South Central Farmers Evicted; Immortal Technique Speaks Up
Published: Thursday - June 15, 2006
Words by Zio Vitus
Immortal Technique (Photo: BallerStatus (file))
Just before daybreak on Tuesday (June 13), L.A. County Sheriff deputies forcibly evicted the people of the South Central Farm, a 14-acre community garden that sustained 350 low-income, mostly Latino, families in South Central, Los Angeles (for backstory see: "Immortal Technique: South Central, America").
"I think the attack on the South Central Farm is an affliction of the past and the future in terms of the action that has happened, and will happen, to our people," said Immortal Technique, who will perform at this year's Rock The Bells Festival. "We have to realize that this land was not conquered in one final swoop, it was a series of lies and treaties that were broken. There was still negotiations going on with the South Central Farm, and all of the people were under the impression that the negotiations were going to continue. And then, out of the blue, they were attacked."
"I was sleeping in a tent when it happened," continued Xaris, a member of the SCF Support Committee. "Some of the people who were working security woke us up, and told us that the police were here: 'This is not a drill, this is the real thing.'"
Xaris, and the others who had been participating in the 24-hour vigils -- a group made up of campesinos, friends of the farm, women of color, the young and old, two celebrities, and even a Santa Barbara BallerStatus reader who went to aid the farm after reading the above mentioned article -- moved into action. Xaris chained herself to a nearby bench, others climbed into trees, as nearly two hundred deputies advanced toward the farm.
After the chains were broken, people pulled from the trees, and nearly forty arrests made, bulldozers were brought in. "They started demolishing some of the plants," Xaris said after spending the day in jail. "Crops are squashed, fences are clipped and trampled."
Just two months earlier, on a day not unlike any other day at the Farm, Immortal Technique stood on a makeshift stage, educating a hodgepodge of listeners on the importance and relevance of this cultural landscape. "They don't just grow plants, they grow a future," he said that day, amid smells of cinnamon and rice milk, pupusas being cooked on an open flame, an Eden of fresh vegetables and fruits growing all around...and a single, circling police helicopter overhead.
"The roles are reversed now," said Xaris solemnly. "Before, the cops and the LAPD and everyone were patrolling us from outside. Now they're inside, and we're outside. And it's very painful to see."
For more on how you can help log onto SouthCentralFarmers.com.
"All you got to do is five minutes of research," Immortal Technique maintained. "In the time it takes for you to jack off to Internet porn, you stupid motherf--ker, you can find out what's going on."
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