By SAJE’s Equitable Development and Land Use Team
June 17, 2025
Early on Friday morning, June 13, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) had once again taken up temporary residence in Exposition Park in South Los Angeles. SAJE staff and local residents saw police cars, militarized vehicles, and tactical personnel in and around the park. Some sections of the park were cordoned off, presumably as staging areas for police response to the weekend’s large public protests against recent ICE kidnappings across Southern California.
Owned and managed by the State of California, Expo Park is 160 acres of green space in one of the neighborhoods with the least amount of green space in Los Angeles. According to the National Health Foundation, the national guideline on sufficient distribution of parkland ranges from 6 acres to 19 acres per 1,000 residents. In South Los Angeles, where the majority of people are Black and Brown, there are just 0.6 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents.
Public parks are an integral part of the built environment. They make communities healthier, neighborhoods more desirable and livable, and cities more enjoyable. Expo Park, in particular, is a bustling example of this: visitors come from all over to visit its museums and stadiums and enjoy the outdoors; meanwhile, local vendors sell food, and commuters access the Metro E line. This means every time the LAPD uses Expo Park as a staging area, they commandeer space meant to serve a broad public. And, particularly in this moment, as the Trump Administration is deploying armed federal agents for the express purpose of terrorizing Los Angeles residents, a visible and militarized law enforcement presence in Expo Park creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation for those who rely on the park as a place of peace, refuge, and safety.
SAJE and other South Los Angeles community-based organizations, including T.R.U.S.T. South LA, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), have asked Expo Park administrators to:
- Clarify the nature and scope of any lease or agreement allowing LAPD to use Exposition Park facilities for staging operations.
- Immediately cease any arrangements that allow for the park to be used for militarized police operations, particularly in connection to immigration enforcement or preventing first amendment rights from being exercised by South LA Community members.
- Before the 2026 World Cup and ahead of the 2028 Olympics, establish a transparent and inclusive community oversight process/committee to review future uses of the park that may impact the surrounding communities.
The Office of Exposition Park Management’s mission is to provide “access to a beautiful and enriching park community by delivering a safe, clean environment through public safety, parking operations and land use management.” This means ensuring the park is accessible to those who live here, and not letting it become an operations base or a parking lot for the LAPD.
