Justice for Israel "ReeFa" Hernandez

On August 6th 18-year-old  Israel Hernandez or ReeFa, as most people knew him, was working on a piece on an abandoned building with two friends there as lookouts. A police officer spotted Reefa and  began to chase him as he tried to flee the scene. As the chase on foot continued officers tackled and tased Reefa. The two friends at the scene said they saw officers high-fiving and laughing after he was tased. Reefa was pronounced dead a few hours later.

Reefa was at the age where he was just beginning life. He was a kid who loved skateboarding and graffiti. He had goals of starting a skateboard design company and was in the process of experimenting with it.

We live in a generation where more and more people are not being silent about major issues going on around the world. One of the issues that more people within our communities are addressing is police brutality. Gloria Galvez a spokesperson for the Youth Justice Coalation (YJC) had heard about Reefa and she instantly felt upset, "In the YJC we have people who have been caught tagging and they spend 1 year in prison and then you have Reefa who gets caught and he gets tased to death. On the other hand you have people like Sheppard Fairy or Banksy, all those big graffiti names, who are so removed from the graffiti community [that] when they tag they get millions of dollars. Certain folks are criminalized for tagging but sometimes tagging is used for corporate gain. It's problematic."

Gloria's passion towards this particular case was sparked because the Travon Martin case had just begun an uprise in the communities due to his verdict. She felt like people were responding well and wanted to keep up the momentum so she organized a march for Reefa and all other victims who have recently passed due to police brutality. Protesters where asked to meet at Echo Park to make slap tags then hit the streets with skateboards, roller skates, scooters or just about anything with wheels. "Echo Park is currently fighting a gang injunction that's passing. We thought that was very relevant. A big focus was connecting Reefas situation to that because in the past there has been incidents where kids have been caught tagging and they get put onto a gang database becasue they are assumed to be gang members", explained Gloria. All in all the march was peaceful. Gloria is constantly looking for ways to help the youth whom nobody wants to work with as alternatives to incarceration. She aims to reinvest the youth back into the community.