Is Edin Alex Enamorado a guardian angel? Or is he simply a publicity-seeking bully?
Some say he is a champion of the voiceless, a calm community activist who in protected speech stands up to power, while others believe he tries to silence people through intimidation and assault.
Supporters offer that he is a political prisoner — but a judge said he and co-defendants are such a threat to others that they must remain jailed without bail.
Enamorado, 36, is the leader of the so-called Justice 8, its members facing prosecution in San Bernardino County for such charges as assault, kidnapping, conspiracy and, in Enamorado’s case, also being a felon in possession of a firearm — allegations for what prosecutors say are strong-arm tactics in their defense of the marginalized and the aggrieved.
The defendants — Enamorado and seven others, including his life partner, Wendy Lujan — have pleaded not guilty. Only one, a 30-year-old San Bernardino man facing a count of misdemeanor assault likely to cause great bodily injury, was granted bail.
The next hearing is scheduled for Friday, March 8, in Superior Court in Victorville.
At a previous hearing, Luz Aguilar, 28, of Long Beach set up her tamale cart on the sidewalk outside. Enamorado is known mostly for his defense of street vendors, some who have suffered robberies, racist rants and, in Enamorado’s view, overly restrictive municipal regulations that come with excessive punishments.
“I think people do things their own way, and as long he follows the rules, I think it’s OK,” Aguilar said. “I’ve never seen him do something that goes against the rules. The police are upset because they are being called out.”
Crowds of 40 supporters routinely make long trips to squeeze into his hearings, wearing T-shirts or waving signs saying, “Free the Justice 8” or similar sentiments. Enamorado has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Sennett Devermont, 36, of Los Angeles has showed up at the courthouse. He wishes someone like Enamorado had been around to help him when he said he was falsely arrested for failing to disperse at a protest and spent a night in jail.
“He’s an advocate for many kinds of people and communities,” Devermont said. “When the police aren’t helping, he helps.”
Silvia Anguiano, 37, who lives in the San Fernando Valley, said she could have used Enamorado’s contacts and guidance when she was a victim of domestic violence.
“He stands up to help people who are facing injustice,” she said. “He loves people. He has great ethics and morals.”
Enamorado’s attorney, Nicholas Rosenberg, said his client is fighting for his freedom and will not accept any plea bargain that includes jail time.
“My slogan on this case is, ‘Confrontational is not criminal,’ ” Rosenberg said. “To me, Alex is very thoughtful, educated and calm, and I believe he is an activist at heart. I refer to my client as a young Cesar Chavez. … Yes, we do have two fistfights (involving Enamorado). Is it provoked? Is it self-defense? That’s up to a jury to decide.”
But others say Enamorado has trampled the line between protected speech and criminal behavior.
“I’ll be very honest, it’s a garden-variety case of violence,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said. “It has nothing to do with the First Amendment, it has nothing to do with freedom of assembly.”
Anderson cited the beatdown of a security guard at a convenience store in Pomona who had told a street vendor who was set up on private property to leave. A group that included Enamorado tracked down the guard and assaulted him, Anderson said.
Then there was a man who tried to enter the Pomona police station to file a report and blamed Enamorado’s group that was protesting there for being unable to get inside.
“He was pulled out of his car and made to grovel and say he was sorry and he still got assaulted,” Anderson said.
That encounter was videotaped and posted on Enamorado’s YouTube channel. The tape was played at the preliminary hearing where Enamorado and the others were ordered to stand trial.
“They use racism to threaten and intimidate their victims, causing them to get on their knees to beg for forgiveness while still assaulting them,” San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in announcing the Dec. 14 arrests. “This group is not about substance for the human condition but rather clickbait for cash.”
‘POWER OF CITIZEN ACTIVISM’
Enamorado traces his roots in activism to 2010, when he said he was the victim of police brutality by officers from the Maywood Police Department. He said he and his cousin were driving from a nightclub when they were pulled over and illegally searched.
Officers broke one of his fingers, kicked him and fractured his back, Enamorado said in comments to Rosenberg this week and relayed to a Southern California News Group reporter.
“They told him if he kept talking, they would smoke him,” Rosenberg said.
Enamorado officially complained about the Maywood Police Department, which was already under investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office. Months later in 2010, the police force disbanded after the AG’s Office determined that Maywood officers routinely engaged in false arrests, excessive force and a lack of cultural sensitivity. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department now patrols Maywood.
“He started attending City Council meetings and saw the power of citizen activism,” Rosenberg said.
Enamorado, a native of Guatemala who lives in Upland, makes his living as a political organizer. He has worked on voter-turnout campaigns and was employed by the 2016 presidential bid of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont).
In 2017, Enamorado saw taco stand employees being “harassed by police,” Rosenberg said, and advised the workers on their rights. More recently, he helped street vendors obtain permits. Enamorado has seen, he said through his lawyer, street vendors being attacked, robbed and chased, and in his view, overly regulated.
“He identifies with street vendors as refugees from other countries who came here for a better life,” Rosenberg said.
ON THE MAYOR’S DOORSTEP
The desire to regulate street vendors has placed Fontana, particularly Mayor Acquanetta Warren, in Enamorado’s crosshairs.
Some 130 street vendors who sell food, community activists and residents descended on a City Council meeting in October and protested an ordinance that allows the city to impound vendors’ carts for 60 days if they do not possess a health permit. Those who attempt to stop the impound could face a $1,000 fine or up to six months in jail.
Warren said unpermitted vendors have become a “real nuisance” in Fontana.
In angry remarks to the council that included expletives, Enamorado said what is law does not always equal what is morally right.
“Democrats are blue, Republicans are red — yet none of them give a damn about you!” Enamorado said.
He didn’t stop there, according to the mayor.
Warren, writing in a request for a restraining order against Enamorado, said that night he and his supporters showed up at her doorstep.
“He and another person were banging on my door, yelling,” she wrote to a judge in late October. “I received verbal attacks from Mr. Enamorado and his supporters using racial epithets directed at me due to my African-American heritage. … I am concerned for the safety of myself, my family and employees.”
(The Southern California News Group asked Enamorado’s lawyer about the veracity of the epithets, but he had not spoken to his client about that allegation.)
The judge denied Warren’s stay-away request.
Enamorado has posted other officials’ home addresses on social media and encouraged his followers to protest there, the mayor said.
After a deputy in Victorville was videotaped body-slamming a 16-year-old girl who the department said reached for another deputy’s pepper-ball launcher, Enamorado filmed himself standing in front of the deputy’s home, shouting insults through a bullhorn — including, “You child abuser!”
Anderson, the district attorney, said Enamorado is not being prosecuted because he angered those in authority.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “The charges against him are not remarkable.”
Defendants facing these types of charges are typically granted bail, if they promise to behave while out of custody and show up for court dates. But Judge John M. Wilkerson denied bail during a Feb. 9 hearing, even with options such as house arrest or ankle monitoring at his disposal.
“The court finds that there are no less-restrictive means to protect the public and the victims and victims’ families other than incarceration,” Wilkerson wrote in his ruling.
Rosenberg said he spoke this week with Enamorado, who delivered this message:
“I am at peace with where we are at defending the voiceless, and I know that justice will prevail.”