Hundreds of people from pro-immigrant, pro-worker, pro-healthcare and pro-education groups gathered at the 6th Street Bridge in downtown Los Angeles for the ‘We The People Rising – Stop the Hate, Stop the Raids’ rally and march.
Several immigrant and labor rights leaders and elected officials were among those who marched from the 6th Street Bridge to Little Tokyo on Saturday morning as part of what event organizers called “a coalition…calling on Angelenos to raise their voice and peacefully protest.”
KTLA 5’s Jillian Smukler was live at the march on Saturday and spoke with Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights L.A. (CHIRLA) Executive Director Angelica Salas to learn more about the initiative.
“Firstly, we are marching against the cruelty, chaos and corruption of this administration,” Salas said. “There’s [the government] shutdown…people don’t know what’s going to happen from one day to the next, so what we are reminding everyone is that democracy flourishes when we realize that it is for ‘We The People’ — that is our theme today.”
“We, the people, are a fundamental part of making sure that our voices are heard and our Constitution is respected,” she continued. “And so that we can contribute to the legacy of the millions and millions of Americans who made sure liberty and justice were not just words on paper, but reality in people’s lives.”
Salas believes that the way the event was pitched — not so much a protest, but a rally and community gathering with music, food trucks and cultural celebrations.
“Love is so much more powerful than hate, and we want to demonstrate that over and over again,” she said. “We are a nation of immigrants; that is a fundamental part of our identity and we are fighting for that.”
The post Hundreds gather in DTLA for ‘We The People Rising – Stop the Hate, Stop the Raids’ rally and march appeared first on KTLA.
