California official criticized for appearing to call on gangs to intervene in immigration raids
In this Jan. 10, 2018, file photo, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents gather before serving an employment audit notice at a 7-Eleven convenience store, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
CUDAHY, Calif. — The vice mayor of a tiny Southern California city is under fire after appearing to call on street gangs to organize in the face of immigration sweeps by federal agents in Los Angeles.
In a video post on social media that's since been deleted, Cynthia Gonzalez, vice mayor of Cudahy, said she wanted to know where all of the gang members were 'at in Los Angeles.'
'You guys are always tagging everything up, claiming hood, and now that your hood's being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain't a peep out of you,' Gonzalez said, using a disparaging term often aimed at Mexican men who are members of street gangs.
She further referenced '18th Street' and 'Florence,' two infamous street gangs, and questioned why gang members were not protesting or speaking up about the immigration raids.
'We're out there fighting our turf, protecting our turf, protecting our people and, like, where you at?' she said.
The video seemed to suggest Gonzalez was calling on gang leaders to 'help out and organize' as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies participate in the Trump administration's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security called Gonzalez's comments 'despicable.'
'She calls for criminal gangs — including the vicious 18th street gang — to commit violence against our brave U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement law enforcement,' the department said in a post on X that included Gonzalez's video. 'This kind of garbage has led to a more than 500% increase in assaults against our U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement law enforcement officers. Secretary Noem has been clear: If you assault a federal officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'
Gonzalez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The city of Cudahy said in a statement Tuesday it was aware of the video.
'The comments made by the Vice Mayor reflect her personal views and do not represent the views or official position of the City of Cudahy,' the statement read. 'The City will not be providing further comment.'
Cudahy is a Los Angeles suburb with 22,000 residents, about 10 miles (16.09 kilometres) south of downtown LA.
The Associated Press
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
41 minutes ago
- CTV News
Man indicted on 12 hate crime charges in attack on Boulder demonstration for Israeli hostages
DENVER — A man accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at a group of people demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 hate crime counts. Soliman was initially charged with only one hate crime count in federal court in the June 1 attack on demonstrators. The federal grand jury indictment, which was filed in court Tuesday, had been expected for weeks as a formality in advancing the felony criminal case toward trial. It is routine for prosecutors to add charges beyond the crimes alleged in an initial criminal complaint. The indictment accuses Soliman of trying to kill eight people who were hurt by the Molotov cocktails and targeting them because of their perceived or actual national origin, which prosecutors say was their perceived or actual connection and support for Israel. He was also indicted for another hate crime for trying to kill the others at the event or nearby who were not injured. Soliman was also charged with two counts of using a fire and explosive to commit a felony and one count of possessing an explosive device while committing a felony, which are also considered to be hate crimes. Investigators say Soliman told them he had intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder's Pearl Street pedestrian mall, but threw just two of his over two dozen Molotov cocktails while yelling 'Free Palestine.' Soliman, who is also being prosecuted in state court for attempted murder and other charges, told investigators he tried to buy a gun but was not able to because he was not a 'legal citizen.' He posed as a gardener, wearing a construction vest, to get close to the group before launching the attack, according to court documents. Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been living in the U.S. illegally with his family. Soliman is being represented in state and federal court by public defenders who do not comment on their cases to the media. At a hearing last week, Soliman's defense attorney, David Kraut, urged Magistrate Judge Kathryn Starnella not to allow the case to move forward because he said the alleged attack was not a hate crime. Instead, he said it was motivated by opposition to the political movement of Zionism. An attack motivated by someone's political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law. Soliman is scheduled to appear in federal court on Friday for a hearing in which he may be asked to enter a plea to the charges. Colleen Slevin, The Associated Press
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Who is Zohran Mamdani, the state lawmaker seeking to become New York's first Muslim mayor?
