A peaceful protest in support of a 37-year-old man shot and killed by immigration officers in Minneapolis was under way Saturday evening in downtown Los Angeles.
Demonstrators gathered at the historic Placita Olvera marketplace. A banner fluttered above reading, “From Los Angeles to Minneapolis, stop ICE terror.”
As the afternoon light began to fade, speakers led chants to “abolish ICE” and urged “ICE out of Minnesota, ICE out of L.A.”
They carried signs printed with messages “America hates ICE” and “Drop the charges on Minnesota activists.”
Aida Ashouri, a candidate running for city attorney, said she couldn’t imagine if she had been snatched as a child and deported to Iran, where her family is from. She said local city officials had created funds to aid families impacted by raids, but criticized some of those same officials for approving surveillance technology used by law enforcement.
Adi Renee, an educator who spoke at the rally said that Minneapolis protests, during which thousands of workers and hundreds of businesses shut down on Friday, had shown that labor unions could help to lead a political strike against ICE and the Trump administration.
“I’m really grateful to Minneapolis,” she said. “They’ve shown us that our public unions can call a political strike and they need to do it now.”
A speaker at the rally who identified herself as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America denounced violence by federal agents in Minnesota.
“We are here again after another shooting,” she said into a megaphone. “Our elected officials continue to fund ICE [which is] murdering and kidnapping our neighbors in the streets.”
By around 5 p.m. the protest had grown to at least 400 people. The crowd began marching down Los Angeles Street, blocking traffic. Demonstrators congregated in front of the federal building, many of them chanting, “The people united will never be defeated.”
A police helicopter circled overhead.
Prior to the protest, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement assailing the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a nurse, by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis, the second such death in that city this month involving U.S. immigration officers.
“This morning we learned of yet another tragic shooting in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents,” Bass said. “This violence has to stop and the president must remove these armed, federal forces from Minneapolis and other American cities.”
The Los Angeles County Republican Party cautioned against a rush to judgment in what is certain to be another highly volatile case.
“In the aftermath of any officer involved shooting, it’s important to figure out what happened, which often is not possible to ascertain immediately,” the party’s chairman said in a statement provided to City News Service. “We were not present at the scene of this regrettable incident in Minneapolis, and neither was Mayor Karen Bass.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
