ECHO PARK, Calif.  –  Lita is a barber shop owner and part of a family of nine. She, like many, can’t work right now because of the stay at home orders. Her shop is considered non-essential.

“This is our livelihood. This is how we buy food for our children,” Lita said. 

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But she still comes to the shop every now and then and cuts the hair of family members in her household. It’s a big group of them.

So, it’s easy to see how some could mistake them for continuing to operate their business. There have been calls to the city, claiming Lita was not following social distancing guidelines.

“People see something and decide in their head what is going on. It’s not always what it looks like,” she said. 

In some ways, citizens may be taking their cues from Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has asked people to report businesses not following social distancing rules.

 

 

“You know the old expression about snitches. Well in this case snitches get rewards. We wanna thank you for turning folks in and making sure we are all safe,” the mayor said in late March. 

Though, for Lita it’s led to one big misunderstanding.

“There’s too many petty calls coming in and it’s all out of fear,” she said.

Dr. Jena Lee of the UCLA Medicine Psychiatry Department agrees. She says people who call the authorities aren’t really solving the main problem helping people understand how important flattening the curve is. 

“When you force someone to do something without having them fully convinced about why they’re adhering to a new social norm for example, it leaves more room a lack of unity,” Lee explained. 

For Lita, it has put a target on her back at time she is worried about how her family is going to make it.

“As it gets longer and longer, it’s getting a little more worrisome,” she said.

They’re trying to push through together, and they hope to no longer be falsely judged in their community.