Rafu Shimpo Journalist Threatens to Sue Little Tokyo Activists for Repeating Information Published by the Rafu Shimpo
Published September 9th, 2023
On August 25th, the legal representatives of Ellen Endo delivered a cease-and-desist letter to two J-Town Action と Solidarity (JAS) activists and a director at the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), alleging that all parties had made “false, defamatory, libelous, inaccurate and/or misleading statements about Ms. Endo.” This threat of legal action is only the latest escalation of Ellen Endo’s more than six-month long vendetta against JAS and is only greater evidence of Ellen Endo’s utter contempt for telling our community the truth, opting instead to serve the interests of the LAPD and developers over the real material needs of our community.
Endo’s current attack on JAS is a direct response to our Instagram statement “WHO REPORTS ON GENTRIFICATION?,” published on July 20th (the cease-and-desist letter incorrectly dates our statement to July 21st). Our statement criticized the Rafu Shimpo’s editors for failing to report on ex-killer cop Tony Sperl’s eviction of Suehiro Café and Family Mart, and demanded that the Rafu’s editors start publishing stories that expose wrongdoing in our community. We made our statement because we are outraged by the violence Tony Sperl is inflicting against our community, and because we believe that our community would stop at nothing to fight against it—assuming, of course, that our community is first informed of the truth.
Regrettably, it appears that Ellen Endo isn’t particularly outraged by Tony Sperl’s crimes against our people. It seems that she is more offended by our statement’s brief observation that the Rafu’s editors previously failed to follow basic journalistic ethics in December of 2022, after several members of our organization were assaulted by Little Tokyo Business Improvement District (LTBID) patrol officers. More specifically, our statement explained how the Rafu’s editors failed to contact our organization for comment on the assault, and instead published an unsigned article alleging that our members had assaulted the LTBID officers. We then pointed out that this article included a quote insulting our organization from the Little Tokyo Business Association (LTBA), but without disclosing that one of its editors, Ellen Endo, was also president of the LTBA (the LTBA oversees the LTBID). We discussed this incident only to make the point that the Rafu editors’ failure to report on the eviction of Suehiro is more than an honest mistake: that it represents the Rafu editors’ structural bias in favor of some parts of the community over others. The fact that Ellen Endo is now attempting to use legal threats to censor our organization proves that our criticism was more right than we knew.
The cease-and-desist letter reads, “These statements are completely false, inaccurate and intentionally misleading in that Ms. Endo is not the president of the Little Tokyo Business Improvement District ("LTBID"), is not president of the LTBA, and is not an editor of the Rafu Shimpo.” Despite this claim, as of August 25th, the Rafu Shimpo’s own website states that Ellen Endo is president of the LTBA (as part of her author profile), and acknowledges her “20-year association with the Rafu Shimpo.” A publicly available employee directory on zoominfo.com lists Ellen Endo as “English Section Editor and Managing Editor,” with a note that her entry was last updated August 13th, 2023. The cease-and-desist letter (attached in full below) makes no effort to clarify the actual character of Ellen Endo’s relationship to the Rafu Shimpo and LTBA, if she truly is neither an editor nor president.
The use of cease-and-desist letters is a common tactic employed against activists to intimidate them into silence. Ellen Endo’s decision to serve a cease-and-desist letter as a scare tactic, instead of publicly defending herself in the Rafu Shimpo or at a Little Tokyo Community Council meeting, makes one thing clear: she is afraid of telling our community the truth. In this respect, nothing would make us happier than to learn that Ellen Endo really has no power over the Rafu Shimpo or LTBA. The available evidence, unfortunately, suggests the opposite: a person who believes in intimidating truth-tellers has editorial oversight over our community’s local newspaper, and that a person who believes in covering up assaults has the responsibility of overseeing LTBID officers. Endo has chosen the interests of people whose money and capital bulldoze through Little Tokyo over the interests of our own community. We all deserve so much better.
The last thing we want is for Ellen Endo’s vendetta against our organization to distract from the greater issues facing Little Tokyo. Endo issued this legal threat in response to our organization’s attempt to expose Anthony Sperl’s eviction of Suehiro Café and Family Mart. The Rafu Shimpo still has yet to publish a single story investigating the eviction. Our community’s inability to defend ourselves from gentrification is rooted in problems far deeper than any one person. Little Tokyo cannot afford to have petty grudges separate our community in private. We are releasing this statement in the hopes that we can finally put an end to this vendetta in public.
We demand
that Ellen Endo immediately drop all threats of legal action against J-Town Action と Solidarity and the Little Tokyo Service Center.
We demand
that Ellen Endo, the Rafu Shimpo, and the Little Tokyo Business Association immediately clarify the relationship of Ellen Endo to each respective organization.
We once again demand
that the Rafu Shimpo’s editors start publishing articles exposing ex-killer cop Tony Sperl’s eviction of Suehiro Café and Family Mart.
