Mi ACLU Estamos Unidos: Day 4, City 5 – Phoenix
Our 2nd day in Phoenix was very long and exhausting... but freaking awesome. We got up early and headed over to the Civic Center area of downtown to do a tabling event next to a vigil, and Daniel and Dulce were interviewed by a bunch of tv stations. I walked around and took a bunch of photos. It was freaking hot at 9am... !!
This was a very long day...
Below are photos of a vigil that was held by people from Promise Arizona. This vigil started in April 2011 when the SB1070 law was first announced about a year ago and lasted for 103 days until it went to court in July 2011. These people came out to hold the vigil again since this day was the day that SB1070 was being heard in the Supreme Court. People come and go all day - but there are always people there, through the day and the night.
I met the man above while I was taking photos of the saguaro cactus that was living in the landscaping. We started talking and I told him about our campaign. He is Native American and told me about his family; he is very proud of his tradition however with the new SB1070 law he fears the day he is pulled over to "show his papers".
Some tea party people came to try to rain on our parade - they gathered across the lawn and waved their big "BITE ME" flag...
Daniel got interviewd by CNN Espanol!! Here is the reporter giving a brief before interviewing him.
Here's team Estamos Unidos!! ...All packed up, next we were off to Puente Human Rights Movement to meet some of the people who are leading the human rights movement in Phoenix. This is the group that organized the rally and march that we attended later...
When we got to Puente, everyone was painting a giant banner that would be carried in the march later in the afternoon. It read "STOP DEPORTING ARPAIO'S VICTIMS". Joe Arpaio is the very controversial Maricopa County Sheriff (Phoenix is in Maricopa County) who has become known for his misuse of power, love of racial profiling and intrinsic hate of illegal immigrants. He is best known for making the men he detains wear pink underwear; shaming and humiliating them... among many other things. I loved everything about Arizona until I learned more about Sheriff Arpaio - he is a very dark cloud.
I personally left from Puente and went to the Apple Store to get my computer fixed. A Puente volunteer was kind enough to drive me there after the person who agreed to take me drove off without me, ugh. The previous morning I opened it to discover that the entire display was showing vertical rainbow stripes... I made an appointment at the Biltmore Apple Store and was keeping my paws crossed they could fix it. When I got there, the guy, Alan, took one look at it and said "be right back". He came back out a few minutes later and said he had good and bad news.... the good news was that they had only 1 part left to fix my computer in stock, and they could fix it within the hour. The bad news was that it would cost almost $500. Whatever, I needed it... when I asked how this happened he said that it must have gotten banged or kicked hard, or maybe something fell on top of it inside the van - because although there was no outside visible damage, the inside of the display was completely cracked.
So a word of advice - put your computer in a hard case if you travel with it and definitely put it somewhere safe! I bought a new Thule case for it... it's awesome!
The van picked me up at the mall at the Apple Store and then we headed over to Civic Space Park (below) for the SB1070 rally and march.
Dulce pumps up the crowd before the march!
We ended up marching all around downtown Phoenix and then headed over to the Immigration building. When we got there everyone gathered while Dulce rallied up the crowd!
The banner that we painted earlier in the day at Puente became the center piece for the march. The activists put the banner down onto the ground in the middle of the street and everyone gathered around to protest. It was so powerful being there among such a diverse crowd of passionate people - the energy was awesome and it was great that so many people came out to show their support.
At one point I decided to cross the street because I thought it would be interesting to get a shot of all of the police officers lined up behind the protesters... the blocks in Phoenix are extremely long and it took me a while to find a crosswalk... when I got to the other side the van for people who would be arrested pulled up. This was obvious foresight on the police department's part...
...I thought it was kind of hilarious how this T-Bone train traveled slowly back and forth on the tracks in front of the protest.
Here is a shot of all of the police officers, from one end to the other.
The police finally confiscated the giant banner and took it away... 🙁
These yellow trees are so beautiful, and they are all over downtown Phoenix. When we made it to the van it looked so peaceful in the parking lot - alone and in the spotlight of the setting sun.
Below are photos of a vigil that was held by people from Promise Arizona. This vigil started in April 2011 when the SB1070 law was first announced about a year ago and lasted for 103 days until it went to court in July 2011. These people came out to hold the vigil again since this day was the day that SB1070 was being heard in the Supreme Court. People come and go all day - but there are always people there, through the day and the night.
I met the man above while I was taking photos of the saguaro cactus that was living in the landscaping. We started talking and I told him about our campaign. He is Native American and told me about his family; he is very proud of his tradition however with the new SB1070 law he fears the day he is pulled over to "show his papers".
Some tea party people came to try to rain on our parade - they gathered across the lawn and waved their big "BITE ME" flag...
Daniel got interviewd by CNN Espanol!! Here is the reporter giving a brief before interviewing him.
Here's team Estamos Unidos!! ...All packed up, next we were off to Puente Human Rights Movement to meet some of the people who are leading the human rights movement in Phoenix. This is the group that organized the rally and march that we attended later...
When we got to Puente, everyone was painting a giant banner that would be carried in the march later in the afternoon. It read "STOP DEPORTING ARPAIO'S VICTIMS". Joe Arpaio is the very controversial Maricopa County Sheriff (Phoenix is in Maricopa County) who has become known for his misuse of power, love of racial profiling and intrinsic hate of illegal immigrants. He is best known for making the men he detains wear pink underwear; shaming and humiliating them... among many other things. I loved everything about Arizona until I learned more about Sheriff Arpaio - he is a very dark cloud.
I personally left from Puente and went to the Apple Store to get my computer fixed. A Puente volunteer was kind enough to drive me there after the person who agreed to take me drove off without me, ugh. The previous morning I opened it to discover that the entire display was showing vertical rainbow stripes... I made an appointment at the Biltmore Apple Store and was keeping my paws crossed they could fix it. When I got there, the guy, Alan, took one look at it and said "be right back". He came back out a few minutes later and said he had good and bad news.... the good news was that they had only 1 part left to fix my computer in stock, and they could fix it within the hour. The bad news was that it would cost almost $500. Whatever, I needed it... when I asked how this happened he said that it must have gotten banged or kicked hard, or maybe something fell on top of it inside the van - because although there was no outside visible damage, the inside of the display was completely cracked.
So a word of advice - put your computer in a hard case if you travel with it and definitely put it somewhere safe! I bought a new Thule case for it... it's awesome!
The van picked me up at the mall at the Apple Store and then we headed over to Civic Space Park (below) for the SB1070 rally and march.
Dulce pumps up the crowd before the march!
We ended up marching all around downtown Phoenix and then headed over to the Immigration building. When we got there everyone gathered while Dulce rallied up the crowd!
The banner that we painted earlier in the day at Puente became the center piece for the march. The activists put the banner down onto the ground in the middle of the street and everyone gathered around to protest. It was so powerful being there among such a diverse crowd of passionate people - the energy was awesome and it was great that so many people came out to show their support.
At one point I decided to cross the street because I thought it would be interesting to get a shot of all of the police officers lined up behind the protesters... the blocks in Phoenix are extremely long and it took me a while to find a crosswalk... when I got to the other side the van for people who would be arrested pulled up. This was obvious foresight on the police department's part...
...I thought it was kind of hilarious how this T-Bone train traveled slowly back and forth on the tracks in front of the protest.
Here is a shot of all of the police officers, from one end to the other.
The police finally confiscated the giant banner and took it away... 🙁
These yellow trees are so beautiful, and they are all over downtown Phoenix. When we made it to the van it looked so peaceful in the parking lot - alone and in the spotlight of the setting sun.Recent Posts
