COMPTON, Calif. – Early Sunday morning, Ernest Melendrez began clearing tear gas canisters and debris from the streets of his neighborhood. These were left over from a confrontation between protestors rallying against immigration raids and both federal and local authorities the previous night.
Melendrez wore a mask covering his nose and mouth, but he coughed often – it wasn’t enough to protect him from remaining tear gas still in the air.
Across the street, storefronts were covered in anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement graffiti.
“I believe people have the right mindset, but their methods are misguided,” Melendrez explained as passing cars honked in support or paused to ask about the events of the previous evening. “Everyone deals with issues in their own way, and without community support, this is what can occur. We need to be there for each other.”
Alongside his wife and daughter, Melendrez tidied the streets that had been hidden just a few hours before by dense tear gas clouds used by federal forces. The unrest led President Donald Trump to deploy 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles, even though California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed this decision.
More protests were planned Sunday, and troops dressed in tactical gear were seen stationed outside Metropolitan Detention Center downtown, where hundreds of demonstrators clashed with federal authorities previously. Newsom has called Trump’s order a “complete overreaction.”
A Home Depot about a block away from where Melendrez was cleaning was the epicenter of the previous night’s struggle. On Sunday it was empty and calm; a lone worker cleaned graffiti off the store’s sign as customers drove in.
As federal officers in tactical gear fired tear gas and other nonlethal weapons in Compton and Paramount on Saturday, some protesters started a series of small fires that left black char on the streets. Graffiti was scrawled on a doughnut shop, a taqueria, a gas station and other locally owned businesses. On Sunday the damage was still raw and uncleaned in Compton, save for Melendrez’s efforts, with spray-painted slogans such as “What is America without Immigrants” all around.
Launie Melendrez, who is married to Ernest, said she supported peaceful protest, and empathized with the families “being destroyed, that are getting wrangled up. It’s sad.”
She looked around at the local businesses that had been damaged, and shook her head. “The destruction of people’s hard work. This is how these people, their families, take care of themselves. And the destruction of that is not going to help your case.”
Given the breadth of the damage, neighbors said they were angry they were being left to clean up the mess.
Melendrez’s daughter, Elaina Angel, grew up in Compton and said she wasn’t surprised. But it still left her feeling frustrated to see the Home Depot already reopened while her streets and local businesses were still marred by trash and graffiti.
“They don’t care about Compton,” she said through her mask, stopping to cough from the irritation. She meant political leaders, law enforcement authorities and others who were nowhere to be seen Sunday morning. “But I don’t think they were counting on us to come out and clean it up.”
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