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May Day Immigration Rally Smaller Than in Years Past
Photo of last year's immigration reform rally by Salina Canizales via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
Today's May Day march, which is held to draw attention to the issue of immigration reform, was markedly smaller than it has been in recent years, reports Southern California Public Radio. Several thousand people took to the streets at 10 a.m. for the march, which left from Olympic and Broadway. The march has gotten smaller over the years since hundreds of thousands marched on 2007, and were infamously fired on by police with rubber bullets and struck by police batons at MacArthur Park. During that altercation, several journalists were also beaten and injured.
A $13 million settlement was ultimately reached, for civil rights violations.
According to ABC 7, the group organizing today's rally -- the Full Rights for Immigration Coalition -- had concerns that another immigration-reform group -- the Southern California Immigration Coalition -- planned to attend and "get rowdy":
"The other group, there's been rumors that they might come and be disruptive. We hope they don't do that. We respect whatever views they might have on immigration reform. We happen to have our views. Those are the issues that we're coming to march around," said Juan Jose Gutierrez with Full Rights for Immigration Coalition.
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