communist regimes, or how terrible
the conditions were in the prison
camps his parents fled. Actually,
Laos never came up at all. Chan-
thamart objected loudly to the
omission and was asked to leave.
“It’s ridiculous. Good history,
bad history. It’s all still history,
isn’t it?” Chanthamart said as he
touched up a customer’s fade, a
Laotian flag on display behind him.
“Damn,” responded John, the
customer, who happened to be
Laotian as well. “I didn’t know any
of that.”
Perhaps it’s unsurprising that a
conflict called the Secret War has
been so obscured by history that
even Laotian Americans struggle to
find out about it. Chanthamart
himself says he learned the history
as a teenager only after reading
about it on the internet. I’m embar-
rassed to admit I learned about it
only a few weeks ago. State legisla-

SONENARY SOUKSAVATHkneels at the Wat Lao Buddaharam temple in southeastern San Diego,
where thousands of refugees began to settle in the 1970s after fleeing war and U.S. bombings in Laos.

Dania MaxwellLos Angeles Times

Shedding light on refugee

story obscured by history

SOURITA SIRIsays explaining her background can feel like a history

lecture. Her grandfather opened the first Laotian temple in the U.S.

Dania MaxwellLos Angeles Times

Plight of Laotian diaspora shows why ethnic studies are important

FRANK SHYONG

[SeeShyong,B5]

SANE CHANTHAPHAVONG, left, joined the U.S.-backed Royal Lao

Air Force at 16. After the U.S. troops left, he ended up in a POW camp.

With wildfire season

underway, Los Angeles May-

or Eric Garcetti last week

announced a plan to make it

easier for authorities to clear

homeless encampments in

severe fire zones.

The proposed ordinance,

which will go before the City

Council’s Public Safety

Committee this week, would

change the way the Los An-

geles Police Department in-

forms people that they must

leave remote areas where

the risk of a fire is most ex-

treme.

Currently, authorities

must post signs every 500

feet warning people not to

trespass in such areas. The

proposed ordinance would

allow police to orally warn

homeless people that they

have to move — and not just

on red flag days, Council-

woman Monica Rodriguez

said.

Los Angeles is particu-

larly vulnerable to fires that

start in hard-to-reach areas

and then spread. In Decem-

ber 2017, for example, the

Skirball fire was sparked by

a cooking fire at a homeless

encampment nestled in a

canyon several hundred feet

from Sepulveda Boulevard

and the 405 Freeway, hidden

from passing cars.

“These campfires don’t

just have dire consequences

for homeless Angelenos that

live in remote brush areas,”

Garcetti said Wednesday,

City plan to

prevent fires

would target

encampments

By Benjamin Oreskes

[SeeWildfire,B5]

peatedly tells the man,

“Don’t touch me like that.”

She pushes back, arguing

that she needs to get her

shoe.

The guard then shoves

her again, wraps his arms

around her and moves Bi-

anchi toward the door. Mo-

ments later, another bar em-

ployee grabs a transgender

woman who was seated,

wraps his arm around her

chest and says, “We’re

done.”

The woman looks at the

camera and asks, “What

happened?” before being

dragged out of the bar.

Police said the group has

filed a hate crime report and

that the department is in-

vestigating the incident.

“Please know that the

Department is committed

to ensuring the safety of ev-

ery Angeleno, as well as the

right of all to live their true

lives in peace, harmony, and

free from anxiety or fear,”

LAPD Assistant Chief Bea-

trice Girmala tweeted.

Cedd Moses, founder of

Pouring With Heart, the

A video showing a group

of gay men and transgender

women being forcefully re-

moved from a popular down-

town Los Angeles bar Friday

night went viral on social

media over the weekend,

and now police are investi-

gating the incident as a pos-

sible hate crime.

Members of the group

said they, along with several

other friends, were forced to

leave Las Perlas after a

straight couple yelled slurs

and attacked them. Cell-

phone video of the incident

does not show the alleged at-

tack, but the footage cap-

tures three people being

forcefully removed from the

bar.

In the video, a security

guard grabs one of the wom-

en, Jennifer Bianchi, who re-

Security ejects

trans women

from L.A. bar

Group files hate crime

report with the LAPD

over incident, shown

in a viral video clip.

By Sarah Parvini

[SeeTransgender, B5]

There was a
jarring reality
check in the
Legislature last
week for inter-
est groups
plotting to
change Pro-
position 13 and
raise property taxes on
major businesses.
The reality is that raising
any taxes will be very hard
to sell voters.
The plotters are led by
some powerful public em-
ployee unions, including
those representing teachers
and service workers. They
plan to place a citizens’
initiative on the November
presidential election ballot
next year.
Their measure would
require that commercial

property owned by all but

the smallest businesses be

reassessed at market value

every three years. Under

Proposition 13, passed by

voters during a 1978 tax

revolt, neither commercial

nor residential property is

reassessed until it’s sold.

Then it’s taxed at 1% of

market value and that can’t

be increased by more than

2% a year.

The proposed tax hike

would raise an estimated

$11 billion annually, with

40% going to public schools

and community colleges,

and 60% to local govern-

ments.

The reality check came

when the Assembly took up

another proposal to alter

Proposition 13. The consti-

tutional amendment, ACA 1,

would reduce the local vote

required to sell bonds or

CAPITOL JOURNAL

Changing Prop. 13 is a political third rail

Interest groups are plotting reform, but convincing tax-weary voters will be a hard sell

GEORGE SKELTON

in sacramento

ASSEMBLYWOMANCecilia Aguiar-Curry says her measure would allow voters

to decide whether it should be easier to sell bonds and hike taxes to fund projects.

Rich PedroncelliAssociated Press

[SeeSkelton,B6]

75 years later,

vet gets diploma

Now 93, he dropped

out of high school to

join the Army during

World War II. B

When tropical

storms hit L.A.

In one month 80 years

ago, the Southland felt

the Cordonazo lash

four times. B

San Diego piers

may be removed

Structures serving

residents of Shelter

Island must be made

public or razed. B

Lottery......................B

Nelvin C. CepedaSDUT

Brush fire

in Eagle Rock

Blaze clogs freeways.B