Last week, an eyewitness called 911 reported the lure when a group of armed, masked men were found dragging women into SUVs in the fashion district.
However, when officers from the Los Angeles Police Department arrived, instead of arresting them, they formed a line to protect the adductors from the angry crowd of onlookers demanding the release of the woman.
The reported temptation was a special agent of immigration and customs enforcement.
Police Chief Jim McDonnell defended the officers’ response, saying their initial responsibility was to maintain peace and that they had no authority to disrupt federal operations.
In political and activist circles and across social media, critics accused LAPD of suppressing the crowds rather than investigating why the agent arrested a woman who was later found to be a US citizen.
“What happened in Downtown on Tuesday morning certainly looked and felt like LAPD was in support of ICE,” said Mike Bonin, a former city council member who is now executive director of the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State Affays Affery Affays.
On the left, Kimberly Noriega speaks with her aunt, Anita Neri Rozano, at Veterans Memorial Park in Culver City on Sunday. The family was attending a press conference on the arrest of beloved street vendor Ambrosio Rozano.
(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times)
The incident was one of half dozen in recent weeks that LAPD responded to a federal immigration enforcement action known as the lunatic.
Even if local police officers were not actively supporting the ice, the presence of local police officers questioned the role of the department in the ongoing White House crackdown, where some city leaders wiped out hundreds of immigrants and terrified Southern California.
The case of a fraudster pretending to be law enforcement exacerbated the situation with rumours that federal authorities were enlisting bounty hunters or private security contractors to arrest immigrants.
Homeland Security Deputy Director Tricia McLaughlin called out one person’s report in a post on X on Tuesday that he was luring “a hoax” and said “ICE has not hired bounty hunters to make an arrest.”
In a letter to the Police Commission last week, Councillor Monica Rodriguez said LAPD should cover her face and make sure federal agents who often use unmarked vehicles are the ones they claim.
“Our residents have the right to know who is legally active in their neighborhood,” wrote Rodriguez, a district that includes the San Fernando Valley. “It is not only reckless to allow unidentified actors to force an individual to be detained without surveillance, but it also erodes the trust of the people and truly undermines the rule of law.”
She said city leaders cannot “ensure that bounty hunter-style tactics take root in our cities,” urging the Committee, the LAPD’s private policy-making body, to “develop appropriate legal and safe protocols that provide officer safety, transparency and accountability to our communities.”
Residents stand behind Vernon police officers after the immigration attack in Bell on June 20th.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“This lack of identification is unacceptable. It creates a ripe environment of abuse and spoofing, allowing copycat vigilantes to pos as federal agents,” writes Rodriguez.
State and local officials have proposed laws to increase transparency regarding officer identification, but it is unclear whether the bill will become law and whether they will actually be able to enforce it against federal agents.
Police Commission Chairman Errol Suthers said Tuesday that he and another committee member will meet with city council members to discuss the police department’s response to the Trump administration’s offensive sweep. Several commissioners asked McDonnell about how LAPD officers would respond to reported enticements.
Los Angeles police officers are serving as security guards in front of a federal building in downtown Los Angeles on June 18th as community members protested against a recent immigration attack.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
McDonnell said the department has created new guidelines that require supervisors to instruct LAPD officials to confirm that alleged ice agents are legal, and is keeping records of body decoration camera interactions.
The chief said that while the number one priority for executives is to keep everyone in attendance safe, officers ultimately have no authority to disrupt federal operations.
According to a new poll from polling firm YouGov, nearly three-quarters of Californians believe local police officers should arrest federal immigration agents who “willingly or intentionally act beyond their authority under federal law.”
The same study found that the majority of state residents want to ban California officials from working with immigration enforcement entirely, making it easier for citizens to file lawsuits when “authorities are in violation of immigration’s due process rights.”
Although LAPD has long argued that there is no role in enforcing citizen immigration, the department is now facing pressure to go beyond that and protect City Hall and undocumented Angeleno.
A motion considered this week by the LA City Council will, among other things, limit LAPD’s “support to institutions that enforce immigration.”
East Side residents and others will march in Boyle Heights Tuesday as part of a series of “reclaiming our streets” actions in protest of federal immigration enforcement projects.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
LAPD officials say the department answered at least seven calls and people contacted 911 to report a donation that turned out to be ice surgery.
An emergency call came last week when a group of masked Federal Border Patrol agents were found near Dodgers Stadium. LAPD officials responded to the scene and once again provided crowd control after a group of protesters appeared.
Several police supervisors said in the past it was customary for federal agents who monitor in certain LAPD departments to give heads-ups as courtesy to watch commanders in the area. But that long-standing practice ended and they were left mostly in the dark about the timing and location of the planned migrant raid.
CMDR. Lillian Carranza said it was irresponsible for people to describe arrests as “announcements” and encourage people to call 911. Authorities don’t need to present a warrant when they meet someone on the street, she said. All they need is a possible cause.
“If people are concerned about the conduct of federal agents, they need to seek justice in court,” she said. “That’s where you litigate the case. It’s not the street.”
In a spiritual exchange last month, McDonnell told city council that he would not warn city leaders, even if he had known about immigration operations in advance.
The relationship between LAPD and ICE has been the subject of intense debate on social media platforms such as Reddit. There, some commenters argued that focusing on the police force of protesters was an implicit federal approval.
Much of the debate has stuck with an incident that took place in downtown Los Angeles last week, when a woman named Andrea Guadalupe Veres was taken into custody by an agent covered in a vest of bullets that cover her face.
In the livestream video, man Luis Hippolito was later arrested and showed his agent asking for his name and badge number.
“I’m calling 911 now,” he told the agent.
“911, I want to report a crime. I want to report a crime,” Hipolito was heard saying on the phone.
“What are you reporting?” I hear the operator ask.
“They are luring the kids. They are luring people on the Nine and Main Street,” he says. “I need LAPD here now. Nine and Main Street. They’re luring, they’re luring people.”
After several agents were stacked on top of Hippolito, LAPD officers arrived on the scene. They formed a line between the agents and the angry crowd, whose members were screaming to free Hipolito.
Homeland Security’s McLaughlin said Veres was “arrested for assaulting an ice enforcer.”
Federal authorities said Velez “suddenly” stepped into the agent’s path “suddenly” with “an obvious effort to prevent him from arresting the male subject he is chasing.”
Veres, a 4-foot-11 California Polipomona graduate, is said to have stood on the path of an agent with his arms stretched out. The agent could not stop in time and was hit in the head and chest, federal authorities claim.
Veres’ mother, Margarita Flores, had just dropped her daughter in her rearview mirror and she dropped her off on the scene.
Flores said he saw the man running towards his daughter and saw Veles fall on the ground. Flores said the man didn’t have ID or license plates in the car.
Fearing the invitation, she told her other daughter, Estrella Rosas, to call the police. When LAPD arrived, Rosas said her sister “running to one of the police officers in hopes she could help her.”
“But one of the ice agents went back after her and returned for a full return. [put] She’s handcuffed,” Rosace said.
Veres spent two days in a federal detention facility. She was charged with assaulting a federal officer and appeared in the first court last week and was released on $5,000 bail. She has not yet entered the plea and returns to court on July 17th.
Times staff writer Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.
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