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When T-shirt maker Fernando “Spider” Betancourt learned about how a fruit vendor was violently robbed in Central Long Beach last month, it was the final straw for him.
The victim, 22-year-old Gerardo Ivan Olmeda Del Pilar, was beaten for his week’s worth of pay, and Betancourt became so angered that it compelled him to do something.
“It just infuriated me,” he said, who was a former street vendor.
Within a week of the incident, Betancourt, with help from a local artist, produced new T-shirts that read “Defend Vendors” and “Love of the Streets” in Spanish, and is using the money from the sales to donate to street vendors in need.