WEBVTT - How LA Resisted ICE 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:05.160 Old Zone Media it. 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:08.160 It could happen here with the podcast about I don't know. 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:10.840 How am I supposed to do the pivot from like 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.520 it the Stephen King novel, which could at any point 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:16.239 happen in a place where you are. 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.200 I was trying to get to the podcast coming to 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:21.840 you not quite live from a place where a bunch 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.240 of just masked guys are drabbing people off the street. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.240 But that works too, Stephen King could pivot. Haven't done 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:29.920 that one yet. I'm your host, Miya Wong. With me 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.839 is James Stout, and we're also joined by the wonderful 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:41.839 freelance journalists melbuer At A fucking holy shit. Yeah, so 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:45.519 that happened simultaneously as I inhaled and like apparently a 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.680 piece of popcorn just like fucking rail guned into the 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.520 back of my throat relief for this song. 0:00:54.000 --> 0:01:01.400 A professionals here, shit, this is going great. Is journalist 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.720 John Vector Carpentum. Good lord, I'm so. 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:06.559 Good at my job. 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.720 So what we're gonna be talking about is the continued 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.880 resistance to ice and ice actions in LA and in 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:19.040 sort of broader parts of California as stuff has shifted 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.040 and intensified so both of you two, welcome to the show. 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.640 Glad to be here, happy to be here. 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.040 So I think the place I want to start is, 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.479 could you give people just kind of a brief reminder 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.760 of what happened during that sort of big flare up 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:39.399 several weeks ago of protests and ice actions in LA I. 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:40.840 Can probably speak a little bit more to that. 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:46.160 So, as part of the federal immigration raids that Donald 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.520 Trump promised, Los Angeles was one of the first targets 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:57.320 of pretty large scale and pretty frankly random immigration raids. 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:59.960 So it started in early June where you started to see, 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:05.680 you know, massed agents without oftentimes badges or names on 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.080 their badges or sometimes even serial numbers. First they started 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.800 in home depots areas like that, just sort of running 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.600 around parking lots, tackling people and throwing them into buses. 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:22.200 Pretty understandably, Los Angelinos started to protest, and they started 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:26.720 to protest pretty hard, and that happened for a few weeks. 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.600 Eventually the Marines in the National Guard were both deployed 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:36.519 to federal buildings more large scale protests, and that sort 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:38.760 of brings us to the last few weeks, which I 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.520 think mel can probably speak to Yeah, so. 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.880 You know, the National Guard and the Marines were deployed 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:50.040 like mid June, right, Yeah, and we kind of saw 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:53.040 a little bit of petering out of like the mass 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:54.359 protests that we saw at. 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:55.800 The beginning of June. 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:01.120 But still there were a number of organizations and groups 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:04.440 that were trying to keep tabs on the sort of 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.200 roving patrols that were happening in Los Angeles throughout the 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.280 month of June and early July. So these groups were 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.720 taking in tips and trying to maintain a sort of 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:22.440 map of rapid response locations to the ice detainments, kidnappings, 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.200 suspension of constitutional rights, if you will. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.639 And so what. 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.359 We saw was you know, a good number of weeks 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.800 of social media sort of proliferating these posts about where 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.400 ice patrols had gone. And because the you know, and 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:41.920 this is something that organizations have spoken to in the 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.960 last couple of weeks, but because their pounder surveillance, I 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.400 suppose you could say by these organizations was pretty successful, 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:54.600 the sort of ice patrols began to not happen throughout 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:55.800 the later half of the day. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:57.240 They would happen early in the morning. 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.480 They would you know, hit a location, grab as many 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.840 people as possible, pull them into the van and take 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.560 them away. And they had gotten it down to something 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.760 like less than ten minutes that they were on scene, 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:12.400 and it made it a little bit difficult for folks 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:16.960 to be able to respond forcefully to those events. And 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:21.880 they kept it to parking lots, car washes, you know, businesses, 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.599 random street vendors, places that they could enter quickly and 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.880 leave quickly. We saw in the middle of June and 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.160 in the later half of the month that if they 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:35.800 were trying to execute Warrens, for example, in a neighborhood, 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:39.040 they would be blocked in almost immediately by neighbors. So 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.720 you can see that there was a pretty consistent response 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.279 by Angelino's across the board as much as they could. 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.400 And while this was happening, there was also a pretty 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:52.400 dedicated group of individuals who were spending a lot of 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.840 time outside the Mentro Detention Center downtown and downtown LA 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.400 which is where many of these vans were going in 0:04:59.440 --> 0:04:59.960 and out of. 