We really aren’t the “Land of the Free”…

Guadalupe Dominguez

Chronicle Reporter

It was 5:06 p.m. when I heard approximately sixteen LAPD vehicles.  I already knew where they were headed: the Fairfax District. Not even a minute later I heard the sirens of ambulances and the chuff of the helicopters above. I have lived in Mid-City for seventeen years and in all those years never have I heard the sirens for LAPD vehicles for more than ten minutes,today was different.

May 25th was the day George Floyd, an African American man died under the knee of Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, for an alleged “bad check”(keyword: alleged). For many black people, African Americans, and people of color this was the last straw. In the past years many can assure you more than a hundred African Americans have been killed unlawfully.

May 29th I scrolled through Twitter like every other day and came across the trending words “Pan Pacific Park”. Clicking on it I saw the poster of the peaceful protest planned out for May 30th at 12 p.m. to bring attention to the unjustified death of Floyd.

May 30th and here we are, all news channels ,english and spanish, are reporting on the protests in Los Angeles. “Violence erupts in Los Angeles amid protests over death of George Floyd”, ABC 7 reports while KTLA reports “Here’s video of the police car burning in the Fairfax district area”. But not a single report shows how the protests began, not a single news channel reports on the thousands who took a seat in the Fairfax district area and had their fists up 

 while chanting “Black Lives Matter Here”. And that is the problem with today’s world. Our so called leaders,our so called voices in the media only show and see one side of the problem. It may have started to bring justice to the family of George Floyd but today we see that we are once again raising our voices to bring attention to the fact that racism is still a virus among us. These protests are necessary because we may be in 2020 but the laws, views, and our president seem to be stuck in an era of inequality. The system was made to serve those who created it. 

Today I am skeptical about the real intentions of the Mayor, who in response to the protests has closed down COVID-19 testing sites and has created a curfew for the city of Los Angeles. Today I lost the remaining respect I have for LAPD officials, you may say you protect us but in reality you are at fault for this chaos. Today I came to the realization that in order to maintain power over us you play the victim. Today I believe that at this point protesting peacefully isn’t enough. Today I realized that in the year 2020 we aren’t as progressive as we say.Today I realized that America isn’t “The land of the free”.

Today I ask the community that is Hollywood High to educate yourselves. We may be teens but we can be the beginning of the end of racism.

I am writing this to say that as a first generation Mexican American I am with my Black/African American peers at school, in my community, in my state, and in my country because Black Lives Matter. And I am hoping you will stand for those who suffer everyday and whose voices aren’t heard. We need to take action because any of our names could be on the posters of protesters.

It’s 7:09 p.m. as I finish writing this and I can still hear the sirens of LAPD vehicles.

If you could not go out to show your support the BLM movement feel free click the following link which includes petitions to sign, other links to donate, resources, and information for protesters:

https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

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