El Salvadorian restaurant staff praised for helping officers hurt in LA riots: ‘They're humans'

New York Post

20 hours ago

A Salvadorian restaurant owner helped cops who were hurt in the riots rocking Los Angeles, even though she sympathizes with some of the protesters — and footage of her actions is now going viral.
'They're humans,' eatery owner Elizabeth Mendoza told The Post of the injured officers she and her workers assisted as they sheltered in her Compton restaurant La Ceiba in the heat of the city's riots Saturday.
'And they were just doing their duty, trying to protect everyone around,' Mendoza said, explaining she didn't think twice when the cops asked for help.
5 Elizabeth Mendoza let police officers battling protestors into her restaurant to help them after they were teargassed.
Ringo Chiu
Mendoza and some other local Hispanic workers said that while they agree with the demonstrators' cause — migrants' rights — violence and looting are no way to achieve anything.
'Spray painting and all this damage, that's not helping anybody,'' said Pedro Perez, a worker at a nearby Boost Mobile that was damaged.
'And right here, where they were spray painting, mainly all these people are all Hispanic owners.'
'The whole point is to be united, and you guys are damaging your own people's businesses. I just think it's stupid,' he said.
Mendoza said she was working at La Ceiba that afternoon as clashes across the city between police and demonstrators protesting ICE's recent mass arrests of illegal immigrants grew increasingly violent.
As a face-off grew particularly heated nearby, several sheriff's deputies were caught in a cloud of tear gas and staggered into the restaurant and asked for help.
5 Mendoza immigrated to the US from El Salvador 30 years ago, and opened La Ceiba in 2015.
Ringo Chiu
Mendoza jumped into action and joined her staff, fanning down the cops and giving them milk to pour over their burning eyes — even letting one of the officers stand in the restaurant's freezer to cool down.
The scene — of Latin Americans readily helping police hurt trying to contain protests for migrants — quickly gained attention online, with many praising Mendoza and her staff for their integrity and humanity.
Mendoza, a US citizen who immigrated to the US 30 years ago, said she supported the protesters' cause, although she added that looting and violence were no way to achieve anything.
'Things should be done properly. That's not the way to handle the situation,' she said.
5 Los Angeles descended into chaos over the weekend with protests after ICE carried out mass raids on illegal immigrants
AFP via Getty Images
5 A boarded-up T-Mobile in downtown Los Angeles was looted.
Ringo Chiu
The restaurant owner said many of the protesters are from her community — and ended up working to help protect her business from some of the vandals.
'There were a lot of people also protecting the restaurant. Most of the protesters around here, they are like family, so they were protecting the place,' she said.
Not every business nearby was so lucky: Many in the strip mall neighboring La Ceiba were vandalized over the weekend.
5 Mendoza said she supports the protesters' cause but doesn't believe in rioting or looting.
Ringo Chiu
Mendoza said she is hopeful that the riots will calm down and that ICE won't deport hard workers who are truly in the US to chase the American dream.
'I want this to have a peaceful ending and to make them be smarter about deporting people and run background checks to make sure they are not deporting people who are just here for a better life,' she said of federal agents.
'They need to be deporting people who are really here for the wrong reasons.'
LA's riots were sparked on Friday after ICE carried out several raids across the city and protesters attempted to intervene.
Demonstrators eventually showed up at a downtown detention center where detainees were believed to be held, and after violence broke out in places, President Trump sent in the National Guard to quell the chaos.