Cynthia Gonzalez, vice mayor of Cudahy, California, wants to know where LA’s street gangs are: “You guys are always tagging everything up, claiming [the] hood, and now that your hood’s being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain’t a peep out of you …. We’re out there fighting our turf, protecting our turf, protecting our people and, like, where you at?”
By “the biggest gang there is,” of course, she means US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and its co-conspirators in the occupation of Greater Los Angeles.
A few miles away in Huntington Park, mayor Arturo Flores has instructed his city’s chapter of the Blue Line Gang to “begin verifying the identities and authority” of masked marauders attempting to abduct alleged immigrants on his city’s streets.
The move comes after masked hoodlums, accompanied by gang shot-caller Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem, terrorized a 28-year-old pregnant mother of four (and US citizen) in a publicity stunt gone awry.
“Men dressed in tactical gear, operating unmarked vehicles without displaying credentials or agency affiliation,” he says “have infiltrated our neighborhoods in direct violation of our community’s values, civil rights, and the basic principles of due process.”
Naturally, supporters of US president Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” scheme and his order for an ongoing military occupation of the LA area, now in its third week, want Gonzalez’s and Flores’s heads on pikes.
But they’re not wrong.
Flores knows what an occupation looks like, having participated, as a US Marine, in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Based on her statements, Gonzalez seems familiar with the local gangs and how they operate. She knows gang activity when she sees it.
Letting this mess escalate to full-on civil war wouldn’t be good for anyone involved.
On the other hand, ICE, the California National Guard, and the US Marine Corps need to read and heed the sign LA is hanging out. It says: NOT WELCOME.
Until they take the hint and leave, they should be shunned as individuals and resisted as a group.
Local businesses should refuse their patronage.
Citizens should hide immigrants when they learn — from ad hoc early warning systems already operating — that ICE is coming.
Activists should relentlessly impede and harass every organized movement of the ICE gang’s street troops.
They should do it for themselves and for their friends, but inflicting utter defeat on ICE and its co-conspirators will also constitute a victory for America.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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