Immigrant rights activists are denouncing the Los Angeles Police Department after officers were videotaped separating an angry crowd from a group of masked federal agents as they loaded a woman into the back of an SUV.
“The people were coming out to defend them and guess who protected the kidnappers who are kidnapping our people? LAPD officers,” said Union del Barrio member Ron Gochez at a demonstration outside LAPD headquarters Tuesday.
The video, which was shared with ABC7, has inflamed tensions between L.A.’s Latino community and the LAPD and comes amid increasingly aggressive federal immigration sweeps across Southern California.
The department has issued a statement insisting that it was not cooperating with federal authorities. Instead, the officers were responding to reports of a kidnapping in downtown Tuesday, when they stumbled upon federal immigration agents conducting a raid before an “agitated” crowd.
The officers took a position between spectators and immigration agents in attempt to “de-escalate tensions,” the release said.
But immigrant rights groups, including Unión del Barrio and the Community Self-Defense Coalition, have pushed back on the notion that the city and the LAPD are not helping federal authorities. They say police were there to hold the crowd back as ICE agents detained people.
At the demonstration outside LAPD headquarters, Gochez held up a smart phone and showed the video as he singled out Mayor Karen Bass and Police Chief Jim McDonnell for blame. “They have the audacity to continue to lie, to say that the LAPD is not collaborating with ICE.”
Under a sanctuary city ordinance adopted in 2024, Los Angeles city officials are barred from using municipal resources and employees for immigration enforcement.
According to the LAPD, the incident began with officers responding to a report of a suspected kidnapping near East 9th Street and South Spring Street around 9:10 a.m. The report specified that people were trying to kidnap others without identifying themselves.
LAPD officers said the crowd “was growing increasingly agitated and spilled into the street, creating a volatile situation and a significant public safety hazard due to traffic and congestion in the busy downtown corridor.”
Police also said a “partially handcuffed woman” approached an LAPD officer and was then detained by a federal agent. The LAPD said they weren’t involved in her detention or arrest.
“The Federal agents did not notify LAPD of their planned enforcement activity in advance,” the release said. “The Department responded based solely on the initial radio call reporting a potential kidnapping. No arrests were made by LAPD.”
The department said that officers stayed at the scene to “de-escalate tension, move pedestrians out of the roadway and allow emergency vehicles safe passage.”
