A Los Angeles public school teacher and activist praised rioters on Tuesday for throwing bricks at federal agents in California, crediting them with reducing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
Ron Gochez, a history teacher at Dr. Maya Angelou Community Senior High, highlighted recent brick-throwing incidents as an example of how “the people will fight back” against ICE during a recorded press conference for his activist group, Unión del Barrio (UDB). Residents “cannot depend on” legal institutions to hold ICE accountable and should remember that federal officials “are not the only ones with guns,” the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) employee told his audience.
“The people will organize to defend themselves. And so if the repression escalates, the resistance will escalate,” Gochez said. “There’s a reason why the raids went down in Los Angeles: ’cause the people were organizing and kicking them out of the barrios all over the city … They caught some bricks. Y’all remember Paramount? They caught those bricks. This is Los Angeles and this is South Central. The people will fight back.”
“We cannot depend on the police. We cannot depend on politicians,” Gochez said. “We cannot depend on anybody but the people.”
Protesters threw objects such as rocks and concrete blocks at federal agents in Paramount during anti-ICE riots that broke out across multiple California cities in June. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged at least two alleged rioters for hurling concrete blocks and pieces of cinderblock, respectively. One brick left a Border Patrol agent bleeding from his shin, according to the DOJ.
ICE’s actions under President Donald Trump are “the type of violence that will only create more violence,” Gochez said.
LAUSD, UBD, Gochez and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
UDB views itself as a volunteer-based political organization working on behalf of “la raza,” or “the race,” referring to Hispanics, according to its website. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri sent a letter to UDB and other groups in June announcing a probe into their ties to anti-ICE riots. The organization responded that it “has not organized, aided, abetted, financed, or engaged in any illegal activity.”
Gochez suggested Tuesday that residents should prepare for possible armed resistance against ICE, referencing a recent raid where he said federal agents carried weapons.
“Don’t forget where you’re standing. This is South Central Los Angeles … they are not the only ones with guns in this city. They’re not the only ones and don’t forget that,” Gochez said. “And I don’t say that because we’re calling for violence, I’m saying that because the people have every right to defend themselves against masked, unidentified gunmen with AR-15s and other military rifles.”
“The people have every right to defend themselves,” Gochez added. “That’s not violent, that’s intelligent.”
Gochez spoke at another press conference recorded by UDB in Los Angeles on June 6, the day the anti-ICE riots kicked off, calling for activists to force immigration agents out of the community, the DCNF previously reported.
“If we organize, we can kick their asses out of every single ghetto, every single barrio, anywhere where our people are,” he said in a now-removed Facebook video.
“Who gives a damn about legality, when these people have their boot to our neck,” he told a crowd. “We have … every single obligation, moral, historical, we have every reason to defend our people, to defend our community, to defend our families by whatever means necessary.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who is overseeing prosecutions of Los Angeles anti-ICE protesters, told the DCNF in August that the mass violence was only causing ICE to “double down” on its operations, contradicting Gochez’ Tuesday claims.
“They’re not going to derail our operations. None of our operations have been derailed,” Essayli said. “We have not been dissuaded from conducting immigration enforcement.”
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