Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

For those of you who do not follow the news closely, on January 31st at a press conference, Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Leader, D-N.Y., pledged Democrats would fight President Donald Trump’s (immigration) agenda with, “We’re going to fight it in the streets.” Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-MA., called for agitation “in the streets.”

A few days later there were coordinated protests of thousands of Mexicans nationalists throughout the country waving the Mexican flag, and burning the American flag, in the streets.

On Sunday, February 2nd that is exactly what happened in Glendale/Phoenix. At the intersection of 67th Avenue and Camelback, approximately 1,000 people gathered about 5 pm to protest the new immigration policies. South of Camelback is Phoenix and north of Camelback is Glendale. So, both police departments responded. A helicopter flew overhead using loudspeakers to advise the crowd that it was an illegal assembly. They ignored it.

The protest remained peaceful until about 8 pm. Then it got ugly. The crowd threw fireworks, large rocks, chunks of concrete and glass bottles at officers who were simply trying to maintain the peace. Cars began doing burnouts and donuts in the intersection. This caused police to close off the intersection for public safety reasons.

Further escalation ensued with the damage of 5 police vehicles, all kinds of things being thrown at police officers and damage to nearby businesses. Employees at neighboring businesses had to shelter in place. Many employees’ vehicles had extensive damage as well as some of the businesses.

At 10:30 p.m., Phoenix and Glendale police officers in riot gear began approaching the intersection. Police used flash bangs, tear gas, and pepper balls after multiple commands to leave were ignored.

Protesters lit fireworks and threw bottles and rocks at officers. In addition, a fire was set to a large storage container near one of the business complexes. It was definitely not a safe situation.

Why would these protestors, shutting down the Camelback and 67th Avenue intersection, burn the flag of the country in which they are demanding to remain while waving the flag of the nation to which they apparently have no desire to return? Blocking traffic while waving foreign flags to get people to oppose deportations makes no sense.

You may know that I am a law enforcement Mom. My son was a police officer for many years. I back the Blue. What I am about to say is not to disparage the Glendale or Phoenix police departments. However, they announced there were no arrests. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt assuming they were terribly outnumbered and at the moment it might have been too dangerous to do so.

The major TV stations have videos of the damage caused by recognizable individuals. I hope at a later date, these departments will view all the footage, identify people and announce arrests in conjunction with this illegal assembly. I also assume that they will work with ICE to deport those who are here illegally.

In 2019, there was a protest in downtown Phoenix against ICE and there were immediate arrests. In fact, one arrestee was none other than Glendale’s latest councilmember, Lupe Conchas. The charges against all who were arrested were later dismissed.

This morning, I learned that there was another protest at 93rd Avenue and Glendale Avenue. Protesters should stop taking it to the streets. They are not making any friends by disrupting commuter traffic and destroying private and public property.

© Joyce Clark, 2025   

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