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:02.480 Before they were taking detainees elsewhere. 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.880 Yeah, so you know, across the board, what we've seen 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.080 is quite a bit of organizing. Much of this organizing 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.200 is decades in the making, especially in Los Angeles, but 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.560 also in places like Ventura County and a little bit 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.479 up north where you see the same kind of work 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.960 that's being done. In the later half of the month, 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.360 early July, I should say, we began to see some 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:34.359 pretty intense movements by Border Patrol, most notably in MacArthur 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:39.520 Park on July eighth, I believe, and in the cama 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.760 Rio Oxynard area, which is right on the border of 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:47.000 Venture County and other county's name. Escapes me at two 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:52.919 cannabis farms that next week, and those were large scale operations. 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.160 A lot of militarized Border Patrol National Guard I believe 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:01.200 helped with both of those operations as well, and also 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:06.239 saw some pretty intense community response to those. 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:08.960 So, Sean, you'd mentioned you wanted to talk a little 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.560 more about the organizing, right, Like the way people are 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.120 organized to try and kind of resist this or at 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:15.279 least like do what they could. 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.120 One of the things that I think is interesting this 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:22.440 isn't unique to Los Angeles. We're seeing groups organize what 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.120 I've been hearing called megri patrols here in Los Angeles. 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:29.160 There's also pretty heavy touch of this from San Diego. 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:30.960 One of the things that I thought was really really 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:36.440 interesting was in Los Angeles has been preparing for a 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:39.680 moment like this since the late sixties. Frankly, you know, 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.520 you have groups that have a pretty solid through line 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:46.240 since the mid sixties at the dawn of the Chicano movement, 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.240 and these are groups that already have experience with large 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.920 scale attainments. Not throughout the city like we were seeing 0:06:54.160 --> 0:07:00.440 the last few weeks, but there's this really impressive level 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.560 of organization. Where I saw a detainment in Boyle Heights 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.480 of a gentleman who was accused of getting a police officer. 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.160 Within I think three minutes of them arriving. Not only 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.880 was there one or two people, but there was like 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.720 fifteen people already onseen. Boyle Heights is pretty singular in 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.160 its preparation. However, it was not uncommon. I mean in 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:27.000 MacArthur Park there was a detainment of a few people 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.920 who were walking down the street. I was maybe eight 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:31.840 minutes away when I heard about the raid. There was 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.520 already like ten people there, including a college professor, including 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.800 members of Union Del Borro and at Tennis Union. I 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:40.720 have a bit of a theory that I don't know 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:45.840 if Los Angeles was chosen because they wanted to prove 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:47.880 a point. And there is a part of me that 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:53.120 wonders seeing how quickly people are responding to these raids, 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:55.440 There's a part of me that wonders at that point 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:56.280 was even made. 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.040 I think the government's actions can be understood in like 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.760 owning the libs and like if your Facebook uncle got 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.480 to make government policy, it wouldn't look that different from this. 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.880 So I think that was certainly like the point early on, 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:10.920 and they'd have detained a lot of people in La Like, 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.040 but yeah, they're organizing. You have very entrenched work in 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.240 clouds communities, even going back way before the sixties, right, 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.120 like if we look at the zoot suit, right, if 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:21.400 we look at the Brassero program and the attempts to 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.360 expel people after that, Like if we look at United 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.840 farm Workers like across LA County, we have a long 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:32.080 history of organizing, so like it's a hard target for 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:32.760 them for sure. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.040 And I think it's really interesting listening to YouTube talk 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.560 about this matches a lot of what I was hearing 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:43.240 about the way that it all kind of decentralized in 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.120 between sort of May and June. And the thing that 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.760 it reminds me of really interestingly is what was happening 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.600 to sort of other protest movements but reversed. You know, 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:54.160 if you look at like the Power Side encampments right 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:55.640 where it's okay you put a bunch of people in 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.320 one spot and then they all get crushed because the 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.440 police can bring overwhelming numbers, And it feels like the 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:03.640 raid response has almost been the reverse of that, where 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.200 ices had to adopt, at least in that period, had 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:08.400 to adopt the sort of hyper bulbile in and out 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.280 like rapid strike kind of thing like because they were 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:15.320 suddenly faced with a scenario where like if they tried 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.480 to like stay in mass in an area, it went 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.480 really badly for them. And that's absolutely fascinating to me. 