Press Release
For Immediate Release:
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Contact:
Blanca Gallegos—(213) 500-9594
Terry Carter—(213) 700-5617
Los Angeles, CA — Today, school cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, teaching assistants, child care providers and other education workers of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 99 gathered at their union hall to participate in one of a year-long series of conversations about the “Future of Policing” in Los Angeles. Joined by other community stakeholders and police officers, the two-hour event was designed to rebuild trust between the community and local law enforcement.
“We really wanted to bring this to the union hall. As school workers and parents, our whole lives are dedicated to this city’s young people. And our hearts are breaking. This is a discussion we really wanted to have together,” said Bellflower child care provider and SEIU Local 99 Treasurer Tonia McMillian. “Our union’s AfrAm (African-American) Caucus partnered with the Institute for Nonviolence in L.A. and local law enforcement to present this event. Our hope is that it encourages community dialogue about how to prevent senseless police violence in our neighborhoods and schools.”
“I witnessed police try to arrest a young man with special needs right in front of his own house,” said LAUSD Special Education Assistant Noemi Bravo. “They mistook him for a trespasser, but because he couldn’t speak, he couldn’t tell them that he lived there and his mother was right inside. Luckily, a neighbor was there who could explain everything and the police let him go. But I can’t get that moment out of my mind. What if they took him into the station? He wouldn’t have been able to even tell them where he lived!”
The Institute for Nonviolence in Los Angeles’s 2015 “Days of Dialogue” series launched August 11, 2015, marking the 50th Anniversary of the Watts Rebellion. Ending next August, hundreds of people will gather in sites across Los Angeles to share their vision on The Future of Policing. When nearly every week we hear another story of a violent clash, there’s an urgency about this year’s event.
“Nearly half of our members are parents of kids in our schools,” said SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias. “And our members are uniquely connected to the community, often getting to know generations of families. Too many of them have stories of their students, friends, family—even themselves—being senselessly pulled over, questioned or otherwise harassed simply because their skin is black or brown. And as we’ve become more and more aware, these interactions too often end in tragedy.
“One thing we know in the union, though, is that when we come together and use the strength of our numbers, we can bring about real change,” said Arias.
For more about the day, please follow us on www.twitter.com/SEIULocal99 #futureofpolicing.
Days of Dialogue was launched in 1995 when then-Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas called a meeting with 20 civic leaders and community activists to defuse escalating tensions. Out of this was born Los Angeles’ first citywide discussion—A Day of Dialogue. Since then, thousands of people have participated in Days of Dialogue program. Learn more at www.daysofdialogue.org and www.futureofpolicing.org.
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SEIU Local 99 represents employees throughout Southern California in public and non-public organizations in early education, child care, K-12, and community college levels. SEIU Local 99 members are: Teacher’s Assistants, Playground Workers, Special Education Assistants, Bus Drivers, Gardeners, Custodians, Cafeteria Workers, Maintenance Workers, Family Service Workers, Child Care Providers and others working in schools, colleges and administrative offices. Nearly 50% of SEIU Local 99 members are also parents or guardians of school-aged children.
