Local Activists Address Their Communities Impacted by Proposed

Utah Inland Port in Joint Statement at Press Conference

To the Chicano, Latinx, Indigenous, Samoan, Tongan, Black, poor white, and other impacted

barrios on the West.Side of Salt Lake City·, our fami,lies, our homies and.community members:

We are speaking to you. We are speaking to you, mi.gente. To all those who will be impacted by

the construction of the inland port, the workers and laborer� who deserve safe job opportunities,

the youngsters who deserve to have access to clean air for their entire lives - we are speaking

.. to you, mi gen�e. We speak to you today as your neighbors, as people who love you. And we're

here to talk about violer:,ce. La Violencia! What does violence mean in the hoods that are

targeted by projects of environmental and strucfU'ral racism? What does violence mean in the

hoods that ar� targeted by the cops?

On Tuesday.afternoon, .community members from across the Salt Lake Valley held a rally at the

Chamber of Commerce to protest the construction of the inland port. We peacefully occupied

the upstairs office of the chamber and filled the downstairs lobby with song .and dance. Without

warning, Salt L�ke City police officer� swarmed the lobby. We watched in horror as �hey

choked, pµshed, and arrested our community, separating children from their parents, shoving

our elders, and assaulting

- disabled people. During
.
these moments of violence, we united as a

community; tr:ying to prot�ct one another and pull our homies to safety so we could leave the
'
situation.