LOS ANGELES — More than 50 counter-protesters awaited to intercept a demonstration against Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., in front of her office in South Los Angeles on Thursday. The initial protest was set up by a national organization made up of former military and law enforcement officers known as the Oath Keepers. The group planned to protest against the congresswoman for her latest comments and criticism of President Trump and his administration.
Ready to defend Waters, several members of Black Panther Party wielded metal pipes, bats, and signs as they waved the Pan-African Flag and chanted “black power.” Members of the Local 36, a roofers union, also stood in support of the congresswoman.
Shortly after it started, local law enforcement informed the counter-protesters that the Oath Keepers would not be arriving and withdrew from their posts, leaving the politically tense crowd on the streets.
However, their withdrawal did not prevent violent altercations as the group shoved and chased off an older white man who confronted the group, as well as Elijah Schaffer, a video blogger who interviews anti-Trump protesters. Several demonstrators also ripped and burned an American flag from the back of a truck that approached the crowd. The driver and passenger did not identify themselves.
“We had gotten word that the KKK was coming out here and as we get out here a little bit more we hear about them trying to have Maxine Waters assaulted, we’re not having that,“ said Diniceia Henderson, a member of the Black Panther Party. “First off, you’re coming to South Central in our territory, messing with one of our women, our leader, and we’re not standing for that.“
Jesus Portilla, a Local 36 construction worker was also showing his support for Waters. “We are here to support Maxine Waters and at the same time we are against racism,” he said. “We are trying to keep white supremacist groups away because there was speculation that they were coming with guns and against us.”
The group was planning to protest Waters’ recent comments urging her supporters to harass members of the Trump administration when seen in public.
“If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere,” she said last month.
When the time came, Oath Keepers canceled at the behest of the Los Angeles Police Department, according to the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes.
“The police advised our leadership that they could not guarantee their safety and they strongly advised them to not go forward with the protest which ironically proves our point,” Rhodes told me in a phone interview. “You can’t even protest against Maxine Waters inciting violence without facing violence from her supporters. So it’s not a very good outcome for Maxine Waters frankly.”
Rhodes rejected the counter-protester’s claims that the Oath Keepers were a white supremacist group and called it a “common slur and common misrepresentation from political opponents.”
“Unfortunately some young kid who thinks he is idealistically going to go out there and ‘fight for the cause’ is going to wind up getting hurt by one of our retired cops or military veterans because he thinks he’s fighting Nazis,” said Rhodes, who does not yet know if another protest will be planned. “We hate Nazis and we are overtly anti-racist.”
Christian Monterrosa (@chrismatography) is a reporter and photographer in Los Angeles for the Palisadian-Post.