When he announced his run for mayor back in October, Zohran Mamdani was a state lawmaker unknown to most New York City residents. On Tuesday evening, the 33-year-old marked his stunning political ascension when he declared victory in the Democratic primary from a Queens rooftop bar after former New York governor Andrew Cuomo conceded. While the race's ultimate outcome has yet to be confirmed by a ranked choice count scheduled for July 1, here's a look at the one-time rapper seeking to become the city's first Muslim and Indian American mayor, and its youngest mayor in generations. Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018, shortly after graduating college. He lived with his family briefly in Cape Town, South Africa, before moving to New York City when he was 7. Mamdani's mother, Mira Nair, is an award-winning filmmaker whose credits include Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake and Mississippi Masala. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is an anthropology professor at Columbia University. Mamdani married Rama Duwaji, a Syrian American artist, earlier this year. The couple, who met on the dating app Hinge, live in the Astoria section of Queens. Mamdani attended the Bronx High School of Science, where he co-founded the public school's first cricket team, according to his legislative bio. He graduated in 2014 from Bowdoin College in Maine, where he earned a degree in Africana studies and co-founded his college's Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. After college, he worked as a foreclosure prevention counselor in Queens helping residents avoid eviction, the job he says inspired him to run for public office. Mamdani also had a notable side hustle in the local hip hop scene, rapping under the moniker Young Cardamom and later Mr. Cardamom. During his first run for state lawmaker, Mamdani gave a nod to his brief foray into music, describing himself as a 'B-list rapper.' Nani, a song he made in 2019 to honor his grandmother, even found new life – and a vastly wider audience – as his mayoral campaign gained momentum. His critics, meanwhile, have seized on lyrics from Salaam, his 2017 ode to being Muslim in New York, to argue his views are too extreme for New Yorkers. Mamdani cut his teeth in local politics working on campaigns for Democratic candidates in Queens and Brooklyn. He was first elected to the New York Assembly in 2020, knocking off a longtime Democratic incumbent for a Queens district covering Astoria and surrounding neighborhoods. He has handily won re-election twice. The Democratic Socialist's most notable legislative accomplishment has been pushing through a pilot program that made a handful of city buses free for a year. He's also proposed legislation banning non-profits from 'engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.' Mamdani's opponents, particularly Cuomo, have dismissed him as woefully unprepared for managing the complexities of running America's largest city. But Mamdani has framed his relative inexperience as a potential asset, saying in a mayoral debate he's 'proud' he doesn't have Cuomo's 'experience of corruption, scandal and disgrace.' Mamdani has used buzzy campaign videos – many with winking references to Bollywood and his Indian heritage – to help make inroads with voters outside his slice of Queens. On New York's Day, he took part in the annual polar plunge into the chilly waters off Coney Island in a full dress suit to break down his plan to 'freeze' rents. As the race was entering the final stretch, Mamdani walked the length of Manhattan, documenting the roughly 21-kilometre trip by posting photos and videos of his interactions along the way. In TikTok videos, he's even appealed to voters of color by speaking in Spanish, Bangla and other languages. Mamdani has offered a more optimistic vision, in contrast to candidates like Cuomo, who have largely focused on crime and law-and-order issues. His campaign has been packed with big promises aimed at lowering the cost of living for everyday New Yorkers, from free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for people living in rent-regulated apartments and new affordable housing – much of it by raising taxes on the wealthy. The big promises have, unsurprisingly, endeared him to the Democratic party's liberal wing. Mamdani secured endorsements from two of the country's foremost progressives, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Mamdani's outspoken support for Palestinian causes was a point of tension in the mayor's race as Cuomo and other opponents sought to label his defiant criticism of Israel as antisemitic. The Shia Muslim has called Israel's military campaign in Gaza a 'genocide' and said the country should exist as 'a state with equal rights,' rather than a 'Jewish state.' That message has resonated among pro-Palestinian residents, including the city's roughly 800,000 adherents of Islam – the largest Muslim community in the country. During an interview on CBS's The Late Show on the eve of the election, host Stephen Colbert asked Mamdani if he believed the state of Israel had the right to exist. He responded: 'Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist – and a responsibility also to uphold international law.' Mamdani's refusal to condemn calls to 'globalize the intifada' on a podcast – a common chant at pro-Palestinian protests – drew recriminations from Jewish groups and fellow candidates in the days leading up to the election. In his victory speech Tuesday, he pledged to work closely with those who don't share his views on controversial issues. 'While I will not abandon my beliefs or my commitments, grounded in a demand for equality, for humanity, for all those who walk this earth, you have my word to reach further, to understand the perspectives of those with whom I disagree, and to wrestle deeply with those disagreements,' Mamdani said.
