Support Day Laborers at Community Response Meeting

Hey Mission Residents. 4/04/02 Day laborers need your support! Who are day laborers and what is their situation? Day laborers are predominantly immigrant workers who wait on Cesar Chavez street every day from sunrise until late afternoon seeking temporary manual labor jobs. They are not there to anger anyone nor to cause problems. They are rational people seeking out work in one of the only venues where it is available to them so that they can feed themselves and their families. What's been going on? A new police captain, Captain Corrales, was recently put in charge of the Mission district. He has been initiating a series of crack-downs on day laborers both on Cesar Chavez street and at the Day Labor Program. On Cesar Chavez, low-income workers are being intensively fined for minor traffic violations and are being subjected to intense police scrutiny. The workers report being threatened by the police to be turned over to the INS, and to have been forced to move along from the corners where they customarily seek out employers. This enforcement interferes with the worker's livelihoods. What needs to happen? Captain Corrales says that he is doing all this at the behest of Mission residents. Those Mission residents who do not want day laborers to be able to wait for work, who believe that people should be warehoused out of public view, are organized and highly vocal. We need you, the Mission residents who oppose the militarization of the Mission, to come to the Mission Police Station's monthly community meetings. These meetings are usually full of land-owners who detest poor people and who purport to represent the voice of the Mission community. We need conscientious Mission residents who care about the safety of the day laborers, of themselves, and of all working Mission residents to fill the police station's community room and advocate for the safety and rights of the day laborers and of all working people in the Mission. Your presence will undermine the police's excuses that their current enforcement activities are occurring for the safety of Mission residents. We want to express to the police that true safety happens when everyone is treated as a valuable human being and has enough resources to survive and thrive. We need your vocal and valuable presence! Tuesday, April 30th 6:30 pm Community Room Mission Police Station 630 Valencia Street (17th/18th) We will meet to prepare the same day at 5:30pm at La Raza Centro Legal (474 Valencia, Suite 295, second floor, off 16th street). People are welcome to come and prepare at 5:30, or to go directly to the police station. Points of unity: 1. Equal weight: Institutions such as the police must look at the needs of all community residents, not just those residents who have money and property. The Mission community is enriched by its diversity. Immigrant workers should receive the same value and respect as affluent homeowners, and should be consulted as experts in issues that affect them. 2. Day laborers have the right to stand on Cesar Chavez street and to be picked up for work. This is their livelihood. They should not be cited or forced to move along. 3. Quality of life infractions (such as public urination) occur when people do not have adequate resources. If the Mission police department wants to truly improve the quality of life in the Mission, it must work on the root causes of the poverty and scarcity of resources that force people to engage in survival behaviors which are criminalized as quality of life infractions. Police officers cannot fine low-income people for engaging in survival behavior. If you have other issues to raise with the Mission police, this is an ideal time to do it. The more people we have at the meeting, the more we can make he meeting address our questions. If you have questions, would like to help out, or if you see police harassing day laborers, call Elly Kugler, worker advocate, at (415) 553-3406. You can also e-mail elly@LRCL.org .