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.000 One of the things that I think is interesting is 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.280 the first few days you saw a pretty heavy amount 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:29.280 of raids sort of in the central courrior near downtown 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:34.440 or you know, near East Hollywood things like that, and 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.439 those were extremely heavily protested. You know, there was a 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:40.720 protest sort of the first day of when the raids 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.959 really really started in the garment districts or in the 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.880 fashion district excuse me, within minutes there was like seventy 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.800 five people there and you know, they were shouting. You know, 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.240 they were there before all of the vehicles for federal 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.680 agents were actually there. That's the one where you know, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.560 you saw quite a bit of new and folks who 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.319 arrive extremely quickly, you know. And one of the other 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.440 things that I think is really interesting about this organizing 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.560 is you're also seeing regular people who I don't know 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:15.560 if they normally would organize something where they're sort of 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:19.720 facing off with federal agents. You're starting to see them 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.400 mobilize in a way that I don't know if you 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:23.480 would normally see them. 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:23.760 You know. 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.160 One of the ladies that I spoke to as part 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:30.040 of the Rapid Response sort of network is a teacher, 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.400 and I talked to her and I was like, hey, like, 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.360 why do you do this? And she told me, She's like, 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.080 look like, I teach in a heavily immigrant community. My 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:44.520 job is to take care of these kids, and unfortunately, 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:48.080 now part of that is driving around the neighborhood and 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.079 looking for white vans filled with people wearing masks. 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:57.240 That's both incredibly moving and beautiful and also one of 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.960 the most hideous things I've ever heard in my entire life. 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:04.040 There were quite a few teachers at the SEIU rally 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.520 which was on the ninth of June, which was with 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:11.600 David Wuerta, the president of the SCIU, was detained, I 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.840 guess allegedly for obstructing federal agents are correctly. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:15.400 Yeah. 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.920 I met a lot of people who were older who 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.360 I think were like solidly liberal in their politics, but 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.520 not particularly radical, And it was a really interesting combination 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:30.280 of these older people who were outraged and somewhat inexperienced 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.640 in street politics and younger people who were outraged and 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.839 somewhat inexperienced in street politics. Like it wasn't the same 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.720 crowd that you see the people who I'd seen in 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.880 twenty twenty when I covered stuff in La. Haven't really 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.200 covered much of the Palestine stuff in LA. But a 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:50.880 lot of the people who I interviewed in June were 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.560 citizen children of non citizen parents, and they felt like 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.079 an obligation on behalf of their community and their family 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:00.880 to show up, and like it was really moving to 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.360 see people who were clearly very afraid by the third 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:09.160 night of like unhinged state violence right like as Sean 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.559 was there too, but the amount of the les lethal's 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.880 that were just being discharged by the third night, like 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.560 the protest was split up and so was the policing. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.000 Like there wasn't really ever a point where all the 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.800 protesters were able to get together because the police had 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.360 so many roads bucked off, and like you would just 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.520 turned down the street and they'd be firing leslithought you'd 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:28.040 turned down. 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:28.920 The street and there's tear gas. 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:30.960 You turned down the street and there's pepper balls, like 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.000 all over downtown LA. And these people were very afraid, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:35.960 but they still kept coming out, And that was quite 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:37.560 like inspiring to me. 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.079 Yeah, And I mean, I think that's the situation that 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:44.560 we're in right where you know, the sort of the 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.480 fear and the horror has to is being forced to 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.120 give way to action because the only alternative to that 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:53.560 is just watching them take your family and take your 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:55.720 neighbors and taking the people you love and caraboll until 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.560 one day they take you and it doesn't have to 0:12:58.559 --> 0:12:59.160 get to there. 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:01.960 Yeah, maybe you know what else is going to take you, 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:06.240 God specifically take money from your wallet. It's these incredible 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:08.280 products and services which we're lucky enough to be. 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:13.960 Able to share with our listeners. We are back. 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.560 I notably did not want to do an actual pivot there, but. 0:13:17.679 --> 0:13:20.760 We're back, I think, you know, speaking on sort of 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:24.880 the climate of Los Angeles and at the same time 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:30.800 this sort of insistent joy that Los Angeles has. 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:32.800 There's a very famous. 