An aggressive activist with a large social media following was arrested along with seven others on Thursday, Dec. 14, because his tactics included assault, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said.
Upland resident Edin Alex Enamorado, 36, was being held without bail at High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto after being booked on suspicion of kidnapping, making criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon, being a felon in possession of a firearm, false imprisonment and conspiracy.
Enamorado’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
The seven others are residents of Upland, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Ontario.
Enamorado is known for his defense of street vendors. He supported them as Fontana approved an ordinance allowing officials to confiscate the equipment of vendors who lacked the required permits. In a video that Enamorado live-streamed while en route to a City Council meeting, he called Fontana police “fascists” and Mayor Acquanetta Warren “a bigot.”
Enamorado has more than 15,000 subscribers on YouTube.
He was heard making catcalls from the audience at the Fontana City Council meeting on Tuesday.
Warren in October filed for a temporary restraining order against Enamorado, but a judge denied the request.
The investigation into the activists began after the Sheriff’s Department received a report of an assault at a protest in Victorville on Sept. 24. Protesters upset that a deputy body-slammed a 16-year-old girl who the department said was reaching for a deputy’s pepper ball launcher surrounded a patrol car at the Victorville station before dispersing. A little while later, a deputy saw those protesters pepper-spray a man, according to a news release. Enamorado was not among those arrested.
Sgt. Tony Romero said investigators determined that the eight arrested this week were responsible for assaults during protests in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. Dicus said Enamorado was their leader.
The arrests were made when police served search warrants on Thursday.
Details on the other alleged assaults were not available Friday.
“The group violated the law, extending beyond the First Amendment to violence,” Dicus said at a news conference. “This group manipulates videos and photos on social media in an attempt to make them look like they are protectors of underrepresented people. However, they use racism to threaten and intimidate their victims, causing them to get on their knees to beg for forgiveness while still assaulting them.
“This group is not about substance for the human condition but rather clickbait for cash,” Dicus said.
Law enforcement in Pomona, Fontana, Upland and Victorville participated in the investigation, the sheriff said.
Source: Orange County Register
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