The dilemma of thousands of Angelenos: how to support protests without endorsing violence.
After three nights of curfew, Los Angeles faces, like other progressive cities in the United States, a convoluted internal dilemma: how to support protests against racism and police brutality, without endorsing or ignoring riots and violence.
The same pattern has been repeated in recent days in different parts of the Californian city from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.
First, completely peaceful and uneventful protests with large groups of protesters.
And then business looting by only a few.
For this reason, the concentrations for the death of George Floyd are lived in Los Angeles with the rage and understanding of a population crossed by racism and inequality, but also with the concern of a city where the trauma of the Very serious riots in 1992 as a result of the police beating of the African American Rodney King that left more than fifty dead.
Mangled
Van Nuys, a neighborhood north of Los Angeles, suffered the biggest unrest on Monday and woke up yesterday to repair damage and account for the damage.
At 6:45 in the morning, with a coffee in hand, Jorge was looking at the broken glass of the Van Nuys Boulevard store where he works.
“I was already in Los Angeles when the other‘ riots ’(riots) passed in '92. I already experienced this. I said to the owners, "This is going to happen." But they didn't listen to me, ”says the Mexican.
"In my mind, this is not protest: this is violence and this is vandalism," he adds.
For men, “protests are peaceful and you have the right to do it. But once it gets out of control it is vandalism (…). There is a limit to everything: protesting against something that is wrong and injustices is a right that any citizen of the world should have, but this goes further than that. ”
Unlike other areas affected by riots in previous days, such as Santa Monica or Beverly Hills, Van Nuys is a working class neighborhood with a notable Latino presence.
Several businesses at the junction between Van Nuys Boulevard and Victory Boulevard woke up Tuesday with the windows broken.
There were also forced shutters and bent gates that resisted looters.
Other stores opted for caution with armor, although the footprints of those who tried to knock them down were still visible on many planks.
The neighborhood was trying to regain calm: some people waited for the bus, others lined up at a laundry, a cleaner picked up glass at the post office, and two workers tried to erase graffiti.
But in Van Nuys there are also many businesses with signs supporting the protests that said "Black Lives Matter", "Justice for all" or "Latinos are with you."
Dilemma
This puzzle of accompanying the demonstrations without approving the violence is something that the Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, is trying to solve.
“The focus needs to continue to bring down systemic racism and end violence against African American men and women. We cannot allow a small number of people to hijack that movement, putting lives at risk and destroying property, ”the mayor said Monday.
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar addressed the same subject in a text published Sunday in the Los Angeles Times that had a great echo on the networks.
"I don't want to see looted stores or burning buildings. But African Americans have lived in a burning building for many years, "he said.
"What I want to see is not a rush to judge (the protesters) but a rush to do justice (for George Floyd)," added Kareem.
