Action Toolkit
You've learned about the issues. What can you do now to fight for racial justice in Manhattan Beach? We have some suggestions.
Email City Council: 2021–22 Budget
As budget season approaches, it’s vital that we stand united in our calls for justice. Here's what our budget priorities are at MB For Justice: spending less on punishment and policing and spending more on community services that help everyone to thrive. To that end, we're offering a pre-written email to City Council outlining our priorities. Click here to send it—you can just insert your name and send it as written, or you're welcome to customize it to reflect your specific views.
Sign our Petition Calling for Data Transparency
We're calling for the MBPD to:
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Publish all data on racial profiling and publish aggregated statistics on arrests broken down by race, gender, and ethnicity.
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Implement a racial profiling data collection system in line with the guidelines developed by the Department of Justice to ensure that any racial profiling is tracked and addressed.
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Track and publish aggregate data on the race, ethnicity, and gender breakdown of encounters with, traffic stops by, and searches conducted by the MBPD.
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Track and publish aggregate data on the disability status, socioeconomic status, English learning status, out-of-district permit status, foster youth / dependency court involvement, or housing stability status with regard to citations and arrests of minors in the MBUSD (without names or information attached).
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Click here to sign and to join us in calling for data transparency.
File Your Own CPRA Request
About the CPRA
The California Public Records Act (CPRA), passed in 1968, is a state law that serves a similar function to the federal Freedom of Information Act. It provides a process and rules for obtaining records, data, and other information from the State of California, local governments, public agencies, and other governmental entities, and is a crucial part of ensuring transparency and accountability on the part of state and local government.
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Filing a CPRA Request
Have other data you're interested in learning about, or want to verify any of the data included on our website? Click here for a sample CPRA request letter and here to send it to the City of Manhattan Beach. Remember, the City has ten days to respond and cannot request an extension longer than fourteen days for any reason.
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The full text of the CPRA is available here. If you have questions about the CPRA or need help, the First Amendment Coalition is an excellent resource. Their legal hotline offers answers to any questions regarding the CPRA. Any violations of the CPRA—i.e., a failure to respond within the ten-day period—can be reported to the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
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If you do obtain more data that you think would be relevant to our analyses of racial equity in Manhattan Beach, please share it with us at raceandpolicingmb@gmail.com.
Join Us In Supporting Local Activists and Organizations
There are a number of local activists and organizations fighting for racial justice in the South Bay. We support their missions and encourage you to get involved.
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Manhattan Beach Peace Protest: follow on Instagram at @mbpeaceprotest.
MBUSD Community Panel for Equity: like them on Facebook here and follow them on Instagram at @mbpanel4equity.
South Bay Cares: join their Racial Equality Task Force here.
South Bay Community Care Organization: follow them on Instagram at @sbcommunitycare.
South Bay Anti-Racist Society: Follow them on Instagram at @the.southbay.antiracistsociety.
Black Lives Matter Los Angeles: Follow them on Instagram and Twitter at @blmlosangeles.
Pop the Bubble: Follow them on Instagram at @popthebubble2020.
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Submit Public Comment to City Council Meetings
Make your voice heard at the city level. You can submit public comments in advance online to upcoming city council meetings here. Scroll down to Upcoming Meetings and click eComment. You can then comment on any agenda item—if you're not sure which to pick, you can always comment on Item E, Public Comment.
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Here are some sample public comments. You can either use these or write your own:
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The city must return the land it stole from the Bruce family to its rightful owners, and provide restitution for loss of revenue and monetary damages for violation of their civil rights. The city should also replace the current plaque, which fails to address the full history of Bruce’s Beach, and issue a public apology taking responsibility for the theft of the Bruce family land and acknowledge that Manhattan Beach is not only not immune from racism, but also has actively participated in it.
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I’m writing in support of Councilmember Hersman’s call to open debate about Bruce’s Beach on the City Council. The City Council need to address its use of eminent domain to enforce racial segregation in Manhattan Beach as well as the culture that led to it. Claiming we just don’t have a problem in Manhattan Beach is false. The City Council needs to hold a public forum with live responses to audience questions and lead the way in redressing its past wrongs if we’re going to be serious about change.
