1,000 signatures reached
To: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass
Remove Erroll Southers from LA Police Commission
Erroll Southers must be removed from his position as President of the Los Angeles Police Commission. He has a long career as a federal agent, steeped in surveillance and repression. His clear repression was further illuminated through his role as Senior Vice President of Safety at the University of Southern California. The Los Angeles Police Commission is supposed to serve as a civilian oversight body, representing the interests of Angelenos. The Commission was chartered to “serve as the public's voice in police affairs and as a means of ensuring more responsive and effective City government.” Instead, Southers is an embodiment of repressive policing.
Southers’ clear conflicts of interests are apparent in his long list of police agency roles, including: Former FBI Special Agent, who worked with or close to Homeland Security, Former SWAT team officer with the Santa Monica Police Department, Current member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Research Advisory Committee
He has clear Zionist interests and holds a leadership role with the pro-Israeli organization, the International Institute of Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, where he is also a paid visiting professor. He also received direct training from the Israeli Occupation (Defense) Forces, the very entity carrying out the genocide against the Palestinian people.
In his work as Director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at USC, he criminalized Muslims and Palestinians, associating them with “homegrown violent extremism.” Southers’ Islamophobic rhetoric can spur violence against Muslims and those who oppose Zionism, as demonstrated in recent violent attacks against protestors at UCLA, USC, Columbia, and universities around the world, “An American who embraces a Muslim Identity ideology within the United States is a home-grown violent extremist…” He goes so far as to criminalize criticism of US imperialism, calling it a sign that a Muslim is potentially a “Muslim Identity extremist”.
According to Southers, identifying “radicalization characteristics” to include: “pervasive frustration or anger toward the United States,” “strongly identified with Muslims perceived as being victimized (Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, or Muslim Kashmiris),” “adopted dress, grooming, or conduct increasingly indicative of Muslim identity (paid off debts, observed dietary laws, women donned fuller covering, men let their beard grow),” “converted to Islam as an adult,” and even, simply “comes from Muslim immigrant community.” Such sweeping assignments classify virtually all Muslims as likely terrorists.
Southers continues to target Muslims and Black people as “radicalized.” He contributed to the development of a surveillance pilot program, Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), in Los Angeles, which encouraged “community partners,” such as Zionist organizations and others with close relationships with police to report on suspected “extremists” for even the most mundane activities. This program was subsequently widely discredited for overt Islamophobia and racism and yet, he advocated to the Department of Homeland Security that the program be expanded, to the dismay of the local community. CVE still exists today.
Southers has defended Israel’s discrimination of Palestinians, stating that it is a use of “behavioral cues and responses” to identify threats that do not deny civil liberties. He has also advocated for and excused NYPD’s problematic “Stop and Frisk” practice.
Despite all of this, in February 2023, Southers became a greater threat to Angelenos when he was appointed to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners by Mayor Karen Bass, an appointment vehemently opposed by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, Los Angeles Community Action Network, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, White People for Black Lives, and other civil liberties groups and community organizations. Now, President of the Commission, Southers’ repressive ideas translate into LAPD policy and practice, impacting Angelenos most directly through the criminalization of protest with police violence and arrest of those who publicly address the Commission, as with the April 2024 detention and threatened arrest of Black community members at a Police Commission meeting.
As Associate Senior Vice President of Safety and Risk Assurance at USC, Southers has taken lead on questions about security regarding valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, a Muslim student who has made Pro-Palestinian remarks. He was part of a move to silence Tabassum, revoking her speaking role at commencement, which brought campus and international outrage. In addition to silencing Tabassum, Southers was directly involved in the subsequent decision to cancel the “main stage” commencement and the decision to call LAPD onto campus to brutally arrest 93 students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Southers’ clear conflicts of interests are apparent in his long list of police agency roles, including: Former FBI Special Agent, who worked with or close to Homeland Security, Former SWAT team officer with the Santa Monica Police Department, Current member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Research Advisory Committee
He has clear Zionist interests and holds a leadership role with the pro-Israeli organization, the International Institute of Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, where he is also a paid visiting professor. He also received direct training from the Israeli Occupation (Defense) Forces, the very entity carrying out the genocide against the Palestinian people.
