Wearing a Dodger blue parody T-shirt that read “Displacers,” Eric Sheehan, one of the organizers for the NOlympics rally, stood on the pavement in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center with a microphone in his hand.
“Stop the raids…Stop the raids,” Sheehan chanted, taking a lead on the crowd of nearly 40 protesters who gathered with him. Sheehan then passed the mic to the next speaker of the night, Fabian Gonzalez.
Fans making their way in and out of the Super Bowl Experience, two days ahead of the highly-anticipated game, stopped to read some of the signs that read “Services Not Sweeps,” “ICE out of LA” and “Football for Some, Cops for All.”
This was the scene at Gilbert Lindsey Plaza, where activists and residents gathered Friday to rally against stadium-driven displacement and the increase in law enforcement that large events, like Super Bowl LVI, bring to Los Angeles neighborhoods. The protest was held in collaboration between activist groups and organizations, such as the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, Street Watch Los Angeles, We The Unhoused and NOlympics LA.
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— NOlympics LA (@NOlympicsLA) February 9, 2022
Sanitation teams and police sweeping unhoused encampments close to mega-events has been a persistently uncomfortable issue for people around the world. The recent crackdown on unhoused people living around SoFi Stadium in South Los Angeles has alarmed activists and protestors, culminating in Friday night’s protest.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Feb. 3 that Homeland Security Investigations would work with local, state and federal law enforcement partners to investigate human trafficking and intellectual property rights violations around L.A., specifically around the site of Super Bowl LVI. This implementation of ICE was addressed at Friday’s rally.
However, the protests weren’t just against the displacement of unhoused people living in encampments around the stadium. Activists expressed their resentment for the overall impact of mega-events on residents and surrounding communities, especially on low-income people.
“Instead of building public housing or social housing…they’re trying to incarcerate people and they’re doing all of this instead of actually solving all of these problems that are within our power to solve,” said Gigi Droesch, a member of NOlympics LA.
Talking about the actions of police and lawmakers ahead of the game, Droesch remarked that the influx of tourists is a factor in city officials and police trying to “hide the poverty.”
Other speakers at the rally included Fabian Gonzalez, the assistant director of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, a non-profit organization that works toward helping those displaced.
“It’s all good that you build a bunch of housing and a bunch of mega places, but there has to be some equity in this space,” Gonzalez said. “L.A. keeps on getting more and more expensive.”
Throughout the rally, both Droesch and Gonzalez raised awareness that the building of large-scale stadiums such as SoFi leads to the gentrification of surrounding neighborhoods. They stressed that this also comes at the cost of tenants living in the area, because as rent prices rise, tenants unable to afford increased rates can be forced to move out. One of Gonzalez’s supporters on Friday was his friend, Richard Navarro, a former resident of Inglewood, who now lives in his car. Navarro was forced to move out of his apartment as he could no longer afford the rent, which he believes went up because of the announcement of the stadium’s construction.
“Everybody wants to stay in the area they grew up in, it’s more comfortable,” Navarro said. “Unfortunately for me, it was in the Inglewood area where the Rams are playing now.”
The sweeps were conducted under the 405 Freeway by the California Department of Transportation, according to an article by USA Today.
Talking about the people displaced in the sweeps, Navarro said the city offered to temporarily put people in hotels, yet they refused.
“Nobody wants to go in Palmdale, you know, they think — this is my area,” Navarro said. “This is where I want to stay.”
To address this issue, Gonzalez believes that it is important to raise widespread awareness.
“I think people should get informed that you know, the big corporations are taking over and working-class residents are being displaced,” Gonzalez said.
But Gonzalez believes that displacement in L.A. will only continue.
“Get ready because if you’ve agreed it was bad in the 80s, this is nothing compared to how it’s going to be now. It’s going to get really bad for you,” Gonzalez added.