00:00Good morning, everybody. I'm Bill Asaley. We have some video up here, some images that you're
00:05probably familiar with over the summer on some of the violent riots that broke out in response to
00:11our immigration enforcement operations. During the summer, we were very clear that anyone who
00:16engages in criminal conduct, who assaults our agents or damages government property,
00:21we're going to find you and we're going to arrest you and we're going to charge you.
00:25And the Attorney General and the President made that directive very clear as well. So we're
00:29following through on that today. We've arrested 10 individuals this morning who were involved in
00:35such activities. We're going to talk about those here today, right now. We're announcing the arrest
00:40of at least 10 people, more to come, charged with engaging in violence directed at law enforcement
00:45officers and who engaged in civil disorder in response to recent immigration enforcement actions
00:52in Los Angeles. To date, we have charged 97 individuals either with assault or impeding of
00:59federal agents engaged in immigration enforcement operations. And we will continue to charge more
01:05as we as we obtain the evidence. Earlier this summer, federal agents engaged in law enforcement
01:11operations targeted at removing illegal immigrants who entered the United States unlawfully. In response,
01:19large protests began to form throughout the Los Angeles area. I want to be very clear,
01:25every American has a right to peacefully protest. What is not constitutionally protected is a right to
01:33engage in violence or to impede federal agents by assaulting, doxing, or obstructing their operations.
01:41On July 10th, law enforcement officers were executing a court-ordered search warrant at locations of
01:49Ventura County. Protestors, including members of an organization named VC Defensa, came to the site of the
01:58search warrants. VC Defensa is an organization that operates and manages what they call a rapid response
02:05network designed to impede federal agents and their enforcement operations. And that warrant is what you
02:13see on the camera there at the marijuana farm where the agents were attempting to leave. In one of the
02:20criminal complaints today, we are charging two members of VC Defensa for conspiring to impede and injure federal law
02:27enforcement officers. These two VC Defensa members went to the protests on July 10th in Ventura County
02:34and acted with others to assault enforcement vehicles and officers. One of the members charged in the
02:41complaint used her vehicle to block U.S. government vehicles from leaving the location, while another
02:47member and others ambushed the vehicles by throwing rocks at them. And those images went viral. Several
02:54government vehicles were damaged and a federal contract employee was injured as a rock went through her
03:00vehicle window, shattering the glass and striking her. And you're going to hear more about that case
03:05here shortly. Separately, in another incident that you also see on the TV here, on June 8th in downtown Los
03:12Angeles Civic Center, a group of agitators used the protests as an excuse to throw rocks, bottles, and other
03:20objects at officers, injuring several of them. Government and private property were vandalized. Los
03:26Angeles police declared an unlawful assembly, yet the violence continued. Nine of the defendants charged
03:33in that second criminal complaint were filmed on cell phones by local news and other media throwing rocks,
03:40bottles, and objects, including objects on fire from an overpass on main and Los Angeles street here in
03:47downtown LA onto the CHP officers and their vehicles. Two defendants charged in today's complaint were
03:54recorded lighting debris on fire and throwing it at CHP vehicles, pouring what appeared to be flammable
04:01liquid, which increased the size of the flames.
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