Opinion: The Dodgers won the World Series. If only they cared about LA

After the Dodgers won the World Series, the people of Los Angeles came out to celebrate in East L.A. and Echo Park, among many other Latino neighborhoods.

The city’s police promptly came out in force to remove people from the streets. 

A video from LA Taco shows a police officer on a horse hitting a man in Echo Park with a baton on his neck as he’s walking away. I wonder how the police officer expected the man to continue walking after being hit, but clearly, he did, as he kept riding forward.

Will the Dodgers comment on the treatment of their own fans after celebrating their second World Series in a row? Doubtful. 

Just like they decided to make no statement about the immigration raids. 

Just like they have made no recognition of the land upon which Dodger Stadium was built, displacing Mexican American and Latino families.

Not only has the Dodgers principal owner, Mark Walter, decided to make no statement, but the $1 million donation for immigrant families felt like hush money, especially considering Walter also serves as CEO of Guggenheim Partners, a financial firm that manages over $325 billion in assets.

Guggenheim holds a 0.38% stake in the GEO Group, a private prison corporation that operates U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. 

Last year, I was much happier when in the middle of a concert, I heard the Dodgers had won. 

This year, I felt little joy when I found out, once again in the middle of attending a concert. 

Sports have never been big in my life, but I did have a good time last summer going to a Dodgers game. I started to understand the feeling of enjoying America’s pastime. 

I was starting to become a fan. Then the immigration raids happened, and I saw the organization’s lack of response. 

For lifelong fans like Guillermon Piñon, the team's silence was so deafening, he decided to paint over the Dodgers mural at his restaurant Distrito Catorce in Boyle Heights. The new mural will continue to include Fernando Valenzuela, just not in his Dodgers uniform, as well as honor local community leaders.  

Maybe they don’t owe us the acknowledgement. Maybe they don’t owe the city anything. It’s interesting that both last year and this year, they didn’t win their last World Series in LA. They were originally from Brooklyn, after all. 

L.A. bleeds deep blue for the Dodgers. I’m not sure the organization cares that much about the city in return.