Photos: Civil rights lawsuit filed

Rebecca Dutoit, 43, said the LAPD seized her tent, blankets, bedding, clothes and jewelry during a cleanup in East Hollywood 1 ½ months ago. She won’t go into a shelter because they won’t accept her puppy and kitten. “They are my sanity,” she says.

Alex Herrera, 45, who is homeless, sits with his belongings after Caltrans workers cleared a homeless encampent under the 101 Freeway bridge in Histric Filipinotown. A federal civil rights suit filed Monday accuses Los Angeles of endangering the lives of homeless people by seizing and destroying their belongings.

Reassure Jacobs, 33, carries cakes and bread he was given by a volunteer during Monday’s cleanup. Jacobs says the city took his purse containing his welfare card and cash during an earlier cleanup.

Rebecca Dutoit, 43, said the LAPD seized her tent, blankets, bedding, clothes and jewelry during a cleanup in East Hollywood 1 ½ months ago.

Caltrans workers clean and remove debris from a tented homeless community under the 101 Freeway bridge on Hoover Street in Historic Filipinotown.