LOS ANGELES — She’s doing this for Kenney.
Megan Castillo, a policy manager for La Defensa and the Reimagine LA Coalition Coordinator, is looking back at images of her friend, who was just 18 years old when an LAPD officer shot him in the back, killing him.
It happened in Aug. 2016, marking seven years since he was killed.
“He was running away. There was no reason for them to chase him,” Castillo said.
In a civil trial, a jury found that because Kenney Watkins was armed with two guns, the officer was justified in the shooting.
But Megan feels Kenney might still be alive today, if his neighborhood had the right resources.
“His community was over-policed. When we think the resources that are readily available, those same things aren’t happening in neighborhoods that are adequately resourced,” Castillo said.
It’s why Megan is a champion of LA County’s Measure J — a new initiative that would redirect 10% of the county’s unrestricted funds to community development and alternatives to incarceration.
That money would also go away from prisons and law enforcement agencies.
Just this week, an effort from the labor union representing LA Sheriff’s deputies to block the measure was struck down in a California appellate court.
The ALADS union president said in a statement, “We’re obviously disappointed with the ruling and will conduct a complete evaluation with our legal team. With unprecedented staffing shortages, the upcoming Olympics, and increasing crime, there couldn’t be a worse time to cut deputies.”
There are some community members who agree with the sheriff’s union.
Leon Aznavour owns Carriage Trade Dry Cleaners in Santa Clarita. This week, two men were caught on surveillance video breaking into his business and damaging his store in an attempted burglary.
Aznavour said criminals are behaving this way because they think they will not get caught.
“Because of all these new laws and everything, they’re more free. They can do anything they want. They go in, they come out and they do it again,” he said.
But Megan Castillo, who is a fierce advocate of criminal justice reform, says there is a better way to combat crime — a way that doesn’t pump more money into prisons and law enforcement agencies.
“For me, public safety looks like education, it looks access to re-entry services, it looks like youth services, it looks housing, mental health services,” she said.
She said these are all services that can be provided if Measure J gets fully funded — to the tune of $900 million a year.
“Our people would actually be supported and able to live lives that are full and whole,” she added.
It’s the justice that she hopes Measure J can deliver on.