Originally posted on the GloriaLaRiva4President.com website.
On September 25th in Torrance, CA the La Riva/Banks Campaign, Roofers Local 36, and members of the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police militantly confronted the racist, notorious anti-immigrant Joe Arpaio and his band of local supporters.
The planned anti-fascist protest led the South Bay Impact Republicans to move their pro-Trump fundraiser featuring Joe Arpaio across town and delay it.
The afternoon began around 1:30 PM, when anti-fascists discovered the new location at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10166.
The secret meeting which was initially set to begin at 2pm would be immediately disrupted by activists and laborers with the statement loud and clear, “Arrest Arpaio, not the people!”
Following the disruption, a few reactionaries from within Arpaio’s lair emerged; attempting to reassert themselves as the dominant forces present by assaulting members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. However, their “patriotic” attack was met by the militant self-defense of anti-fascist protesters who fought them off and chased them back into their building.
Arpaio finally emerged, of course only with an exaggerated force of Los Angeles Sheriffs present, in an attempt to mock protesters. Instead of being intimidated the protesters stood their ground and sent his band of local supporters and their Sheriff Joe-faced cookies quickly back to their hideout.
The La Riva/ Banks campaign opposes Arpaio’s policies and his deliberate open white supremacy. From his attempts to humiliate prisoners with pink underwear, in inhumane housing conditions at the infamous tent city; to his leading role in advocating for the complete criminalization and marginalization of undocumented workers shown in his rabid outspoken support of the SB1070 “show me your papers” law. Sheriff Joe Arpaio embodies the oppressive nature of capitalism, to which he is a ferocious servant, carrying out his racist polices to the benefit of white supremacy.
In his most recent scandal he called for the resurrection of Klan-style vigilante committees to carry out violence against communities who are fighting back against rabid police violence across the country.
The La Riva/ Banks campaign is giving a voice of empowerment to the marginalized, and undocumented immigrants, especially when notorious pigs like Sheriff Joe Arpaio come to town. The La Riva/ Banks campaign will militantly join the battleground when anti-immigrant racists attempt to walk and speak freely.
We say:
“Arrest Arpaio! Not the People!”
