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When a Bay Area woman watched recent bystander videos of agents in military-style gear arresting day laborers, vendors and gardeners in Southern California — sometimes violently — she was appalled. The freelance interpreter couldn’t shake the images of masked immigration officers pushing Latino workers to the ground or even punching them before loading them into vehicles.
“Watching what was going on in LA just broke my heart,” said the woman, an Alameda resident who asked to be identified only as Christy because she fears reprisals. “I believe in social justice, I believe in right and wrong, and I can’t sit on my hands and say that’s wrong without doing something about it.”
The 60-year-old doomscrolled at home until she spotted a social media post offering a way to turn her distress into action. The solidarity call asked sympathetic Americans to choose a local spot where day laborers gather as they wait for work and commit to showing up regularly…