“Lock her Up” Chant Started at Venice Neighborhood Council Meeting

Deputy for Mayor Garcetti met by rowdy VNC crowd. 

By Sam Catanzaro

At the monthly Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC) meeting on Tuesday, August 21, members of the audience started a “lock her up” chant directed at Tanaz Golshan, the West Valley Area Representative for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Golshan, who was filling in for Daniel Tamm the regular West Area Representative, was in the midst of explaining to the VNC and meeting attendees details about the Mayor’s proposed Bridge Housing project at the old MTA lot on Main Street.

Golshan was talking about opportunities for public input on the Bridge Housing site after a feasibility proposal for the project has been submitted when an individual in the crowd yelled out “Lock her up, lock her up!”

Another individual joined, forcing Golshan to pause her presentation. VNC President Ira Koslow was quick to reprimand the chant.

“Lets quite down,” Kaslow said. “We have someone from the Mayor’s office, from Ted Lieu’s office, we have a bunch of government workers who are here to explain, and all you are doing is shouting at them. Do we want people to come back or do we not want them to come back? I guess you don’t.”

Start 16:30 for the beginning of the chant. 

Golshan soon resumed her presentation on the Bridge Housing project, addressing the hostility towards the proposal.

“This is a very new, foreign concept that has not been proposed in the City before so it is very understandable and normal to have questions, concerns, fears [and] doubts,” Golshan said. “This is not me coming at you from a ‘me against you’ type of place. I am here because I truly, truly care and I do this work because I am passionate about it and I want to make a difference and I am here to seriously work with the community.”

Following Golshan’s presentation, the VNC heard over an hour’s worth of public input relating to the Bridge Housing Project. Check for complete coverage in the next issue of Yo! Venice in print August 31.