In his work as Director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at USC, he criminalized Muslims and Palestinians, associating them with “homegrown violent extremism.” Southers’ Islamophobic rhetoric can spur violence against Muslims and those who oppose Zionism, as demonstrated in recent violent attacks against protestors at UCLA, USC, Columbia, and universities around the world, “An American who embraces a Muslim Identity ideology within the United States is a home-grown violent extremist…” He goes so far as to criminalize criticism of US imperialism, calling it a sign that a Muslim is potentially a “Muslim Identity extremist”.
According to Southers, identifying “radicalization characteristics” to include: “pervasive frustration or anger toward the United States,” “strongly identified with Muslims perceived as being victimized (Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, or Muslim Kashmiris),” “adopted dress, grooming, or conduct increasingly indicative of Muslim identity (paid off debts, observed dietary laws, women donned fuller covering, men let their beard grow),” “converted to Islam as an adult,” and even, simply “comes from Muslim immigrant community.” Such sweeping assignments classify virtually all Muslims as likely terrorists.
Southers continues to target Muslims and Black people as “radicalized.” He contributed to the development of a surveillance pilot program, Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), in Los Angeles, which encouraged “community partners,” such as Zionist organizations and others with close relationships with police to report on suspected “extremists” for even the most mundane activities. This program was subsequently widely discredited for overt Islamophobia and racism and yet, he advocated to the Department of Homeland Security that the program be expanded, to the dismay of the local community. CVE still exists today.
Southers has defended Israel’s discrimination of Palestinians, stating that it is a use of “behavioral cues and responses” to identify threats that do not deny civil liberties. He has also advocated for and excused NYPD’s problematic “Stop and Frisk” practice.
Despite all of this, in February 2023, Southers became a greater threat to Angelenos when he was appointed to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners by Mayor Karen Bass, an appointment vehemently opposed by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, Los Angeles Community Action Network, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, White People for Black Lives, and other civil liberties groups and community organizations. Now, President of the Commission, Southers’ repressive ideas translate into LAPD policy and practice, impacting Angelenos most directly through the criminalization of protest with police violence and arrest of those who publicly address the Commission, as with the April 2024 detention and threatened arrest of Black community members at a Police Commission meeting.
As Associate Senior Vice President of Safety and Risk Assurance at USC, Southers has taken lead on questions about security regarding valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, a Muslim student who has made Pro-Palestinian remarks. He was part of a move to silence Tabassum, revoking her speaking role at commencement, which brought campus and international outrage. In addition to silencing Tabassum, Southers was directly involved in the subsequent decision to cancel the “main stage” commencement and the decision to call LAPD onto campus to brutally arrest 93 students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Why is this important?
Southers’ research and positioning brings great harm to Muslim, Arab, Black, and all Angelenos. His role as President of the Los Angeles Police Commission empowers him to make his xenophopic positioning the official policy of the LAPD.
Los Angeles is a large city that wields much political power. What happens in Los Angeles impacts not only to Angelenos, but to people across the country. Erroll Southers has continuously failed the city of Los Angeles.
Rather than holding police accountable, Southers instigates and empowers police repression and violence, while silencing and criminalizing dissent. The urgency of the call for Southers’ removal comes at a time where he has demonstrated his misuse of power and when Islamophobia and threats to free speech bring particular harm. As students and faculty at USC call for his removal from the university, community also demands his immediate removal from the Los Angeles Police Commission.
Los Angeles is a large city that wields much political power. What happens in Los Angeles impacts not only to Angelenos, but to people across the country. Erroll Southers has continuously failed the city of Los Angeles.
Rather than holding police accountable, Southers instigates and empowers police repression and violence, while silencing and criminalizing dissent. The urgency of the call for Southers’ removal comes at a time where he has demonstrated his misuse of power and when Islamophobia and threats to free speech bring particular harm. As students and faculty at USC call for his removal from the university, community also demands his immediate removal from the Los Angeles Police Commission.