Mom-and-pop stores hit in downtown L.A. looting are ‘immigrant-owned, run by black and brown folks’

Claudia Oliveira, a board member of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, showed up on Broadway with more than a dozen volunteers Saturday morning to sweep up broken glass and swab down walls.

A Brazilian immigrant, Oliveira grew up in Minneapolis. She said she understood the anger and the outrage that boiled over Friday night, saying George Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer in her hometown made her want to throw up.

“I’m a black Latina undocumented immigrant,” she said. “It hurts me. I feel distraught and angry and frustrated. We saw an innocent man’s life taken from him.”

But she said she was frustrated that the damage in downtown would disproportionately hurt the working class and people of color.