Angelinos protest the death of George Floyd. Photo by Quran Shaheed, courtesy L.A. Sentinel   By Alci Rengifo “Now is the time of the furnaces, and only the light can be seen”-- Jose Martí The death of George Floyd in Minnesota as the result of nine asphyxiating minutes underneath the knee of a police officer has again lit the spark of popular rage across the imperial United States. From east to west the republic has seen in city after city the bonfires of tensions stemming not only from the country’s violent and complex racial history, but its class divisions as well. Inevitably Los Angeles has seen its streets swell with the justly angered. More than any other great American city, the greater L.A. metropolitan area is a microcosm of the social forces that have shaped this country and are in constant clash. Its wealth and poverty, its cosmopolitan character, its mixture of U.S. gringo culture and scores of municipalities as well as countless streets bearing Spanish name...

  Iglesia de Dios de la Profecia, where a police officer was caught beating a suspect on April 27th. Photo by J.N. Arias . By Jeremy Arias I t was a hot afternoon. All week the humidity had driven me out of the house and into the shade offered by the fig tree out front. It was much cooler outside, and aside from the usual squirrel foraging for food from a perch above my shoulder or the occasional blare of a car alarm, there weren’t many distractions. I was reading from one of my textbooks when I heard a man screaming. Although it was the only voice being raised so loudly, I figured my neighbors had gotten into an argument. I tried to focus on my reading again but was compelled to look toward the east where the yelling appeared to come from. “ Get inside! Get inside!” shouted another angry voice, as if yelling at a dog. I grabbed my camera and rushed out to the sidewalk. I saw a man facing the gate in front of the duplex next door to a neighborhood church....