CommentsTHE CITY--Back in the Spring months of 2020, Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti established a MEGA Coronavirus testing site at Dodger Stadium.
Another testing site was established at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Review CityWatchLA article July 27th, 2020: “Elected Latino officials turn their back on Northeast Los Angeles Constituents.”
Then we saw these same elected officials establish MEGA COVID 19 Vaccinations sites, and again we saw how these same elected officials turned their back on the most vulnerable residents who reside in our Los Angeles city communities of color.
We read and saw how our most essential workers of color were exposed to the Coronavirus and dying at a much greater rate than their WHITE counterparts.
This was also taking place through out the State of California. Where was Governor Newsom, Mayor Garcetti, and all other Latino and Black elected officials?
Once again after the Mega Vaccination sites were opened in Los Angeles, I again made attempts via e-mail to our local Latino elected officials, namely Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, California State Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, California State Senator Maria Durazo, US. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, and Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti in an attempt in obtaining a Coronavirus vaccination site in our Northeast Los Angeles area. None of the above responded to my e-mails requests.
Hats off to both the News Media and Social Media for exposing this unconscionable and unscrupulous disparity surrounding the distribution of the Coronavirus vaccine.
WAS THERE A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT BY OUR Elected Officials TO DISENFRANCHISE OUR COMMUNITIES OF COLOR ?
It was now that these elected officials both Latino and Black realized that if they did not address the issue that people of color were dying at a far higher rate and that they were being denied the opportunity to obtain the COVID 19 vaccine they may be voted out of office the next time they run for re-election.
One would have thought that our Los Angeles City and LA County elected officials would have learned that individuals who are on the lower social economical scale don't have computers or access to WI-FI; therefore, these same people would not be able to register for vaccination appointments from the computer.
How many thousand of computers were given out to LA Unified school students and access to WI-FI? Did these same elected official believe that all elderly and disabled folks have access to transportation and were able to sit in a vehicle for hours at a time in a line at Dodger Stadium?
Once again the Los Angeles Police Museum offered their spacious parking lot as a site for the distribution of the Coronavirus vaccine.
We now have a new CD 14 Councilman Kevin Deleon, and I was advised to contact his director of the Eagle Rock-Northeast area office Alice Roth. I contacted Ms. Roth, and she was in favor and expressed her support of having a Vaccination site in our Northeast community. Ms. Roth then made contact with a Board member of the Los Angeles Police Museum and everything was falling into place. I had the opportunity to meet both Ms. Roth and Veronica Polanco who is in charge of monitoring the various new City of Los Angeles Mobile Vaccination sites.
These new Mobile Vaccinations units are operated by the Los Angeles City Fire Department and the CORE organization which was founded by actor Sean Penn.
Flyers were made up and the date was set for March 2nd thru March 6th. Those eligible were people over the age of 65, teachers, educational employees who have direct contact with students, store employees and other all workers associated with food distribution and care givers. Our goal was to provide vaccination for up to 200 people per day.
I was contacted by a family member who relayed that they had been contacted via telephone by an employee of the California Regional Center indicating that recipients of the Regional Center were now eligible to receive the vaccine. I then added the word DISABLED to the flyer notification.
Because caregivers were also on the list of folks to receive the vaccine, I also added the word Housekeepers to the category list of those eligible to receive the vaccine.
For those of us knowledgeable of caregivers know that most caregivers also do the housekeeping duties for the individuals that they tend and care for. As a result of my adding these two categories one would have thought that I committed the most egregious mortal sin. I sent out a copy of the amended flyer to folks who posted it on social media.
A female by the name of Mary Hodge who I have never encountered received a copy of the amended announcement flyer and pushed the panic button and went bonkers.
I was told she is a Los Angeles City employee and was handed picked by Mayor Eric Garcetti. By the way, she is the wife of US. Rep. Jimmy Gomez who calls LAPD northeast division every time there are protesters in front of her Eagle Rock residence.
I had already passed out more than 250 flyers within the Northeast Community. I did cross out the two additional category names and passed out the remainder of the 50 flyers. I later found out that recipients of the California Regional Center were added on to the eligibility list to receive the vaccine with an affective date of March 15th.
I would be amiss if I failed to mention that our first community vaccination event was a great success. The first day we gave out more then 200 vaccinations, and this was followed by the next two days with more than three hundred and the fourth and fifth days with more than 420 vaccinations.
We did have a 64 year old disabled female who showed up for the vaccine and I made a humble apology to her and explained to her that it was my fault for adding the category, disabled, to the list of those who could receive the vaccine.
I hope she shows up for our next vaccination distribution.
We all discovered that the City of Los Angeles has an employee that I will refer to as an angel from heaven, Ms. Veronica Polanco. Without her help and assistance we would not have been able to have this Vaccination site in our Northeast Community.
We will be having yet another Mobile Vaccination on March 23rd for our 2nd doses and also to be giving out another round of 1st doses.
Erica A Arias Executive Director of the Los Angeles Police Museum stated “The Los Angeles Police Museum was delighted to offer a space for the Coronavirus Vaccine distribution and partnering with both Councilman Kevin DeLeon's office and the City of Los Angeles. The Mobile Vaccination event was a great success and we are always happy to serve our community in any way that we can.”
(Caroline Aguirre is a retired 24-year State of California law enforcement officer, LAPD family member, community activist and Neighborhood Watch captain. Aguirre is a CityWatch contributor.)
-cw
