Decriminalize Street Food…Again: 100 L.A Street Vendors March for Their Right to Earn

[dropcap size=big]M[/dropcap]ore than two dozen hot dogs buns filled with citations were presented in front of the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health’s headquarters in Baldwin Park yesterday morning as a form of protest against the continued criminalization of street vendors in the county. 
The community action was organized by Vendedores en Accion (VEA), Community Power Collective, and The Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign. It attracted street vendors from all corners of the county to take part in the demonstration, from Hollywood to the Valley to Boyle Heights to MacArthur Park. Powerful signs in both English and Spanish were painted with sayings such as “MIS ATOLES Y TAMALES NO MATAN” (“My atoles and tamales do not kill”) to “CESEN LA CRIMINALIZACION: SOLO QUEREMOS GANARNOS LA VIDA HONRADAMENTE” (Stop the criminalization: We just want to earn an honest living).

This protest demanding the right to work without fear of being penalized by L.A.’s street vendors is the latest action in almost a month of nonstop civil unrest all over Los Angeles county. It is the result of what the majority of street vendors in Los Angeles argue to be an unfair policing system that prevents them from earning money since the start of the coronavirus shelter-in-place law.