L.A. activist indicted after giving face shields to anti-ICE protesters
A local activist who distributed protection shields against demonstrators last month during demonstrations against chaotic immigration raids of the Trump administration was charged on Wednesday by a large federal jury.
Alejandro Orellana, a 29 -year -old member of the community organization based in Boyle Heights, Centro CSO, faces accusations of conspiracy and help and encourage civil disturbances, according to the judicial archives.
According to the indictment, Orellana and at least two others rolled in the city center in a van distributing bionic uvex face shields and other articles to a crowd engaged in a demonstration near the federal building on rue Los Angeles on June 9.
Prosecutors alleged that earllana helped the demonstrators to resist less lethal ammunition deployed by the police of Los Angeles and the deputies of the Sheriff of the County of Los Angeles after the declaration of an illegal assembly.
Orellana is to be judicial Thursday morning. An e-mail to his federal public defender asking for comments was not immediately returned.
US Atty. Bill Essayli, a former Californian assembly appointed by President Trump, has promised to aggressively pursue anyone who interferes with immigration and customs’ application or harm to the police during demonstrations. Federal prosecutors have brought at least 14 cases linked to the demonstrations last month and Essayli promised that more people would be charged.
When asked how the distribution of defensive equipment was a crime at a press conference last month, Essayli insisted that Orellana specifically distributed supplies to violent demonstrators.
“He did not distribute masks at the beach. … They cover their face. They wear backpacks. They were not peaceful demonstrators,” he said. “They did not hold panels, with a political message. They came to do violence.”
Essayli described anyone who remained on a protest scene after an illegal assembly was declared “riot” and said that peaceful demonstrators “do not need a facial shield”.
Orellana, who works for United Parcel Service, has no criminal record and previously served in the American Marines, according to Carlos Montes, another member of Centro CSO.
Montes said he was thinking that Assayli specifically targets Centro CSO for his pro-immigrant activism, noting that FBI agents seized the mobile phone of another member last week as part of their Orellana investigation.
“These are ridiculous accusations. We demand that they abandon the charges now. They are insignificant, ridiculous,” said Montes. “The most important thing is that it distributed personal protective equipment, which includes water boxes, a disinfectant for the hands and snacks.”
A US Marine Corps spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for Orellana’s service file.
Montes has also challenged the argument of Essayli that peaceful demonstrators do not need protective equipment, pointing myriads of cases in which people have been seriously injured by Los Angeles police and county sheriff deputies in recent years.
Last month, an investigation by Times highlighted incidents in which demonstrators allege that the Los Angeles police have drawn rubber rounds and other crowd control ammunition in recent weeks, which made the demonstrators and media members suffer from broken bones, concussion and other forms of seriously prejudice.
Times staff WRiter Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.
