Free Venice! by John Haag – Reprinted from the Free Venice
Beachhead, Dec. 1, 1968, #1
Would you believe dancing in our Venice streets?
Non-violent police? An art festival the length of Ocean Front Walk? A Venice
radio station? Cooperative, low-cost housing? An art cinema and sidewalk coffee
house? Experimental theater in the Pavillion? Schools that could teach what the
kids wanted to learn? Venice planned and run by the people in it? A newspaper
created by Venice writers?
I do. I used the recent elections campaign
to raise the question of a campaign to free Venice from the City of Los Angeles,
to free ourselves to create our own
community.
As things stand now, we, the
residents of Venice, have nothing to say about “our” police, who are
hired, trained, assigned and commanded by downtown Los Angeles. Ditto for school
teachers and administrators.
Venice
poets don’t read in the pavillion since their poems must first be approved
by the Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks. Venice teen-agers don’t
dance in the streets because their dance must be permitted in advance by the Los
Angeles Police Department. We don’t plan our own community because plans
are made for us by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning, and we
don’t even get to vote on their
plans!
“Free Venice” means
that we intend to create our own community with our own government - whatever
form that may take -- our own schools, parks, libraries, housing, and culture.
“We” are all of us who care enough about Venice to want to live
here, work here, create here, lie on our own
beach--here.
Three times this year the
Los Angeles police have told me and a lot of my friends, “If you want to
stay out of jail, you better get out of Venice.” My home is in Venice. I
choose to stay in Venice. The Los Angeles police, the “enforcers” of
the Los Angeles City government, got my job, my business, and my police record.
I will fight for my home. So will a lot of
friends.
Three times this year the Los
Angeles police have told me (and a lot of my friends) to get out of Venice. They
haven’t convinced us. Rather, they have convinced us to get Venice out of
Los Angeles.
Plans for creating a free
Venice are now being discussed by the Free Venice Organizing Committee which is
open to any Venice resident. Research has begun on procedures to de-annex Venice
from Los Angeles. Much research remains to be done in such areas as identifying
our tax base, essential civic services, alternative police systems, patterns of
property ownership, city planning and a host of other
subjects.
The Free Venice Organizing
Committee meets presently as a part of Venice Peace and Freedom, Wednesdays, 8
p.m. at 1727 West Washington Blvd. As interest grows, the Committee will become
an independent group run as its participants decide. Join us. Free
Venice!
Posted: Mon - May 1, 2006 at 02:13 AM