Everything happened while offering his scrapings; the attack, which is now under investigation, reached social media
Street vendor was slapped by an African American suspect. (Supplied)
Photo:
Jocob Laureano / Courtesy
With the appearance of the coronavirus, not only has been seen the despair of those who want to return to their jobs, schools and entertainment venues, but also an outbreak of violence in different aspects.
Social media has revealed some videos of street vendors who have been attacked by people who try to steal their money or make fun of them.
The most recent case is that of Jacob Facundo Laureano, a street vendor of scrapings from South Los Angeles, who was slapped by an African-American man on April 29 and was all recorded on video.
"I was coming with my cart and suddenly they came up to me and said they wanted lemon peel," said Laureano, who had only been selling on the streets for two days.
"I was doing them and I saw that they started recording me, but since I don't know how to speak English, I didn't tell them anything."
Once the scrapes were done, Laureano says that one of the young clients felt free to continue adding more flavors to his scraping while the other young man recorded.
Shortly before leaving the place, the video shows how one of them slaps Laureano and both walk away laughing and without paying.
"I felt very bad at the time, wanting to cry and humiliated," said the 43-year-old vendor. "But I just grabbed my cart and kept walking to sell more … But if I was afraid they would come back."
Laureano said that shortly after arriving at his home, a neighbor approached him and recognized him, telling him that the video of the slap was already on social media.
"Then I was afraid to go out because I don't know if they will look for me again," said the undocumented vendor.
I was just starting out as an itinerant
Laureano worked for several years in a popular Thai restaurant until he was fired due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"They just started making take-out orders and they no longer needed all the dishwashers," he explained.
After more than two months of being out of a job and with the need to provide for his wife and children in Mexico, Laureano occupied the few savings he had left to buy wood and with the help of a family member he built a scraper cart.
Later, he bought the ingredients and materials to get his mobile business ready and to find a few dollars.
"The Tuesday that was the first day of sales went well for me and on Wednesday at around noon is when the brunette (suspects) passed me by (street) Hoover and (avenue) Florence," said Laureano.
Community help
What Laureano least expected was that the video broadcast on social networks would benefit him greatly.
Among the first people who decided to help him was Jimmy Humilde, owner of the Rancho Humilde record label, who gave him $ 5,000 from his own pocket so that he would not expose himself to possible retaliation by the attackers.
"In the video I saw the sadness he had when they hit him and it reminded me a lot of my father," said Humble, who had already seen similar videos of assault on vendors but had not offered his help because he did not know where to find them.
Among these cases is the March 23 attack on an elotera, where video images show an African-American man grabbing her neck and another stealing her bag with $ 80. The video was recorded by a person who was waiting for them in the vehicle to flee.
The same week the incident happened to Laureano, another video was posted of a young African-American man who was in a moving car and asks a street vendor to approach. When the vendor does, the suspect throws a raw egg into his chest and continues his laughter.
Cases remain under investigation
Humble said that he knows all these attacks firsthand since before jumping into the music scene, he worked as a taquero on the streets of Los Angeles.
"And I remember how at gunpoint they robbed us," he said. "Laureano's case was a case that was captured on video but how many cases are there that are not recorded?"
To help the street vendor's cause, Humble also offered to open a GoFundMe account for him, which in one weekend raised over $ 26,000.
"I did not think that by uploading this message I would go that far and I saw that with this post we joined together to help each other," said Humble. "Latinos and Chicanos and all the people came together."
For now Laureano said that he will stay home since he still has anxiety when going out. With the money that has been donated, he hopes to help his family and himself to pay for his personal expenses.