We once again demand
that the Rafu Shimpo editors create an additional editorial position that is democratically elected by all members of the Little Tokyo community.
See our previous statement for all our demands for community-serving journalism.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Cease and desist letter served to members of J-Town Action と Solidarity and the Little Tokyo Service Center (names redacted for privacy):
Endo’s current attack on JAS is a direct response to our Instagram statement “WHO REPORTS ON GENTRIFICATION?,” published on July 20th (the cease-and-desist letter incorrectly dates our statement to July 21st). Our statement criticized the Rafu Shimpo’s editors for failing to report on ex-killer cop Tony Sperl’s eviction of Suehiro Café and Family Mart, and demanded that the Rafu’s editors start publishing stories that expose wrongdoing in our community. We made our statement because we are outraged by the violence Tony Sperl is inflicting against our community, and because we believe that our community would stop at nothing to fight against it—assuming, of course, that our community is first informed of the truth.
Regrettably, it appears that Ellen Endo isn’t particularly outraged by Tony Sperl’s crimes against our people. It seems that she is more offended by our statement’s brief observation that the Rafu’s editors previously failed to follow basic journalistic ethics in December of 2022, after several members of our organization were assaulted by Little Tokyo Business Improvement District (LTBID) patrol officers. More specifically, our statement explained how the Rafu’s editors failed to contact our organization for comment on the assault, and instead published an unsigned article alleging that our members had assaulted the LTBID officers. We then pointed out that this article included a quote insulting our organization from the Little Tokyo Business Association (LTBA), but without disclosing that one of its editors, Ellen Endo, was also president of the LTBA (the LTBA oversees the LTBID). We discussed this incident only to make the point that the Rafu editors’ failure to report on the eviction of Suehiro is more than an honest mistake: that it represents the Rafu editors’ structural bias in favor of some parts of the community over others. The fact that Ellen Endo is now attempting to use legal threats to censor our organization proves that our criticism was more right than we knew.
The cease-and-desist letter reads, “These statements are completely false, inaccurate and intentionally misleading in that Ms. Endo is not the president of the Little Tokyo Business Improvement District ("LTBID"), is not president of the LTBA, and is not an editor of the Rafu Shimpo.” Despite this claim, as of August 25th, the Rafu Shimpo’s own website states that Ellen Endo is president of the LTBA (as part of her author profile), and acknowledges her “20-year association with the Rafu Shimpo.” A publicly available employee directory on zoominfo.com lists Ellen Endo as “English Section Editor and Managing Editor,” with a note that her entry was last updated August 13th, 2023. The cease-and-desist letter (attached in full below) makes no effort to clarify the actual character of Ellen Endo’s relationship to the Rafu Shimpo and LTBA, if she truly is neither an editor nor president.
The use of cease-and-desist letters is a common tactic employed against activists to intimidate them into silence. Ellen Endo’s decision to serve a cease-and-desist letter as a scare tactic, instead of publicly defending herself in the Rafu Shimpo or at a Little Tokyo Community Council meeting, makes one thing clear: she is afraid of telling our community the truth. In this respect, nothing would make us happier than to learn that Ellen Endo really has no power over the Rafu Shimpo or LTBA. The available evidence, unfortunately, suggests the opposite: a person who believes in intimidating truth-tellers has editorial oversight over our community’s local newspaper, and that a person who believes in covering up assaults has the responsibility of overseeing LTBID officers. Endo has chosen the interests of people whose money and capital bulldoze through Little Tokyo over the interests of our own community. We all deserve so much better.
The last thing we want is for Ellen Endo’s vendetta against our organization to distract from the greater issues facing Little Tokyo. Endo issued this legal threat in response to our organization’s attempt to expose Anthony Sperl’s eviction of Suehiro Café and Family Mart. The Rafu Shimpo still has yet to publish a single story investigating the eviction. Our community’s inability to defend ourselves from gentrification is rooted in problems far deeper than any one person. Little Tokyo cannot afford to have petty grudges separate our community in private. We are releasing this statement in the hopes that we can finally put an end to this vendetta in public.
We demand
that Ellen Endo immediately drop all threats of legal action against J-Town Action と Solidarity and the Little Tokyo Service Center.We demand
that Ellen Endo, the Rafu Shimpo, and the Little Tokyo Business Association immediately clarify the relationship of Ellen Endo to each respective organization.We once again demand
that the Rafu Shimpo’s editors start publishing articles exposing ex-killer cop Tony Sperl’s eviction of Suehiro Café and Family Mart.We once again demand
that the Rafu Shimpo editors create an additional editorial position that is democratically elected by all members of the Little Tokyo community.See our previous statement for all our demands for community-serving journalism.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
Cease and desist letter served to members of J-Town Action と Solidarity and the Little Tokyo Service Center (names redacted for privacy):
