Local news seemed to show a dozen or more people handcuffed, probably detained at the farm site. The farm was a marijuana grow as was the other raid further north.
The agitator side of things went a bit more feral as the feds headed out. Rocks thrown breaking windows, and cars briefly used to impede traffic.
There were vocal protesters hurling insults and sometimes water bottles at federal agents, and there were anxious friends and family of those who work at Glass House, a huge cannabis operation. Then there were curious bystanders like Mike Elliott, a Camarillo resident who voted for President Trump and stopped to see what was happening, saying he wanted to bear witness.
“I voted for Trump because he said he was going to go after the bad guys, and I know they’re there, but I don’t like what they’re doing now .... going after people at Home Depot or farmworkers in the fields.
“These are hardworking people — my gardener and his crew started working for my parents 20 years ago and now they work for me, and they’re illegal; they’re not bad people, they’re like family, and a lot of us depend on the work they do.
Also on hand was Oxnard native Christina Muñoz, who said she brought her 2-year-old son, 5-month old daughter and her mom in hopes of getting a glimpse of her husband, a member of the National Guard whom she hadn’t seen in 30 days.
“We thought it would be for just a few days,” she said, “but we didn’t see him for Father’s Day or the Fourth of July. We had no idea it would last this long.”
[That reminds me of another scene on the local news. Protestors were shaking hands with the fire and ambulance folks who were showing up to deal with medical issues, but the national guard (and ICE, etc.) were getting abuse.]
Protesters said that some people among the crowd had been detained. Jonathan Caravello, a philosophy professor at Cal State Channel Islands, was arrested, according to activist Angelmarie Taylor, who said she was one of his students and had accompanied him to the protest.
Taylor claimed Caravello was arrested as he tried to help a man in a wheelchair when agents were pushing the crowd to move back.
She said he and another individual “were piled on by multiple agents all at once” before being taken behind a line of agents to where several vehicles stood, “and we have no idea now where they are.”
“There are no narcos here,” [brother of a facility worker] said, “no one is armed here and they come fully armed, full of military personnel.”
Marc Cohodes, an investor and famed short-seller who has invested in Glass House, called the raid “beyond outrageous.” He added that Glass House is “the largest cannabis cultivator in the world” and “a highly regulated business fully licensed by the state of California. It’s run by a guy named Kyle Kazan, who is an ex-cop who plays by the rules and does things by the book.” Kazan, he added, is also a supporter of Trump.
Glass House Farms posted a statement on X on Thursday saying that the company had been “visited today by ICE officials” and “fully complied with agent search warrants.” The statement said nothing else, except to add that the company would “provide further updates if necessary.”
newbedfordlight.org
