Jaleesa Dugrow (21:28)
I was covering a protest yesterday and I was detained along with other media members and every single protester that did attend that protest. And essentially what they all did over the course of an hour was they slowly cuddled us in. We didn't even really realize it until you're blocked in on all sides by the lapd and there are Humvees, you know, in your face. And so we, they were, you know, we were flashbanged as well as rubber bullets were, you know, ricocheted. Off the pavement. They eventually did fire at the crowds and things like, you know, things like that. Pepper bombs, if I'm not mistaken, is what they're called. Were sprayed, so it made it difficult to. To breathe. Your throat is scratchy, you know, you have to sneeze a lot, and so you kind of want to get away from that. So we all had to mask up. Eventually everybody was sat and we all were detained. And what we were told, we, you know, everybody was asking, are you going to arrest us? Are you going to let us go? And they said, we're going to arrest you for not leaving the vicinity when we've ordered you to leave. So, you know, then after that, we were all put along a wall. My phone was confiscated. They took all my belongings off of me and cuffed me against the wall. And then it was, you know, really interesting. And I'll get to your question about the Wall Street Journal. Something that was really interesting to me was when I was detained, the only reason they let me go is because I proved to them that I was a journalist. And let me tell you how was. I didn't have any credential. Like, I. They were like, where's your press card? I'm like, I'm working with Mint Press News, but, you know, like, I'm an independent journalist, you know, outside of that. So. And they were like, well, just prove it to us. Well, what, what. What makes my work and, you know, think what makes my work and position more verifiable than maybe an activist next to me that's not a journalist, but, you know, does the same, you know, amount of work in the same. In the same scope or in the same area. And so essentially, all I had to do was just prove that I was a journalist. I mean, in the question begs, what if I was a journalist, instead of being in front of the camera, I was behind it protesting, you know, would I still be protected as a journalist and not an activist? And so these were questions that I was thinking about as I was released. So I was eventually given back all of my belongings. And they separated the media from the protesters. They put the protesters in these buses that they had brought earlier. And my. What I was told is that they were shipped off to the jail. So that's kind of what happened. And that then they officially blocked that street off, and that was South Alameda street off of Temple at that intersection. Now, as far as the, the rhetoric on behalf of the Wall Street Journal, it's really interesting because every single person that I've talked to And I've even talked to those not involved in protests, and I've asked them, what are you thinking about these protests? Did you suspect at all that on Friday such protests as these would even arise? Did you expect that they would go on this long? And a lot of them anticipate, actually, they told me that it'll go on longer. They say the people of California are very strong. And every single person, And I mean, every single. That's not, you know, hyperbolic. Like, every single person that I've spoken to is. Is, like, baffled at the idea of detaining and arresting illegal immigrants, people they perceive as illegal immigrants, you know, because they say illegal immigrants, immigrants in general that, you know, have come to California, have contributed so much culturally, economically, in the workforce to California. The culture is super ingrained. Immigrants have brought so much culture, you know, their food, their businesses to California. And so they say that. One protester told me that, you know, immigrants, you know, these immigrants, they. They put our food on our tables. You know, they teach our children. We love their language, we love their music. You know, we love what they bring us, but we don't love them. And so he told me, you know, we're not going to sit by idly and just let them take people off of the street. And that's exactly what they're doing. Yesterday at the protest, actually, the LAPD got into a circle, really randomly, I'll say, charged into the middle of the protest and grabbed one man and then went out, grabbed one man and took him into the VA center, which he didn't. They didn't read anything off to him. They didn't say why they were detaining him or, you know, what that was about. And in my head, it was just. It was a warning to the rest of us that it could be any of us. And so they took him into the VA Center. We don't really know what happened to him. So I even took some drives around LA last night. I, you know, drove all across LA to kind of get a feel for the city. And, I mean, a lot of it was, you know, restaurants from different cultures, you know, like posters and plays and people with offices and things like that, just from all, you know, all different types of cultures. And so when we think of California, I think it's a beautiful melting pot. And I don't think that Californians in general are willing to sit back and allow this to happen. So, you know, in the terms of fighting for dignity and justice in the, you know, in a world or in an America that seeks to silence any race is currently what we're going through, to be quite frank. These people are actively opposing it, they're actively challenging it. And we see this even in, you know, protesters that aren't immigrants. They're not immigrants in America. They don't. They're not connected to immigrants. They don't have family that are immigrants. But they say, you know, like, I'm here for free speech. You know, I'm here because we have a right to protest. I spoke to one man, he was a pastor at the Crescenta Methodist Church here in California. And he said, it's my duty to stand up for the vulnerable. I'm following Jesus's word that I'm here to stand up for the vulnerable, you know, and he's getting detained. I thought I had another man that was an Air force veteran for 10 years. He was deployed shortly after 9, 11. And he told me, you know, he says, I'm a veteran, and America forgets veterans. America doesn't take care of veterans at all. And he said, I'm a gay man. So I was under the don't ask, don't tell me law. And so I wasn't allowed to speak my truth for a very long time. And so people from all different walks of life, different paths, nationalities, races, religions have come together. They all definitely have one shared purpose, though, no matter if they're immigrant affiliated or not, is that they're actively opposing the injustice and the dismantling of free speech that the United States right now is actively imposing.
