Day 2 of ICE protests - June 7
In Paramount and neighboring city Compton on June 7, a similar chaotic scene unfolded with cops and protesters squaring up in a commercial area. For hours in the evening, protesters scattered throughout Alondra Boulevard, yelling, playing music, dancing, and sometimes clutching their faces and running when the Sheriff’s Department line by the 710 Freeway deployed tear gas.
Demonstrators set up a makeshift barricade of trash bins and furniture; from behind it, they shot fireworks and shielded from retaliatory flashbangs.
But again, similarly to the other long days of protest, much of the action was immobile, practically stalemate—until the police advanced up Alondra Boulevard at 9 p.m., firing chemical agents and torrents of rubber bullets.
For the next two hours, the sheriff line blocked off Alondra Boulevard along Atlantic Avenue. Protesters who didn’t disperse hid behind cars and kiosks at the nearby gas station to shield from the less-than-lethals. At some point during the night, the gas station, an Ampm, was broken into and ransacked.
Some of the hiders announced they were going to throw Molotov cocktails.
“The Sheriff’s Department is not involved in any federal law enforcement operations,” the department said in a statement on Sunday.
“When federal authorities come under attack and request assistance, we will support them and provide aid. However, this does not mean that we are assisting with their immigration actions or operations; rather, our objective is to protect them from any violent attacks,” the statement continues.