Kidnappers or ICE agents? LAPD fields surge in concerned citizen calls

When a group of armed, masked man dragged a woman to a SUV last week, a witness called 911 to report the kidnapping.

However, when the Los Angeles Police Department officers arrived, instead of arrest, they formed a line to protect the alleged kidnappers from an angry audience who wanted the release of the woman.

The reporters reported were special agents from migration and customs inventions.

Police Chief Jim McDonnell defended the reaction of the officers by saying that his first responsibilities were to protect peace and did not have the authority to intervene in the federal operation.

In political and activist circles and social media, critics detonated Lapd because they kept the crowd rather than investigating why agents were later arrested.

Mike Bonin, a former municipal council, who is a general manager of the Pat Brown Public Relations Institute at Cal State La, said, “What happened in the city center on Tuesday morning and felt LAPD supporting ICE,” Mike Bonin said.

The incident was more than half a dozen in recent weeks that LAPD responded to federal immigration sanctions, which were called as kidnapping.

The presence of local police officers in the scenes – even if they actively help the ice – to question the role of a White House pressure, which swept hundreds of migrants and sowing fear in Southern California.

The fraud, which was masked as law enforcement officers, united the situation with the rumors that federal authorities took prizes hunters or private security contractors to the military for migratory arrests.

Deputy Secretary of the Department of Interior Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the scope of a “scam” missing on a task on X on Tuesday and said, “ICE does not use prize hunters to arrest”.

In a letter to the police commission last week, Monica Rodriguez, a member of the Municipal Assembly, said that there should be federal agents that cover the faces of LAPD and usually use unmarked vehicles.

Rodriguez, which contains the region of San Fernando Valley, wrote, knowing who has been operating in the neighborhoods of our residents and which legal authority is below, ”Rodriguez wrote. “To allow unidentified actors to take individuals into custody without surveillance, not only reckless, but also errands public confidence and weakens the rule of law.”

He said that the city leaders can not allow a reward-hunger-style tactics to take root in our city, and LAPD’s Civil Policy Making Organ Commission called on the community to develop a suitable and secure protocol that provides civil servants safety, transparency and accountability to our communities.

Residents stand behind Vernon police officers after a migration raid in Bell in Bell on June 20.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

“This lack of identity is unacceptable. He creates a mature environment for abuse and identity, making the imitator posed as federal agents, Rod he wrote.

The state and local authorities have proposed legislation to increase transparency around the civil servant, but it is unclear whether the invoices will be law and whether they can be implemented against federal agents.

Police Commission President Erroll Southers said on Tuesday that he and another commission member came together with members of the Municipal Assembly to discuss the response of the police department to the aggressive sweeps of the Trump administration. Several commission members questioned McDonnell how LAPD officers should react to the reported kidnapping.

As the community members protested the last migration raids in front of the federal building in the city center of La on June 18, Los Angeles police officers are guarding.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

McDonnell said that the department has created new instructions that require a supervisor to confirm that ICE agents in question that the ICE agents are legitimate and to give instructions to protect the record of the interaction in the body worn cameras.

The chef said that the biggest priority for civil servants is to protect the safety of the existing ones, but ultimately, civil servants did not have the authority to intervene in a federal operation.

According to a new survey from Yougov, a public research company, he believes that approximately three -quarters of California should arrest the federal immigration agents of local police officers “malicious or deliberately exceeding their authorities in accordance with federal laws.

The same questionnaire also found that the majority of the state residents wanted to completely prohibit the cooperation of California officials with immigration sanctions and that the authorities filed a lawsuit filed for migrants when immigrants violate the necessary process rights ”.

LAPD has long claimed that he had no role in making civil immigration, but the department is now facing pressure to go further than the town hall and more and to protect Angelenos, which is undocumented.

In addition to other things, a movement that was discussed by the La Municipal Assembly this week would limit LAPD’s support to the “support of the agencies that sanctified immigration”.

Residents and others are walking on Tuesday, Tuesday, as part of a series of “back our streets” action to protest Federal immigration practice operations.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

LAPD officials say that the department responds to at least seven calls in which people contacted 911 to report a kidnapping that appeared to be an ice operation.

An Emergency Call emerged last week when a group of masked federal border patrol agents were staged near the Dodgers Stadium, and when an online wave of speculation on the potential immigration practices in the basketball field. LAPD officers responded to the scene and a group of protesters reunited after the emergence of crowded control.

In the past, several police supervisors said that it was traditional that federal agents, who surveillance in a particular LAPD section, to courtesy to the region’s clock commander, said it was traditional. However, this long -standing practice has ended, leaving them largely in darkness about the timing and location of the planned migration raids.

Cmdr. Lillian Carranza said that it was irresponsible for people to describe arrests as “kidnapping ve and encourage people to search for 911, and saying that there is a misinformation online about how and when they can arrest one of the federal authorities. Authorities don’t have to offer an order while encountering someone on the street, he said; The only thing they need is possible.

“People have to look for justice in court if they are concerned about the behavior of federal agents, dedi he said. This is the place to sue the case. Not the streets. “

McDonnell last month at the Testicular Exchange, McDonnell, the Municipal Assembly, even if he knew an immigration operation in advance, he said he would not warn the city leaders.

LAPD’s relationship with ICE was a matter of intense discussion on social media platforms such as Reddit, which the federal government claimed that the focus of the chapter on the protests had been implicitly approved by the ICE.

Most of the debate went to an event last week, in the city center of Los Angeles, a woman named Andrea Guadalupe Velez was detained by agents covered with bullet -proof vests on their faces.

A live video video showed that Luis Hypolito, a later arrested man, wanted his names and badges from the agents.

“I’m looking for 911 right now,” he said to the agents.

“911, I want to report a crime. I want to report a crime, Hip Hypolito says on the phone.

“What are you reporting?” It is heard that an operator asks.

“They kidnap children, nine and Main Street kidnap people,” he was heard. “Right here, I need LAPD right now. Nine and Main Street. They miss it, they kidnap people.”

After a few agents were staked on Hypolito, LAPD officers came to the scene. They formed a line between the agents and the angry crowd, and their members shouted to release Hypolito.

McLawhlin from Internal Security said Velz was arrested for attacking an ice executive officer ”.

Federal officials said that in court applications, Velez has stepped into the path of “suddenly” on the path of an agent’s “man pursuit of the man he pursued.

A Cal Poly Pomona graduate with 4 feet 11 is allegedly standing on the way to the extended agent. Federal officials claim that the agent could not stop in time and was hit on his head and chest.

Velez’s mother, Margarita Flores, was watching her daughter in the rearview mirror that left her daughter to the scene.

Flores said he saw a man running towards his daughter and then Velz fell to the ground. Flores said that there was no identity or plate in men’s cars.

Fear of fear of kidnapping, he told the other daughter Estrella Rosas to call the police. When Lapd arrived, Rosas ran to one of the police officers in the hope that they could help him, Ros said his sister.

“But one of the ice agents returned after that and [put] In handcuffs, Rosas said Rosas. ” Physically had to put him in the car and they walked away in the car without a plate. “

Velez spent two days at a federal detention facility. The first court accused of attacking a federal officer made his appearance last week and was released on bail of $ 5,000. He has not yet made an objection and will return to the court on 17 July.

Times staff writer Britny Mejia contributed to this report.