‘LA is Trying to Kill Me’ ~ Think Tank DTLA Opens with Month-Long Festival-Style Exhibit

“For many the state park [and] Yaanga, has been a place of convening and arrival since before this country. The irony of these cameras disrupting that legacy is upsetting," said Joel Garcia of Meztli Projects.

"I hope the exhibit leaves people unsettled in a productive way, says artist Wayne Martin Belger. "I don’t tell viewers what side to stand on. I create a space where they have to sit with what they’re seeing."

Hadley Tomicki

February 24, 2026

"When an OG told me, ‘We just wanted to ride,’ I kept thinking about that. The open road. Wind in your face. Pulling over wherever you want. It’s the American freedom myth we’ve seen in films like Easy Rider. But what did that actually look like for Black men in the late 1950s, navigating sundown towns, police harassment, and the necessity of the Green Book?"

Hadley Tomicki

February 24, 2026

The Bell Police Department, who has previously interfered with and arrested community watchers on behalf of ICE, was once again seen cooperating and meeting with about a little over half a dozen Federal Immigration Agents in the late evening raising concerns again about SB54 violations.

Memo Torres, Izzy Ramirez, and Erwin Recinos

February 23, 2026

L.A. TACO's editor-in-chief reports from the ground the day after El Mencho's death.

Javier Cabral

February 23, 2026

El Mencho was the last of the old guard—the final mass-trafficking titan standing alongside El Chapo and El Mayo—now fallen, marking the end of an era in Mexican organized crime. The era, typified by fame and big names splashed across books, TV shows, and international arrest warrants, began around 1990, the time in which El Chapo rose to prominence.  

2Comments

Javier Cabral

February 22, 2026