TWO WOMEN ON A MISSION
FBI arrest man who threatened the Good Trouble Brigade
On a warm September evening, Maya and Gina (their last names are withheld because of death threats), organized a vigil on 6th and Mesa streets in solidarity for those killed by the police recently. That is when an older, dark colored sedan with trash strewn inside pulled up. A man in the passenger seat began to discuss the Black Lives Matter T-shirt Gina was wearing. What happened next was both common and shocking.
Gina, a San Pedro native whose father was a fisherman and a Sicilian immigrant, engaged the 50-something man sporting a common white supremacist tattoo of double lightning bolts on his neck. Referencing the chalk messages of solidarity with calls for justice for Breonna Taylor (a young emergency medical technician who was killed in a no-knock raid in Kentucky), the suspect, Timothy James Carroll, known locally by the name, “Yo,” dared Gina to draw the same chalk messages on the sidewalk on his block.
“I’m going to come back and execute you,”
Carroll said to the women.
Shocked, Gina asked him to repeat himself and Maya asked him to get out of his car and talk to them about that. Carroll allegedly replied “belligerently” and Maya pulled out her phone and asked him to repeat what he said on camera. The driver of the car, a woman, “peeled off,” but not before Maya had snapped a photo of the license plate.
The women didn’t make too much of the matter, then. They chalked it up to one more incident like all of the others where people drive by and yell at them to which they always respond the same way: “Why don’t you park your car and have a conversation with us?”
The week after the incident, Carroll returned to the weekly vigil, this time on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and issued the same threat to “execute” them. It turned out one of the vigil participants, a man who does not want to be identified, knew of Carroll. This man called Maya the next day. He told her Carroll had also now threatened his ex-wife and his child. By the man’s account, his ex-wife confirmed Carroll had a firearm and Carroll allegedly told the man’s exwife that he and his friends “plan to come back and attack people, execute his wife and child and all of them.” The man asked Maya to call the police and make a complaint, which she did.
Toward the end of September, Maya called
Gina, in foreground, and Maya chalking names on 6th and Mesa streets. Photo by Arturo Garcia Ayala. the Los Angeles Police Department to report the Then, about mid-October, Carroll allegedly incidents. She noted she was told to go online returned to the vigil location again just circling and report the incidents to the FBI, which she the event on his motorcycle and then “gunned also did. Afterward, the women said the LAPD off.” Maya called the LAPD again to report became unresponsive to any more of their calls the incident and was told to call back when but Maya received a call from the FBI at the end something happens. of September. They wanted to come out and take Maya reported that the LAPD has a major a witness statement. At this point, Good Trouble crimes unit that coordinates with the FBI. LAPD canceled its event for that week and was told by detective Scott Padin was assigned to the local the FBI that it would be in touch. Maya tried FBI office. The FBI alerted Padin that it didn’t again to contact the LAPD with no response.
have the resources to move quickly with this case, so as the local LAPD liaison he could pursue the case. Maya explained Padin ran these incidents up the chain of command and got the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office to issue a search warrant which ultimately led to Carroll’s arrest by the FBI on Oct. 28.
The San Pedro man now faces six felony counts of criminal threats alleged to be hate crimes, one felony count of possession of a firearm by a felon (a .357 Magnum plus ammunition), a felony count for possession of a leaded cane and one misdemeanor count of possessing a controlled substance (hydrocodone). Carroll pleaded not guilty to the charges and was scheduled to return to the Superior Court in Long Beach Nov. 13, which resulted in scheduling a preliminary hearing Dec. 7. He faces a possible maximum sentence of more than 12 years in state prison.
Despite the antagonism they were met with on this day, this moment was an opportunity to do what they had set out to do in June, which was bring out into the light conversations about injustice and systemic racism in particular. This was the “good trouble,” which former Rep. John Lewis encouraged others to undertake in following his footsteps after his death.
Beginnings of a Friendship
In June 2020, Maya and Gina met each other in front of the San Pedro City Hall at a rally protesting the killing of George Floyd. After attending a subsequent rally at the Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, the two women became fast friends and partners committed to upending systemic racism
A Black Lives Matter sign at a Good Trouble Brigade vigil. Photo by Arturo Ayala. through dialogue in the San Pedro community.
Since July, they have met every Friday at 6th and Mesa streets at the parking kiosk.
Gina posited that with only three people at the vigil the first day when Carroll drove by and was bothered by her BLM shirt, he felt emboldened.
What came out of that friendship was the Good Trouble Brigade, a group that considers itself a community organization, or as Maya said, more so an organization of community.
“We believe in the idea, act locally, change globally,” Maya said. “It may not seem like a lot but I live here. I want to live in a town that respects everybody that lives there. I don’t want to live in a town that’s known for being racist. I have a responsibility because I chose this place as my home. I’m an immigrant to this country. I have a responsibility to my community to try to do that.”
Gina concurred. The women agreed they had to do something. They wanted to open the vigils up as a dialogue space. That part has been less successful but what has happened is they’ve received feedback from people who tell them that they appreciate that this is happening and that it’s helping them feel more welcome in this town. Members of the Black community have also participated in their vigils. They have also received vitriol but the majority of response, they estimate about 85%, is positive.
For Gina this is very personal. Her children, now grown, are biracial. Their father is Black.
“I feel like I’m fighting for them,” Gina said. “If anything I’m more invested because I would do anything for my kids.”
