Protest in Van Nuys

I went to check out the protests set for Van Nuys this evening. Of course, my trek started just before the protests were about to start, but I saw few people queing up. There may have been about 50 kids staging at the Panorama City office of Hermandad Mexicana and seven or eight in front of the Van Nuys Civic Center.

What I did see was hundreds of people, lots of them Latino and every other race. They were working. They were shopping. They were taking their children to the doctor. They were driving their cars and riding the bus. Some of them were just enjoying a walk. Perhaps some of them would join the protest as it rolled southward down the Boulevard, I don't know. It gave me that sense that most folks, regardless of race of color, are content to live their lives and don't need to give in to rabble rousing. This was true of the Minuteman and anti-immigrant protests too.

There was one thing I saw that made me furious. In advance of these protests, the City had posted no parking on the Boulevard for the rest of the evening. Like a swarm of vultures, tow trucks and big butted DOT employees descended on every poor, hapless vehicle parked one minute past 4:30 p.m. Cha-ching, cha-ching, the City must be saying.

The unfortuanate part of this is that probably nearly every one of these cars that were towed belonged to working class folks, immigrant and otherwise, who can barely afford the impound fees. Its one thing to get your car towed for breaking the legitimate rules, but this is an injustice. Most of these folks were probably working so hard, doing their daily routine, that they probably didn't even know about the protests and the street closing.

Mayor Villaraigosa waived parking tickets for the protestors last time. I challenge him to waive the impound fees for these hard working, Valley citizens who are trying to feed their families.