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Old 06-08-2013, 06:08 AM
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ilbegone ilbegone is offline
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I did work on more than several occasions in the garment district in down town Los Angeles. It is crowded with both native and foreign born to begin with, and tourists seeking bargains on cheap knock offs make it an elbow to elbow experience. Sidewalk and parking space vendors are ubiquitous. Many of the streets are narrow and there are quite a few one way streets. Parking sucks.

I never had a problem there even though I placed a large American flag on my truck, originally in response to Cinco de Mayo hype and the multitude of Mexican flags which sprouted up in the area. However I am acquainted with a woman who grew up in an adjacent neighborhood but now lives in San Bernardino county. It is my impression that she lived in constant fear of street and other violence. She has preached to her children not to use slang while speaking Spanish because of what the meaning of those words might be to people from other places, you might wind up dead from an unintended insult. On the other hand, I was amazed and somewhat shocked that a couple of clothing vendors stocked little boy T-shirts with the word Chingon (vulgar word meaning something like "bad ass fucker") emblazoned on them.

The illegal rabbit vendors are dirt bags and being illegal they need to go, there is no question about that. However, the issue was not only about animal cruelty by people who shouldn't be here to begin with but also about about naive outsiders snitching in plain sight of the offenders to a police officer in what can be a rough neighborhood, which probably occurred after a heated exchange between the parties.

Think about this: The county DA isn't pursuing the case like he might be inclined to do if the assault was in an affluent neighborhood. The City attorney is filing presumably because negative publicity may drive away tourist dollars. The area is confined, crowded, difficult to escape from if flight is necessary and neither the LAPD nor the legal system in Los Angeles county are to be trusted. If a demonstration is organized, make sure no one attending is as naive about the conditions as was the party with the animal cruelty complaint - it will be perceived in several ways from being a gathering of discriminatory bigots to fueling more negative publicity in a commercial zone of a nearly bankrupt city, and all the protesters will be outsiders. Have your eyes wide open and don't bring children.
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Last edited by ilbegone; 06-08-2013 at 06:28 AM.
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