Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is running for governor of California, told Newsmax on Tuesday that two decades of liberal control over state politics led to the anti-immigration raid riots in Los Angeles.
"Every single person watching television right now in Los Angeles, in California, for that matter, knows that this is politics that have caused this," Bianco said on "Wake Up America." "Twenty years of liberal progressive politics, that have enabled criminal behavior and prevented law enforcement from doing our jobs, is where we are today. And people are absolutely sick of it."
Despite how some media outlets are portraying the situation in Los Angeles, Bianco said "law enforcement is being overrun."
"You heard the chief from the second-largest law enforcement agency in the country saying that he was being overrun while he is being helped [by] the largest sheriff's department in the country," Bianco said. "And so, we have local Southern California law enforcement that have responded to assist.
"We have thousands of law enforcement officers that … you're seeing it on TV. It is a riot. These are not protests. These are criminals who are vandalizing and trying to harm individuals, law enforcement. And that is exactly what it is. This is no longer a protest. Stop calling it a protest. This is violence in the street by people who are only there for that violence."
The California Values Act, Senate Bill 54, which was signed into law in 2017, bars local law enforcement from using their resources on behalf of federal immigration enforcement authorities. Bianco said that he's "part of the lawsuit that's suing the state to end SB 54" because it allows criminals to walk the streets.
"This is only happening because ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is targeting criminals," Bianco said. "These people that are out here, they are protesting the deportation of rapists, murderers, robbers, drug dealers, everything else that's going on."
He went on to question why people are protesting ICE deportation activities when the agency is targeting individuals and "the businesses that are cartel-owned, that are involved in human trafficking, that are involved in drug trafficking."
"These people are supposedly out there protesting?" Bianco said. "And you have a failed governor and a completely incompetent mayor who is encouraging people to protest and blaming it on the president who did something to help after the fact?"
Bianco also called on California politicians who are lying to the public to "remove themselves from office" for misleading residents.
"This lie that these politicians are saying, that the military is going to be used against its residents, is an absolute lie," Bianco said.
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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