2018 02–11 Stop Tenant Abuse, Neglect & Dehumanization Press Release

Stop Tenant Abuse, Neglect & Dehumanization (STAND) is calling for an investigation to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office for their seeming unwillingness to prosecute a Los Angeles building manager seen on video clearly threatening to kill tenants.

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer will apparently not file charges against the “cheap rent” residential hotel on-site manager who threatened to kill a gay tenant and also a tenant of Jewish heritage.

In a YouTube video titled, “Abuse, Bugs, Filth & Dilapidation At Soto Hotel In L.A.,” when discussing tenancy issues, the “Hitler Shirt Manager” is seen imitating a gun with his hand and telling a tenant of Jewish heritage, “Somebody here come at somebody, I put one gun here, so it’s no problem…” In the same video the manager is later seen taunting the tenant of Jewish heritage with a shirt glorifying Hitler saluting the Nazi swastika.

Manager Of “Cheap Rent” Residential Building Hotel Soto Taunts A Tenant Of Jewish Heritage With The Swastika

The incident was reported to LAPD and to Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer directly. LAPD reportedly informed the tenants that charges for the gun threat will not be filed. The tenants threatened by “Hitler Shirt Manager” in the video accuse LAPD of giving immoral pushback in their handling of the alleged crime and also accuse the City Attorney’s office of refusing to do their duty to prosecute the seeming. The tenants feel this signals to gay, Jewish, non-English speaking, disabled, senior, and low-income residents not to expect justice in Los Angeles when enduring apparent harassment and seeming hate crimes intended to silence them from speaking up. They theorize the two agencies are trying to hide incidents that could garner media attention which could embarrass the city ahead of the 2028 Olympics. One of the tenants also expressed disgust at City Attorney Feuer for seemingly cowering down to the “Hitler Shirt Manager” who’s behavior seems to indicate Nazi beliefs.

Neighborhood Prosecutor Cynthia Gonzalez Of The City Attorney’s Office

The tenants also report that they’ve been in communication with the Neighborhood Prosecutor for the Hollenbeck Division Cynthia Gonzalez. They claim they provided Gonzalez and LAPD officers a disc containing cell phone recording of the alleged instances of abuse by the “Hitler Shirt Manager” in addition to reports by Public Health and Los Angeles Housing + Community Investment Department, and South Coast Air Quality Management District that confirmed 50+ housing violations including live pests, failing to do tests for possible asbestos contaminated materials, and two high severity level fire hazards. Despite providing Gonzalez this info, the tenants claim she never informed them they needed to file an official police report and only learned of this possibility when a friend told them. The tenants are bewildered why no charges have been filed regarding the gun threat or why no child endangerment charges have been filed regarding the asbestos tests and fire hazard incidents.

When one of the tenants emailed Neighborhood Prosecutor Gonzalez asking her, “Are You Going To Prosecute Regarding Hotel Soto,” Gonzalez refused to directly answer the question and instead seemingly condescendingly replied, “If a crime is committed, please contact LAPD (cc’d here). If LAPD completes an investigation, our office will review the case for possible prosecution. Similarly, if HCIDLA Code Enforcement (cc’d here) submits a code enforcement case to our office, our office will review it for possible prosecution.” That’s a non-answer.

The tenant later emailed Gonzalez and LAPD officers asking who they can contact to appeal the decision not to file charges. Thus fur the tenants received no reply.

So was a crime committed? It sure does seem so.

The Californian legal definition of criminal threat reads, “Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family’s safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.”

So why is Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer seemingly cowering down to someone promoting Nazi symbols who clearly is seen on video making a threat? Why won’t he take a threat to kill seriously following the Vegas shooting as well as the Charlottesville hate crime attacks? Do they just not care about “cheap rent” tenants vulnerable to exploitation? Is Feuer just a media-attention-seeking self-promoter who really doesn’t care about victims of crime?

If you feel Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer should press criminal charges for the gun threat against the tenants, tweet him at @CityAttorneyLA, email him at mike.n.feuer@lacity.org or call 213–978–8100 and tell him to prosecute the “Hitler Shirt Manager.”

Click here to sign a petition to call for the firing of the “Hitler Shirt Manager.”

Click here to donate to the victims of “Hitler Shirt Manager” to help them try to attain proper legal representation.

Stop Tenant Abuse, Neglect & Dehumanization (STAND)

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