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At the public forum on race and policing on July 9th, all the members of the City Council repeatedly said that that forum was only a first step. I’m calling on the City Council to take the next one. We need a real public forum, and we need real debate if we’re going to have real change. We need a public forum with open conversation, where the Chief of Police and City Councilmembers respond to the questions people have right then and there and be accountable to the public they swore to serve.
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I’m calling on the City Council and the MBPD to address their silence and justify their conduct by responding to their own statistics about racial profiling in the MBPD, which show that Black people are 120 times more likely to be arrested than white people in Manhattan Beach. These are facts—it’s the MBPD’s own data, which they tried to hide, tried to lie about, and now won’t acknowledge. It’s time to step up and take responsibility. We have a problem. What are we going to do about it?
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Email the City Council
You can also make your voice heard by emailing members of the city council directly. There are compelling reasons to write your own email, but you can also use one of our pre-written emails by clicking the links below; all you have to do is input your name. You can also use the public comments above, or one of our pre-written emails, as a jumping off point for a personalized email.
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1. Click here to call on the City Council to host open debate about how to enact justice for the Bruce family
2. Click here to call for more community forums with live responses to audience questions
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Call on Suzanne Hadley to Resign
Suzanne Hadley's racist retweet and subsequent dismissal of racial injustice in Manhattan Beach mean that she won't fight for racial justice and is unfit to serve our community. You can learn more about her comments on our Related Issues page, and you can either write your own email to her at shadley@citymb.info or you can use our pre-written email by clicking here. All you have to fill in is your name.
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You can also sign this petition calling on her to resign.
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Call for Reparations for the Bruce Family
It's time for Manhattan Beach to pay reparations to the Bruce family for taking their land through eminent domain and driving them out of the city. You can read more about the history of Bruce's Beach on our Related Issues page. There are a number of ways you can take action:
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​1. Sign this petition calling for reparations.
2. Sign this petition calling on MBUSD to teach the history of Bruce's Beach in our schools.
3. Send an email—either your own email or this pre-written one (remember to add your name!)—to the City Council demanding reparations.
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Call on the MBPD to Immediately Release All Data Related to Racial Equity in Policing
We know that arrest statistics alone won't offer us a full picture of policing in Manhattan Beach—that's why we've requested six other categories of data, none of which the city has provided within the timeline required by law. Email the City Council, Police Chief Derrick Abell, and City Manager Bruce Moe to call on them to release all of their data on race and policing in Manhattan Beach immediately. Ask for these subsets of data:
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(1) data on the racial, ethnic, and gender breakdown of encounters involving the MBPD;
(2) data on the racial, ethnic, and gender breakdown of traffic stops conducted by the MBPD;
(3) data on the racial, ethnic, and gender breakdown of searches conducted by the MBPD.
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Also ask the MBPD to start collecting the following types of data:
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(1) reports concerning racial profiling produced by the MBPD, the City, or by any institution or agency on their behalf concerning the activities of the MBPD;
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(2) the development, implementation, or operation of a racial profiling data collection system in the City of Manhattan Beach or on the part of the MBPD of the sort described in “A Resource Guide on Racial Profiling” developed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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You can write your own email, or you can use our pre-written email [coming soon]. Just remember to input your name!
Write to County and State Officials
Ask our county and state representatives to stand with us in calling for full transparency and action towards justice in Manhattan Beach. We suggest:
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1. Email Representative Ted Lieu
2. Email Supervisor Janice Hahn
3. Email Assemblyman Al Murasutchi
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Remember to input your name if you use one of our pre-written emails!
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Learn More About Paths Forward
Allies have a responsibility to educate themselves. Learn more about how to practice anti-racism and learn about proposed paths forward through the resources below.
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1. Race Theory and Anti-Racist Literature
2. The Limitations of an Anti-Racist Reading List
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Share This Information on Social Media
We turned the data and analyses shared here into graphics that you can share easily on social media, available here. Ask your community to join you in demanding change.