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.160 Song most of your listeners may have heard it, Lachona, 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:38.920 which is basically just a song about a woman who 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.240 won't listen to her husband and gets drunk, and you 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.800 see it at every single protest in Los Angeles involving 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:51.400 immigrant rights. And one of the interesting things about it 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.160 is multiple times at the protests I would see this 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.439 beginning of dancing to La Chona, and then multiple times 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.880 it would be broken up. I think this was the thirteenth, 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:07.560 mid June, And eventually it got to a point where 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.280 I remember saying, you know, these protesters seem to really 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.280 want to listen to this song, and I have a 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.640 feeling it's going to end up being played in a 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.200 weird spot. What ended up happening is by the end 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:21.640 of it, I saw a bunch of people with like 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.400 these gnarly bruises all over their body, you know, welts 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.480 from less Lethal's fire, in the middle of the street, 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:34.160 dancing to La Schona. They finally got their chance and 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.240 you know, it's whenever the Dodgers win. This speaks to 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:39.600 sort of the specific culture of Los Angeles. I have 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.080 seen more fires and people dancing around them to that 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:47.720 song than any other song, including protest songs, throughout the 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:48.640 last five years. 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:51.240 But there's also you know, I live. 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.320 In Boyle Heights and one of the really interesting and 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.480 kind of horrific things is I had sort of been 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.440 queued up and trained to listen for the ice cream Man, 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.880 both the actual van and there's a guy that does Rospatos, 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.760 who just walks down the street honks a bicycle horn. 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.440 And I am an actual child, and every time I 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:14.800 heard that bicycle horn, just like I'm sick. It would 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.080 just like run out with a lot of cash and 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:22.400 by Rospatos. And for about a week, you didn't hear him. 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:25.480 You didn't a lot of businesses were closed. And then 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.520 after about a week he started to see younger people 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.400 that looked kind of like the guy that used to 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.720 do it, you know, usually the son or the daughter 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.120 sort of working for their parents. Now we're starting to 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:37.880 see you know a little bit of a more of 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.720 a return to regularity. But you know, one of the 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.920 things that was really interesting about all this organizing is 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.200 you know, you have unions, you also have like former 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:48.480 politicians and things like that. You know, I got an 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.640 email from a former city councilman with the subject line 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:57.560 that just said it is happening here, and I remember 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.360 thinking that's that's probably not good. 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:07.400 Yeah, that's not great talking of it is happening. I 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:09.760 think both the NML you were there, you went up 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.040 to Camerio right the raid on the cannabis grow operation 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.760 and subsequent stand up that was just a different scene 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:21.360 from like DTLA. Can you explain if people aren't familiar, 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.840 maybe very briefly explain the operation and the consequences. 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.680 So Sean and I just sat in federal court for 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.960 five hours prior to that in downtown LA, where federal 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.800 judge was listening to arguments being made in the hopes 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.960 of getting a temporary restraining owner on the grounds that 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:45.320 these roving patrols in Los Angeles were unconstitutional. And we 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.520 left court and you know, one of our sources who 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.760 was also there at the federal courthouse was talking about 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:55.320 how they had heard about this raid happening in cam 0:16:55.400 --> 0:17:00.280 Mario and Carpenteria, two different cannabis grow houses, and by 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.800 the timing left, it had been happening for five hours 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:08.320 at that point, so they, under a warrant, had rated 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:12.600 both of these cannabis co operations, which are quite large. 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.520 We're talking hundreds of workers who work in these processing 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:21.520 centers and greenhouses and such. And local organizers, particularly organizers 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.359 with VC Defensa, which is in Ventura County, who has 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:29.000 been doing really successful organizing following ice vehicles wherever they 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.920 go to try and head off these roving patrols. 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:33.840 They've really thrown a wrench in things up there. 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.600 One of the organizers was following one of these border 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.120 patrol vehicles and watched as the border patrol vehicle drove 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.800 past the gates of a military base out there, and 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:45.880 then kind of got an idea that, Okay, something big 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.399 is happening. This is not normal, like this is not 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:50.880 usually what happens when we follow these cars. Usually they're 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.919 going into neighborhoods or things of that nature. And so 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.200 almost immediately these groups were organizing to try and see 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.400 where these cars armored vehicles were going, and they hit 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.280 two different locations. One of the locations the one in 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.480 came Rio, just outside of is kind of in the 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.880 middle of nowhere. It's flanked on all sides with farm fields. 