In a speech to a crowd of 1,000 at the Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration in downtown Fresno on Jan. 19, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, also the former police chief of the city, seemed to blame protesters for violence in confrontations with ICE, while urging Fresnans to cooperate with the counter-immigration force.
“Although I’m not aware of any planned immigration enforcement operations in Fresno, there is always that potential,” said Dyer.
“Please remember that federal law enforcement agents have the same authority as local law enforcement. That includes the power to make arrests and the authority to take a person’s life should they feel threatened. We may disagree with what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, but we still have to obey their command.
“So please [avoid confrontation with them]. Obey their directions just as you would local or state law enforcement.
“Do not do anything, please, that would cause them to feel threatened. That includes following them, blocking their vehicles or surrounding them because we’ve already seen the outcome of that, and we do not want a tragedy in our city to occur.”
In reaction to Dyer’s speech, Fresno Poet Laureate Aideed Medina said, in a Facebook post, “Don’t trust anyone who stands before you at an MLK celebration and tells you to obey ICE.
“It is so clear that they don’t understand the very real fear of being disappeared, beaten up, sexually assaulted, abused, denied their civil rights and murdered as if compliance equaled safety.
“That is absurd in light of the well-documented abuses and injustices since the state-sponsored terror began. We are not blind.”
