Homeless Families Expelled From El Sereno
By: Breanna D.
Police prepare to evict homeless families from illegally-occupied state-owned houses the night before Thanksgiving.
Image Credited to: Brian Feinzimer, LAIST.com
EL SERENO - On the morning of November 25, 2020, homeless families came together and decided to take shelter in 20 vacant Caltrans homes in the city of El Sereno. These families took shelter in these homes in order to self-quarantine during the current pandemic. These families remained in these homes with supporters standing outside of them. I, myself, was one of these supporters. I travelled back and forth between a handful of these homes and remained outside of some of them for hours at a time, supporting my community members. Later that day, after sundown, CHP officers went into these homes with big guns and forcibly took these families out of these homes. Some of the people that were in these homes were children and elderly people. These people were not threatening anyone in their surrounding community, nor did any of them have any weapons. However, that did not change the horrific way these officers chose to handle this situation. I personally witnessed these officers inhumanely and literally drag these people out of these homes, by their arms and legs. To the point that women and children in some of these homes were screaming hysterically because they were frightened by what these officers were doing.
A large group of residents of El Sereno came together to protest against what these officers were doing. Some of the protesters physically created a line with their bodies, in order to create a human shield in front of the homes that blocked the police from entering them. Since there were 20 homes, the officer’s invasions, and these protests, continued into the next day, which was November 26, 2020 (Thanksgiving). CHP officers continued to invade these homes and take the homeless families out of those homes on Thanksgiving Day. This day I was not present to witness the home invasions, however, there were videos sent to me that were recorded by reliable people that were present. These officers did not care that it was a holiday and that these families only wanted a warm and safe place to stay. These officers not only removed these families, but they also arrested them and charged them for burglary. They also arrested some of the protestors, which added up to a total of 62 arrests in those two days. These numbers were recorded on a KTLA website article.