Maya sees herself as an ally and as a facilitator in that role.
“I recognize that I have privilege,” she said. “As an ally, it’s my responsibility to use my privilege to facilitate space for the people who don’t have that privilege. I can step in, in front of a police officer with very little fear. The likelihood of my getting shot is fairly low.”
They chose that language, ‘vigil’ specifically, saying the events are vigils for victims of systemic racism.
“Those victims also include, for example, police officers who are killed in these kinds of events,” Maya said. “Everyone suffers from systemic racism. We’re trying to create this space where no one feels excluded. We’re also recognizing clearly that Black lives matter — that right now they are the biggest victims of this beast. This is about community and the kind of town we want to live in.”
The community dialogue space was born from what both women believed they saw happening on the San Pedro, CA Facebook page, which was “a lot of vitriol and racist leaning ideology,” Maya said.
“Social media is just not an effective place to have a conversation with people,” she said.
Both women come from European, Native American and Jewish descent. Maya who was raised in Northern Israel by American expatriates, immigrated here at 20 years old.
They both love this town. Maya moved to San Pedro from Long Beach one year ago. Gina, who was raised in San Pedro, was moved to start this group because her father is an immigrant.
“That’s what San Pedro was built on, people who immigrated here,” she stated. “It really pisses me off to see so much racism in this town. It was disheartening when we first started because we didn’t have much support from people coming. I thought we’d get much more support.”
Maya works in the social services sector and said there are far better ways to deal with problems.
“Until we can actually have an open dialogue — and I’m not just talking about a dialogue about reforming the police department,” Maya said. “I’m talking about an actual truth and reconciliation dialogue about the way that this country was formed. There are two options: either we are going to sit down and talk about it or we’re going to do what is happening in my country, which is, we’re just going to kill each other until everybody is dead.”
Gina works in the medical field.
“We don’t have guns,” she quipped. “We have a bazillion other ways to get a person to put a gun down or a knife down.”
“We thought if people got together face-toface, they wouldn’t be so nasty to each other,”
Maya said.
After attending protests, the women started watching out for each other. They soon wanted to host local events in San Pedro. Maya credited Gina with the “ingenious” idea to use chalk — saying it’s not invasive and things happened organically from there. As a brigade of two, Good Trouble hosts participants at its weekly events and welcomes people to write their own messages or have a conversation. They play music, draw murals and write the names of the people who have died at the hands of police in chalk and sometimes display their photos. They express their thoughts to passersby on how to create peace in hopes of sparking dialogue.
White Privilege and Racism
Maya takes seriously her role as an ally of communities of color resisting oppression and has put skin in the game. In an unrelated situation, Maya described being pinned under the boot of a police officer and placed in a chokehold during a demonstration. She’s happy to talk to anyone about her heritage and their understanding of the conflict in Israel. Privilege allows her to take risks that people who are marginalized in this country can’t. She says it’s her responsibility to use that privilege in a way that is helpful.
“Sometimes that means putting myself in between [people] and danger,” Maya said. “It’s that and using my voice at every opportunity to educate people, to remind people that this is happening.”
Gina cosigned on Maya sentiments.
“It’s something that I can use and this is something that I have to do,” Gina said. “Even though my skin isn’t Black, my kids are. I have to do this for them and everyone else. White supremacy was built by white people. So, it’s up to us to break it down. It’s definitely a movement, not a moment.”
Good Trouble is about ensuring that people cannot turn away. That’s why Gina and Maya chose a public space, why they wear BLM shirts and bring signs. Their aim is to disrupt, yes, even your Friday night meal.
“It’s so easy to go through life, go to the supermarket, meet with your family and friends. Those things are wonderful,” Maya said. “But guess what? Breonna Taylor doesn’t get to see her family and friends or go to dinner. If you sit there complacent, acting like none of that matters, then you are part of the problem and I’m going to tell it to your face every day of the week.”
“I wanted to be an example,” Gina said. “People can say ‘If [she’s] out here at whatever age setting an example, I can do it too.’”
Maya drew upon her upbringing in Israel “… where community comes before the individual,” she said. “It’s going to take every single one of us for systemic change. It cannot be just the people who are affected by it. It is only through dialogue, really painful, hard dialogue, that we actually get anywhere. We cannot forget that there is a lot of atrocity that has taken place and continues to take place daily across this country, in this town.”
Beyond the threats, Maya and Gina have coped with the ridicule and incredulity some have thrown their way.
“I’ve actually heard people say that this will die out, that we’re going to go away,” Gina said. “They say things like, ‘Oh, they’re at the corner again,’ and ‘this isn’t serious.’ A lot of other Facebook pages were trying to embarrass us and were talking crap about us. But we’re standing our ground, we’re not going anywhere.”
Maya sees the conflict over the status of the Palestinians and Israel as a metaphor for the conflict Americans are facing during this racial justice uprising.
“We have been in armed violent conflict with each other in my country for centuries now,” she said. “It doesn’t change. It’s a closed circuit. You cannot fight violence with violence. That does not mean that you don’t hold people accountable.”
Maya said that was why she and Gina worked with the FBI.
“You cannot threaten to kill people and use acts of violence to solve your problems,” Maya said. “At the same time you cannot go around in a blue uniform with a loaded gun shooting people.” Details: www.tinyurl.com/San-Pedro-GoodTrouble-Brigade