Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez for the city of Cudahy did not attend Tuesday’s city council meeting, which was expected to be her first public appearance since her social media video made headlines nationally as she appeared to call on street gangs to interfere with the federal government’s immigration enforcement operations.
The city council was meeting for the first time since it was made aware of the video, in which Gonzalez explicitly mentioned the 18th Street and Florencia 13 gangs.
“I want to know where all the Cholos are at in Los Angeles, 18th Street, Florencia,” she said in the video. “You guys tag everything up, claiming hood. And now that your hood’s being invaded by the biggest gang, there ain’t a peep out of you.”
In the video, Gonzalez sounds as if she is trying to nudge the street gangs to make a stance against federal law enforcement while alluding immigrant agents as a gang.
“We’re out there protecting our turf protecting our people. Where are you at?” she said.
Since the video circulated online, the LA Police Protective League, the union for the LAPD officers, called on the federal law enforcement to investigate Gonzalez’s comments and for her to resign from the city of Cudahy.
The Department of Homeland Security also responded to the video on social media calling the comments “despicable.”
It was not immediately clear whether the city council would take action in response to Gonzalez’s video.
The city of Cudahy had said in a statement last week that it was aware of the video.
In response to the controversy, Gonzalez’s attorney, Damian Martinez, said her client “called upon her local community to exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly to express their views on recent ICE enforcement actions” in the social media post.
“Dr. Gonzalez in no way encouraged anyone to engage in violence. Any suggestion that she advocated for violence is categorically false and without merit,” Martinez said on behalf of the vice mayor, who has an education doctorate degree from UCLA.