What Democracy Looks Like

You NYC and Atlanta people aren't hearing about this too much, but lots and lots of people in LA are really pissed right now. I mean like a million. The passing of House Resolution 4497 criminalizes immigrants as well as the acts of associating with or employing them. Obviously due to the demographics of LA, this is a big fucking deal around here...all weekend people have been marching and protesting downtown. The police estimated the crowd at more than 500,000 people.

I was down there for a bit, and I realized why this isn't a big story: the attitudes of these people are very, very chill- they're not flipping cars like in Paris. All these cats are rocking white tees (for peace and tolerance, not for Jeezy and D4L!) and American flags. They're all chill because they can't get arrested- they all have fucking jobs! The protestors in France kicking in windows are either thugs taking le Metro into the city to steal shit and blow off steam, or passioned students idealistically interested in correcting the city's large economic imbalance. The poor in Paris have less to lose. I was there last week, so I got to see a little bit of this.

I've got mad respect for these Latino protestors. They all work their asses off out here and love this country. They shouldn't be made felons, which is what would happen if this legislation passes.