The above photo landed a community activist in a hot water with Inglewood Unified School District county administrator Dr. Erika Torres. Torres filed a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the activist for what she described as a “threat on her life” for his posting these posters in front of district offices. 2UrbanGirls was able to reach the district’s legal team who declined to confirm whether Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. or Inglewood Police Chief Mark Fronterotta assisted with getting the TRO granted in record time.
Community activist Morris Phillips was profiled by the Los Angeles Wave newspaper, in September 2020, due to his peaceful protest of the NFL not doing enough to help Inglewood students.
Related: Activist wants NFL teams to help with school district debt
“What we want right now is for those seven banks and the L.A. Rams and L.A. Chargers to provide $25 million to get the Inglewood school district out of state receivership,” said Morris Phillips with CommunityBenefitsAgreement.com.
Phillips pointed to the media blitz given that NBA owner Steve Ballmer pledged a $100 million community benefits package to the city and school district, while Los Angeles Rams owner offered residents access to parks on the Hollywood Park project.
“Stan Kroenke put his generational wealth and invested it here in a nine-square mile city and the stadium was supposed to cost $1.8 billion that ended up costing $5 billion plus,” Butts said. “His return on investment is stretched out so far beyond whatever he could have expected, but still he’s here and he’s pledged his family to be here.”
“Everybody is not situated similarly. The Clippers Arena costs $1.8 billion tops, so everyone is not the same, every billionaire is not the same and just to say they did, you did that. That’s just not fair,” Butts said.
Phillips contacted the Inglewood Police Department (IPD) on March 15 to make them aware he would be peacefully protesting at the district offices.
Phillips states that shortly after arriving and posting the photos on a tree, IPD showed up, and placed handcuffs on Phillips and detained him.
He cites officers Dotson and Manning as the officers who came out to assist with Torres’ pleas for “help”.
Mayor Butts publicly thanked Dotson, the grandson of District 1 Councilman George Dotson, for arriving in time to save the mayor as he was writhing on his office floor during a nearly fatal heart attack.
According to the TRO, Torres called Chief Fronterotta stating “I view Mr. Phillips public display of my photograph depicted as a threat to my life”. The document is written in Torres’ handwriting and she did not say that Phillips actually made threats on her life.
Because Phillips posed no direct threat to Dr. Torres, he was released from their custody.
2UrbanGirls reached David Orbach, with the law firm Orbach Huff Suarez & Henderson LLP, to ascertain whether the TRO was an infringement of Phillips right to freedom of speech.
“The District encourages the community to exercise their rights under the First Amendment. However, the First Amendment does not give an individual the right to threaten the personal safety of another person,” said Orbach. “This individual began making the threats which led to the TRO after the District declined to enter into a consulting contract with him.”
Orbach provided a copy of the unsolicited proposal for media outreach services.
2UrbanGirls initiated a public records request seeking a copy of the police report filed by Dr. Torres.
The date the TRO was issued was peculiar.
The Inglewood Courthouse issued the TRO in a matter of hours, on March 15, after Phillips first presented himself to protest at the district’s office. The public is aware appointments are needed to be in the court due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Questions to Orbach inquiring how they obtained the TRO on the same day, the name of the issuing judge, and whether Mayor Butts or Chief Fronterotta assisted with the speedy granting of the document went unanswered.
Torres publicly reprimanded former IUSD advisory board member D’artagnan Scorza for comments he made during a national interview on Mayor Butts, but allowed a Latino principal to remain on the district’s payroll, through the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year, after he was investigated and found to be calling Black staffers “monkeys“.
Related: $335,000 to cover security for Inglewood Unified’s trustee raises questions
Torres isn’t the first district administrator who was afraid of minorities while serving IUSD. Dr. Brann attempted to hire himself personal security because he didn’t know enough about Inglewood and “didn’t want to get hurt here”.
Are Mayor Butts and Chief Fronterotta using IPD personnel as Torres’ personal bodyguards?
7 Comments
Thats what she fuccin gets bitch scared of her uglyass face getting crossed out on a poster, she should be crossed out yhat job position her stupidass in…..dont be scared now bitch you and bitchass perez walk around the district swinging yall weak ass sword and then when ppl swing bacc on you racist asshomes now you wanna run to the cops….
