A rundown of the federal charges filed against protesters in Los Angeles
From assaulting/impeding federal officers to possessing “unregistered destructive devices,” charges have been filed against some of the protesters in the demonstrations against federal immigration enforcement in and around Los Angeles earlier this month.
(Not to mention LAPD and multiple other police agencies facing their own legal troubles for aggressively firing rubber bullets, flash bangs and tear gas at journalists and peaceful protesters.)
The L.A. Times published an article about a union leader charged with conspiracy to impede an officer during an immigration raid in Downtown Los Angeles on June 6.
The next day, a little farther south in the city of Paramount, protesters confronted federal agents as reports of more immigration raids came in. A number of those protesters are now facing charges for possessing Molotov cocktails, punching Border Patrol and throwing rocks and beer at them.
Below is a quick rundown of the cases pending so far in U.S. District Court. This is not necessarily a complete list of every federal charge filed, but it’s as many as I could track down. I will update this post accordingly.
Paramount, California
June 7
1) Someone in all black allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail toward Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies during the Paramount protest that followed reports of an ICE raid at a local Home Depot.
The defendant is being detained pending trial.
2) Another protester was allegedly “throwing hard objects from behind a tree,” which Border Patrol believed to be remnants of cinderblock and rocks, according to a complaint. These charges were dropped, court records show.
3) Following a review of news and social media footage, the FBI filed charges against a protester who was allegedly throwing “rocks and improvised explosives” at U.S. Marshals, as well as “rocks or pieces of concrete” at U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles.
4) According to a complaint, a protester being charged with conspiracy to impede an officer “said she wanted to support ‘our people,’ referring to the Hispanic community, whom she believed were being unfairly targeted by immigration authorities.”
5) After two women were arrested for allegedly blocking Border Patrol vehicles (the charges against them and two others have since been dropped), another protester allegedly threatened BP agents and punched one of them in the face. He is being detained pending trial.
Downtown Los Angeles
June 8
LAPD arrested a protester after they allegedly saw him with what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail before he had a chance to ignite it, according to the criminal complaint. A bomb technician with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed that there was ethanol inside the defendant’s bottle, which had a yellow rag sticking out of it.
The defendant has a criminal history that includes convictions for taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent and grand theft, according to court documents. He is being detained pending trial.
Santa Ana, California
June 9
A protest formed around the Ronald Reagan Federal Building. One protester was charged after law enforcement allegedly saw him “throw water and beer towards the officers in front of the building.” He also allegedly was “using profanity and threatening language towards law enforcement, and attempting to agitate the crowd.”
(*Just to reiterate, these are only cases that are in federal court because they involve federal agents. Cases stemming from other arrests made by LAPD, California Highway Patrol, etc., at one of the various protests this month are not included here because they are pending in Superior Court, so that might be another post for another day.)