Is the LAPD a bit on edge today, still, after yesterday's disastrous and highly documented show of force on media and demonstrators in MacArthur Park? All day long I've been hearing sirens and helicopters up and down the streets, and more cruisers and motorbike cops patrolling than usual. Then I get off the 2 at Sunset and Echo Park and see people huddling and chatting near the municipal parking lot. Turns out the police had just swept through and arrested three street vendors: one frutero and two huarache ladies. Damnit! After press conferences in MacArthur Park and in City Hall, I was actually craving one of those.
"Maybe what the police wants is for us to sell drugs. They let people sell that," one woman huffed. But why the sweep? Ordinarily fruit and snack vendors operate freely on this strip of sidewalk, which is across the street from an LAPD stop-in location. One witness told me that officers frequently confiscate equipment when they make illegal vendor arrests, cutting into vendors' income and thus preventing them from paying their $350 tickets. It sounded like they are accustomed to this exchange. "How are we supposed to pay the ticket?" she asked. "The comal, the gas tank, those things aren't cheap."
* Frutero photo by MiMundo.org.
Hmmm, I've been hearing lots of sirens, helicopters too in my Lincoln Heights hood.
So much of what's going on right now reminds me of my parents stories of the Chicano Moratorium. If anything, maybe the events of yesterday will be a catalyst for greater social change.
Posted by: chimatli | 02 May 2007 at 09:03 PM