Thats good for your snakeass!!!!!!!
I wish the Mayor well with his recovery. However, this was a surprise and they certainly kept it under wraps. It also begs the question-why wasn’t he taken to the supposedly world class, Centinela Hospital which is10 mins or less from his office? Maybe because he knows better. Inglewood residents have complained about the over all poor quality of that hospital for years. Only falling on deaf ears. But the mayor seemed to hear enough-not to let it be his first choice when receiving medical care.
Interesting claim by the attorney firm which WE PAY SO DEARLY, that the school district operated by Ms Torres, which FAILED to include the community of HER PLANS to close the former Daniel Freeman (now called Warren Lane Elementary School) supports first amendment rights and community participation. She has functioned without genuine outreach to those impacted and the “board members” insulted community members who attempted to call-in to public meetings with their concerns…
Basically to say IUSD encourages participation and first amendment rights is less than truthful.
If Ms Torres is afraid of a symbol commonly used as part of traffic management (as in no left turn), she has no business receiving a payroll check from IUSD or being in charge of our finances. Unfortunately it was La Tonya Kirk-Carter who first declared her fear of being in our school district and entered into the long term CHP protection contract which Dr Brann inherited when he replaced her.
HOW UNFORTUNATE that IUSD has recently had administrative persons who are more interested in their personal political advancement or social media attention than ensuring our students learn the basic skill sets reading, writing, math, history and science which they will need for gainful employment.
The mayor should not be defending billionaires who arrived at his door with campaign dollars who propose to suck dollars out of non-residents at Inglewood resident expense.
Somehow to ask those who qualify for free and reduced lunches to pity poor Billionaire Kroenke and his Walmart heir family fortune because the personnel shrine he built to honor himself costs more than he thought Is a pathetic concept.
Likewise Phillips suggestion that Inglewood residents be grateful for being allowed in the public space called shopping centers is likewise ridiculous especially when 4 acres of that site was supposed to be reserved for the new police station when voters permitted 24 hour casino operations.
Let us not forget BUTTS HAD THE STADIUM PETITION DESTROYED so he could continue to lie that residents wanted the stadium rather than the RIGHT TO VOTE “IF” we wanted a stadium as we did when KROENKE first proposed a mega WALMART shopping center on that site .
Thank you for connecting the Dotson family employment dots .
I still have copies of both the short and full version of the stadium initiative.
Under what grounds was this Restraining Order granted! Mr.Morris hung posters. He was not stalking her, or sitting outside her house.
So how did police get involved ?
Over a poster?
Perhaps Ms Torres is spending too much time with our city dictator or maybe it is that pesky geography thing ….. Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, China ….maybe She forgot Inglewood at one time was part of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA…where free speech includes expressions as revolting as burning the United States Flag which represents that treasured First Amendment. Note even that action is legal .
Her statement said the poster made her feel a “threat for my life” ….really get a grip honey it means “ don’t”, as in “don’t turn”, “don’t enter”, “don’t vote for”, “don’t smoke”…..
Really ? Is she kidding ?
She didn’t mention anything else in her written statement!
If she was indeed in fear certainly it was for something else….or did she just want to silence a critic….?
With a $100,00.00 salary/benefit increase over her prior job to a $280,000.00 per year compensation package she should have known a real job isn’t always a strawberry-peppermint joy fest, where everyone loves you…
As a feminist who fought for who to be accepted in “real jobs” I am insulted that she took this path…..if you want a woman’s pay don’t cry like a three year old with her bloomers ruffled because “he doesn’t like me!” (Before anyone gets annoyed with that image remember she didn’t have an issue with the “Monkey” insult )
IF THIS was considered a threat…. then why weren’t the Mayor’s friends arrested when they loudly publicly on microphone threatened to do physical harm in council chambers on tape to community members who expressed their concerns at council meetings.? ?
Let us hope she doesn’t follow the Insecure mayor’s lead and hire body guards, and a security firm …Our Children deserve much better.
Thats the problem somebody should’ve been at that bitch house!!!!!!!!