Statement by Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer on Recent Protests in Los Angeles

To all the communities in the struggle for equality and positive change across our country, I understand and know your anguish and anger.

My family has a legacy of involvement in the civil rights movement. My uncle was part of the Little Rock Nine who suffered immense racism because they were integrated into a white school in Arkansas in 1957.

Opinion: The Tragic Killing of George Floyd

It Only Takes One

George Floyd’s death at-the-hands of a Minneapolis police officer is one of many tragic deaths suffered by communities of color across the country on a regular basis. These acts are the results of systemic racism in our society and the failure to expose it and weed it out from institutions, organizations and places where authority has power to intimidate.

Assemblymembers Reggie Jones-Sawyer and Ken Cooley Applaud Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 5

SACRAMENTO – Assemblymembers Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-South Los Angeles/Huntington Park) and Ken Cooley (D-Rancho Cordova) were pleased to note the progress of Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 5 as it passed out of the Assembly Public Employment and Retirement Committee.

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 209, which prohibited the state from implementing equal opportunity programs. California is now one of only eight states in the country that outlaws policies that promote equal opportunity for all. If passed by both houses of the Legislature, ACA 5 would place this question again in front of the voters, twenty-four years after the original proposition was passed.

 

Las Disparidades de Salud Están Matando a Afroamericanos y Latinos

Datos recientes del Departamento de Salud Pública del Condado de Los Ángeles muestran que las comunidades afroamericanas y latinas en el sur de Los Ángeles están muriendo de COVID-19 a un nivel mas alto que otras comunidades. Este tipo de informes se refleja en todo el país por los anuncios de Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC por sus siglas en ingles) que el 80% de las hospitalizaciones relacionadas con COVID-19 en Georgia son afroamericanos.

Aquí en Los Ángeles, los datos preliminares muestran que el 17 por ciento de afroamericanos (nueve por ciento de la población general) y el 28 por ciento de los latinos (más del 50 por ciento de la población general) han muerto desde el brote. Los números de California como estado muestran que el seis por ciento de los casos de COVID-19 se encuentran en la comunidad afroamericana, afectando a las edades de 18 a 49 años, con una tasa de mortalidad del 15% de todas las muertes causadas por el virus.

Health Disparities Are Killing African Americans and Latinos

Recent data from the Los Angeles County Public Health Department shows Black and Latino communities in South Los Angeles are dying at a higher rate from COVID-19 than other communities. This type of reporting is mirrored across the nation with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention announcing 80% of COVID-19 related hospitalizations in Georgia are black.

Here in Los Angeles preliminary data shows that 17 percent of blacks (nine percent of the overall population) and 28 percent of Latinos (over 50 percent of the overall population) have died since the outbreak. The numbers for California as a state show six percent of COVID cases are in the Black community affecting ages 18-49 with a mortality rate of 15% of all deaths caused by the virus.