Immigrant rights activists are denouncing the Los Angeles Police Division after officers had been videotaped separating an indignant crowd from a gaggle of masked federal brokers as they loaded a lady into the again of an SUV.
“The folks had been popping out to defend them and guess who protected the abductors who’re kidnapping our folks? LAPD officers,” mentioned Union del Barrio member Ron Gochez at an indication exterior LAPD headquarters Tuesday.
The video, which was shared with ABC7, has infected tensions between L.A.’s Latino group and the LAPD and comes amid more and more aggressive federal immigration sweeps throughout Southern California.
The division has issued an announcement insisting that it was not cooperating with federal authorities. As an alternative, the officers had been responding to reviews of a kidnapping in downtown Tuesday, once they stumbled upon federal immigration brokers conducting a raid earlier than an “agitated” crowd.
The officers took a place between spectators and immigration brokers in try to “de-escalate tensions,” the discharge mentioned.
However immigrant rights teams, together with Unión del Barrio and the Neighborhood Self-Protection Coalition, have pushed again on the notion that the town and the LAPD are usually not serving to federal authorities. They are saying police had been there to carry the group again as ICE brokers detained folks.
On the demonstration exterior LAPD headquarters, Gochez held up a sensible cellphone and confirmed the video as he singled out Mayor Karen Bass and Police Chief Jim McDonnell for blame. “They’ve the audacity to proceed to lie, to say that the LAPD shouldn’t be collaborating with ICE.”
Underneath a sanctuary metropolis ordinance adopted in 2024, Los Angeles metropolis officers are barred from utilizing municipal sources and staff for immigration enforcement.
In accordance with the LAPD, the incident started with officers responding to a report of a suspected kidnapping close to East ninth Avenue and South Spring Avenue round 9:10 a.m. The report specified that individuals had been attempting to kidnap others with out figuring out themselves.
LAPD officers mentioned the group “was rising more and more agitated and spilled into the road, making a unstable state of affairs and a major public security hazard attributable to visitors and congestion within the busy downtown hall.”
Police additionally mentioned a “partially handcuffed girl” approached an LAPD officer and was then detained by a federal agent. The LAPD mentioned they weren’t concerned in her detention or arrest.
“The Federal brokers didn’t notify LAPD of their deliberate enforcement exercise upfront,” the discharge mentioned. “The Division responded based mostly solely on the preliminary radio name reporting a possible kidnapping. No arrests had been made by LAPD.”
The division mentioned that officers stayed on the scene to “de-escalate pressure, transfer pedestrians out of the roadway and permit emergency automobiles protected passage.”
