Two caravans were held Wednesday, July 08, at around 6 p.m. for the Downey Police Department and another group for the essential city workers, whom they called their “real heroes“.
By: Clarissa Arceo
A member of the “Group of Seventeen”, shares the motives of their caravan; “We mainly did this to retaliate the cop parade.
We kind of just laughed when we heard about it, but we also didn’t want to just sit back as these foos as they celebrated ‘heroes’; we’re in the middle of an uprising and to celebrate the police is a slap in the face to our Black residents.”
She goes on to say; “Our essential workers are basically folks that keep the economy alive during this pandemic- farm workers, cashiers, fast food workers, grocery store workers, etc. They’ve been exploited during this time, not given higher pay- which they deserve- not given protection, and just not treated right”.
“The government does not care for them, and that’s why Downey is leading with COVID-19 cases. So many of the working class people here are risking their lives for ‘the economy’”, said Crystal.
The group met on Imperial Highway near “Donas” and travelled down to Atlantic Avenue near South Gate Park. They created signs and taped them to their cars, honking and showing their support for essential workers.
The group even payed a visit to the Police Department’s caravan on Brookshire Ave, giving the cops a thumbs down as they passed through.
Appreciation Parade
The Police Department’s parade started at 6:30 p.m. with over 100 cars, -including motorcycles, vintage cars,- driving through decorated with the American flag and signs for the Department. The parade lasted less than half an hour and was witnessed by Chief Milligan and about 20 police officers.
In the parade, employees of the City were seen participating and at least half of the City Council members with family to be there in support.
The event was organized by Kandy Grzebyk and the Positively Downey Facebook group.
Unfortunately no Police officer or council member wanted to give us an interview.
In the end, a dozen protesters arrived in front of the Police officers, remembering George Floyd, Andres Guardado and others killed by other police departments.