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Democrats wanting to impeach Trump for Iran attack show just how out of touch their party is
U.S. Air Force B2 bombers had barely left Iranian airspace last week before Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for Donald Trump's impeachment for 'impulsively' risking 'a war that may ensnare us for generations.' Setting aside the question of whether the U.S. President's move to authorize attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities could be construed as an impeachable offence – former president Barack Obama did not seek congressional approval before bombing Libya in 2011 either, and nobody tried to impeach him for it – Republican majorities in both houses of Congress would block any attempt to launch impeachment proceedings in the first place. So would many of AOC's fellow Democrats, who, unlike her, represent competitive districts. Globe editorial: Donald Trump and the art of nuclear diplomacy Indeed, that is exactly what happened on Tuesday, when Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green sought to bring forward a motion to impeach Mr. Trump for 'unconstitutionally usurping Congress's power to declare war.' More than half of the Democrats in the House of Representatives – 128 in all – joined Republicans to block the proposal. They knew that another impeachment sideshow is the last thing most voters are looking for right now. Unfortunately for them, most of their party's leading public figures continue to push a left-wing populist agenda that appeals to the activist base, but which alienates average voters in the very states and districts Democrats need to win to regain control of Congress in 2026 and the White House in 2028. Earlier this year, AOC and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders launched their Fighting Oligarchy Tour, to 'take on the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.' But Democrats are heading for serial defeat if they embrace the AOC-Sanders message in future election campaigns. Corporations and billionaires may wield too much power. But the solutions pitched by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Sanders – more government, more taxes, more regulation, more redistribution – are downright scary to most Americans. They have seen the dystopia that formula has created in one-party Democrat states such as California and New York. 'In much of San Francisco, you can't walk 20 feet without seeing a multicoloured sign declaring that Black Lives Matter, Kindness is Everything and No Human Being is Illegal,' write Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their book, Abundance. 'Those signs sit in yards zoned for single families, in communities that organize against efforts to add new homes that would bring those values closer to reality. San Francisco's Black population has fallen in every Census count since 1970. Poorer families – disproportionately non-white and immigrant – are pushed into long commutes, overcrowded housing and street homelessness.' Mr. Klein and Mr. Thompson argue that affordability crises facing Californians and New Yorkers – which are the worst in the country – are not the result of excessive corporate power or insufficient taxation but rather the high-tax, high-regulation policies of Democratic state and city governments. U.S. strikes set back Iran's nuclear program by only a few months, intelligence report says In a recent New York Times column, Mr. Klein noted that it costs four times more per square-foot to build subsidized housing in California than it does to build non-subsidized housing in Texas, mainly due to the 'avalanche' of environmental and social requirements faced by California developers, all imposed in the name of liberal progressivism. The book by Mr. Klein and Mr. Thompson has generated a backlash among the progressive Democratic left. And its critique of the California model will not help the state's Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, as he seeks to woo voters nationally and launch a 2028 presidential bid. Mr. Klein argues that 'anti-corporate populism' is not helping the Democratic Party win over mainstream American voters. Democrats are 'struggling,' he insists, because 'they fail to solve problems.' Yet, the Democratic base continues to move further to the left by the day. The winner of Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary in New York City, 33-year-old state assemblyman and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, is promising free bus rides, rent freezes and government-owned grocery stores, paid for with a US$10-billion tax increase on businesses and wealthy New Yorkers. He handily beat former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who had been endorsed by former president Bill Clinton and ex-mayor Michael Bloomberg. Granted, Mr. Cuomo – who resigned as governor in 2021 amid an onslaught of sexual harassment allegations – had more baggage than an Airbus 350. But what really sank his mayoral bid was the online war waged against him by left-wing activists backing Mr. Mamdani. The Democratic nominee will now face off in November against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who might be vulnerable (he faced corruption charges until the Trump administration intervened to have them dropped) were it not for Mr. Mamdani's strident anti-Israel views and high-tax platform. New York City counts more Jews than any other urban centre except Tel Aviv, and the most millionaires of any U.S. city. For now, Mr. Mamdani is a political asset – for Mr. Trump and other Republicans.