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.440 You know, there's dirt highways and you know, two lane 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:18.000 highways that kind of bisect everything. And what they did 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.399 when they started this raid is they blocked off the 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:26.160 roads leading into and out of this particular greenhouse, right 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:31.119 and so they had checkpoints, like roadblocks, barricades at like 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:37.119 four or five different locations at these intersections around the greenhouse, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:41.840 and at every single barricade there were people, so you know, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.040 there were these sort of like face offs between heavily 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:51.199 militarized Border Patrol agents kitted out in the nines. You know, 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.240 everything that you could possibly think of. They had, you know, 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.160 these massive vehicles. National Guard helped them, you know, block 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.480 off these roads. The local police them block off these roads, 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.240 which you know, if you know about the sheriff in 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.960 Venta County, he's one of the only guys who doesn't 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:12.320 care about sanctuary state ordinances. So it was a standoff essentially, 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.720 And when Shawn and I arrived, it was right around dusk, 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.600 so you know, it had been many hours since these 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:23.000 raids began. And essentially what Border Patrol found is that 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.800 they couldn't leave because these roads were being blocked off. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.159 They got some fans through, but the vast majority of 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:33.280 those vehicles were still there and they weren't prepared to 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:36.480 be there that long. They had to air drop supplies, water, 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:41.719 food in order to you know, shore up these folks, 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:45.960 and you know, as word got out of the sort 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.440 of community response to this event, more people showed up. 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.760 So by the time Shawn and I got there, we 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:58.080 were driving up lis Posas and suddenly there's cars just 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.720 parked on either side of the road, and we ended 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.000 up parking, I think like three quarters of a mile 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:04.600 away from the nearest blockade. 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.840 All have to hike in because. 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.479 There was no space for cars, you know, I mean, 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:12.399 we get up there and it's just about dusk and 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.840 you can hear the chanting in the distance, and you know, 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:20.639 it was a really horrible and also moving experience to 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.840 walk up on, you know, community response to this, and 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:27.040 you know, the standoff continued for another couple of hours, 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.560 but it was you know, half of the folks there 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.480 are concerned community members, folks of mixed status families who 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.400 understand the absolute terror of what happens when the government 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:42.440 is chasing after your dad, you know, and also individuals 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.800 who are looking for parents, uncles, you know, they had 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.679 no idea where their family members were. I think the 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:52.600 total number of people who were detained and are probably 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:55.399 going to be deported ended up somewhere around three hundred 0:20:55.440 --> 0:21:01.680 and sixty one across two farms. Yeah, it's significant, really insane, 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:04.160 you know, and the standoff lasting for a couple extra 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.600 hours into the night. People turned on their car headlights 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:11.560 so that we had light out there. There was, you know, 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:15.200 a pretty solid group of individuals who were in communication 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:19.919 with other blockades, asking for folks to shift to other locations, 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:25.080 sharing supplies and water, you know, and then water patrols 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:28.560 started getting anty. You could see them playing with their guns, 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:33.160 you know, their riot munition's weapons. They were shifting, they 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:37.000 were forming and reforming, and you know, organizers kind of 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.439 understood that something was about to happen, so they backed off, 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.120 strategically retreated because there were marches planned for the next day. 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:48.040 They were leaving. I could see off in the distance. 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.719 It witnesses directly until we drove up on it, but 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:52.560 you could see off in the distance that all of 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.679 these cars, this line of cars was going around the 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.479 back end of the factory on a side road and 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:02.320 then ending up little bit farther down last Posos and 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:05.560 there was flashing lights everywhere. Turns out that they were 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.800 trying to make their getaway and they hit what I 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:11.359 think was probably a traffic jam because. 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:12.200 Folks were ready to go. 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:14.159 They had packed up their cars and they were leaving 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.040 when they tear gassed everybody so they could make their getaway. 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:20.080 So, like Sean and I by the time we drove 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:20.480 up on. 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:23.080 It, because we saw in the distance it was like 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.320 that cloud is not normal, this is a dust. Like 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:28.080 that's tear gas. Let's get in the car and go 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:30.159 see what's going on. We drove up just as the 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.480 last canisters were being spent on the road and it 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:37.280 was just a fog, you know, and cars people were panicking. 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.240