Anti-ICE protesters charged with using fireworks, motorcycles against police
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Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor brought charges against eight people who allegedly attacked police, vandalized buildings and robbed stores during recent protests against immigration sweeps.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman vowed to “fiercely protect people’s rights to peacefully assemble” but also warned that those who engaged in violence, theft or property destruction would face severe consequences.
“If people want to hurl insults, we will protect that,” he said. “If people want to engage in crimes, we will prosecute that.”
Hochman then addressed the broader narrative taking hold in national media that the city is under siege, saying that the portrayal that “somehow every second of every day there’s another exploding firework on our streets” is wrong.
“Let me put this in perspective for you,” he said. “There are 11 million people in this county, 4 million people in this city. ... Thousands have engaged in legitimate protest. That means 99.9% of people who live in Los Angeles city, or Los Angeles County, have not engaged in any protest at all.”
His office announced that three people were charged with using fireworks and motorcycles to hurt officers.
Federal authorities have charged at least 14 people tied to recent immigration protests that have roiled Los Angeles. While some are charged with extremely serious offenses, others face serious prison time for minor skirmishes with immigration agents.
Juan Rodriguez of Gardena was charged with assault on a peace officer, resisting arrest and advocating violence against an officer after he allegedly distributed fireworks and threw them at police during a protest.
Randy Paul Ruiz and Georgina Ravallero were also charged with assaulting police in connection with a Sunday afternoon incident near Temple and Alameda streets near the downtown immigration detention center that has been the flash point for many of the recent demonstrations. On Sunday, two motorcycles could be seen inching their way through a crowd of demonstrators, revving their engines to the cheers of the crowd. Moments later, the motorcycles crashed near a line of LAPD officers blocking Alameda Street.
On Wednesday, Hochman and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said Ruiz and Ravallero deliberately slammed their bikes into the police skirmish line. Both face more than six years in prison if convicted as charged.
Hochman also announced charges against two people who allegedly joined a break-in at a Nike store in downtown L.A. on Sunday night, and felony vandalism charges against people accused of tagging the downtown Hall of Justice, which houses the headquarters of the district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Department.
It was not immediately clear when each might appear in court or who their defense attorneys were.
The downtown curfew encircles the downtown Civic Center, including City Hall, the main county criminal courthouse, LAPD headquarters and federal buildings.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said investigators were continuing to review video and that additional arrests were likely, and offered a message to people who broke the law but were not detained.
“If you didn’t get caught in the last couple of nights, there’s a lot of evidence,” he said. “You’re probably going to have a detective knocking at your door.”
During Wednesday’s news conference, Hochman, Luna and McDonnell said they would protect demonstrators’ 1st Amendment rights but that violence would not be tolerated.
“There’s a big distinction between individuals who protest and demonstrate [and] violent, destructive, basically anarchists,” Luna said. “What we’re talking about is the individuals who don’t care about the issue at hand.”
During his successful election campaign last year, Hochman promised to be harsher on certain kinds of protest-related offenses, singling out people who block freeways and damage property.
Generally, Los Angeles-area prosecutors have drawn a firm line between 1st Amendment activity and violence in deciding to charge protesters during past instances of large-scale unrest. Thousands of people were arrested by the LAPD and other agencies for failure to disperse, disobeying a lawful order and other minor offenses following the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, but both the Los Angeles city attorney’s office and former Dist. Atty. George Gascón declined those cases almost universally.
Earlier this year, the city attorney’s office announced it would bring charges against just two of the 350 people cited during campus protests last year over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The district attorney’s office did file felony charges against two people who allegedly attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA last year.
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