One cleanup volunteer, Ariana Raygoza, mentioned, “Many people we speak with are so moved or shocked that we’re offering help, and it’s clear they have not been asked before. Law enforcement officials are posted on every corner, just sitting in their cars. At best, they just stand back and stare while we’re helping. At worst, they’re treating residents in distress like criminals.” Volunteer Ashli Buts added, “I’ve also observed frustration with the lack of official updates. People want answers and don’t know where to find them.”
Social media has made info and networking immediately obtainable to an enormous inhabitants, nevertheless it’s additionally introduced out the worst in individuals. I met a lady who was distressed as a result of somebody had filmed a video of her nephew serving to members of the family transfer their belongings out of their residence, which had burned down. The video was shared on social media with a caption declaring that Black youngsters have been looting. The lady instructed us she didn’t know what to do now that her nephew had been publicly labeled a legal.
Profiteers descended on group members virtually instantly. People, all of whom instructed me they needed to stay nameless, mentioned they have been getting calls from actual property speculators earlier than they even knew the standing of their properties. One displaced household, the Figueroas, have been staying in a sequence resort stuffed with displaced households when the resort started jacking up its charges. Missi Figueroa elaborated: “First week, it was $116 per night. We wanted to renew and it grew to $186 per night, then four hours later $242 per night. I was so mad because the hotel was full of people who lost everything, like myself.”
Another hearth sufferer I spoke to snuck again into the neighborhood to search out their residence burned to the bottom. She posted a photograph on Instagram—which a agency then used with out permission for an commercial. “People started sending it to me and friends started calling them out,” she instructed me. “[The owner] told us he outsources his social media to a company and was mortified. He fired them and then suspended all advertising for the time being and turned off his Instagram. He was quick to make it right.”